Friday, July 27, 2007

Paperstand (INTC, AMD, TKC)

The WSJ reports that Kohlberg Kravis Roberts may have to postpone its IPO. As flagging debt mkts bring the private-equity boom to a halt, the likelihood that KKR will have to postpone its IPO is increasing. Jeff Arricale, of T. Rowe Price, said he doubts KKR will be able to find enough investors to pull off an IPO if current mkt conditions continue. "Sure, at some price it is possible to do it, but I'd be shocked if they end up doing this IPO."

According to the WSJ, European antitrust authorities charged Intel (INTC) with illegal tactics in competing against AMD (AMD). AMD has filed its own antitrust suit against Intel, while trying to persuade govt regulators to intervene. The European Commission Friday said Intel's offerings of cash payments, rebates and discounts to manufacturers who use its chips was part of a "single, overall anticompetitive strategy."

Barron’s Online discusses Turkcell (TKC), saying that with a valuation not much higher than Verizon Comm', but with considerably higher growth prospects, Turkcell seems to be a property that will remain desirable for some time to come. "It's a high growth asset over the long term, it's important to have that kind of asset," says Joergen Vrenning, of Catella Fonder.

“Inside Scoop” section reports that Douglas Mackenzie, a Safeway (SWY) director since Mar’05, plunked down roughly $980K to purchase 29K shares on the open mkt on behalf of the venture-capital firm he manages. His purchase was the largest in dollar value and share count among insider buys since ‘01. This spate of buying appears to stand in opposition to the robust insider selling in recent mo’s. In the past 90 days, CEO Steven Burd and 4 other top execs grossed $15.4m by disposing of 441K shares. Before the sales the execs had exercised $8.4m in options for 451K shares. Mark LoPresti of Thomson Financial, says that for a co where its mkt cap has gained more than $3bn since ‘02, the $15m in sales look meager.

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