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Automobiles
The path is clear for General Motors Corp. to leave bankruptcy protection in record time as a leaner company better equipped to compete in a brutal global auto market.
On Thursday, a judge's order allowing GM to sell most of its assets to a new company went into effect, despite a last-minute appeal by plaintiffs in a product liability case.
GM spokeswoman Julie Gibson said U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber's order became effective at noon. GM lawyers are working on paperwork to close the sale as quickly as possible, after which GM would leave bankruptcy protection.
GM CEO Fritz Henderson will hold a news conference in Detroit this morning to explain executive cuts, management changes and the company's plan to make money by emphasizing quality and fuel economy. He will be joined by Edward Whitacre Jr., who will lead GM's board. Associated Press
Banking
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is on track to beat its 2007 trading-revenue record, enabling it to boost compensation by an estimated 64 percent from last year, according to Bank of America Corp. analyst Guy Moszkowski.
Goldman Sachs has “unmatched risk-taking/risk-management skills in a market that strongly rewards these because of decline in competitor risk appetite,” Moszkowski wrote in a note to investors Thursday.
The New York-based firm “appears on track to accrue significantly more comp than '08, despite little change in headcount.” Six months ago, Goldman Sachs was supported by $10billion from the U.S. Treasury and relied on government guarantees to issue debt.
Moszkowski predicts the company will reap $26.45 billion from trading this year, a gain from $25.36 billion in 2007 when the firm shattered Wall Street profit records. Bloomberg News
Banking
Citigroup Inc. changed its chief financial officer for the second time in four months, elevating controller John Gerspach to the post and shifting Edward “Ned” Kelly to a role heading strategy.
Kelly, named CFO in March when Gary Crittenden stepped aside, will become vice chairman and help oversee Citi's “strategic and operational priorities,” including mergers and acquisitions, New York-based Citigroup said Thursday in a statement. Crittenden, 55, who became chairman of the Citi Holdings division when he relinquished the CFO job, left to become a managing director at private-equity firm Huntsman Gay Global Capital LLC.
The shuffle extends a string of management changes at Citigroup as chief executive officer Vikram Pandit struggles to stanch losses and appease his government overseers following the bank's $52 billion bailout. Last week, Pandit had to name new managers for Asia after the regional chief, Ajay Banga, departed to become president of MasterCard Inc. Bloomberg News
Madoff
Financier Bernard Madoff will not appeal his 150-year sentence for a fraud that unraveled overnight last December when he confessed to his sons that nearly $65 billion he promised investors was safe was actually worth only a few hundred million dollars.
“We won't be appealing the sentence,” Madoff's lawyer, Ira Sorkin, said Thursday. He declined to say why the decision was made. Rebekah Carmichael, a prosecutor's spokeswoman, declined to comment.
Madoff, 71, was sentenced last week after admitting he bilked thousands of investors out of billions of dollars – an epic scheme that spanned the globe, according to a report released Thursday by a court-appointed trustee. Associated Press
