Being in the U.S., I have no knowledge of bank regulations nor tax laws there but the auction could have been for either tax or regulatory reasons. However, I was once a bank credit analyst and the leveraging or gearing as it is known there, should be recognized so highly, mainly because the RE assets have been substantially written down. Blackstone, in its conference call recently, said many RE assets have substantially recovered within the last 12 months. The debt sale was ill advised IMHO and think being long CNP is a decent bet.
CNP Price at posting:
16.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held