UPDATE 1-U.S. investor buys stake in Celtic soccer club

NEW YORK, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Scottish soccer club Celtic Plc (CCP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday that California-based investor John Fisher has bought a stake in the club.

Glasgow-based Celtic said Fisher's Atlas LLC holds shares representing 3.24 percent of the voting rights in Celtic.

Fisher, the son of Gap Inc (GPS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) founder Donald Fisher, is one of the owners of Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics and an investor in Major League Soccer's San Jose Earthquakes.

Celtic and cross-town rival Rangers are Scotland's two biggest soccer clubs. Celtic recently qualified for the last 16 of the European Champions League and have won the Scottish League 41 times.

According to Reuters data, Celtic has a current market value of roughly $115 million, and its biggest shareholder is Irish billionaire Dermot Desmond. (Reporting by Mark McSherry; Editing by Andre Grenon/Jeffrey Benkoe)

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source: reuters.com

FACTBOX-A lump of coal for Bear Stearns employees

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bear Stearns Cos Inc (BSC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) employees will be the worst paid on Wall Street among the four investment banks whose fiscal year ends in November.

Bear Stearns, which posted its first quarterly loss in its history on Thursday after making bad bets on subprime mortgages, will pay employees an average of $241,998, down about 24 percent from last year and about a third of the average pay for a Goldman Sachs Group Inc employee.

Bear Stearns' top executives, including Chairman and Chief Executive Jimmy Cayne, will not take home bonuses at all, which should leave more money in the bonus pool for other employees. Last year, Bear Stearns' top four executives received cash and restricted stock then valued at over $100 million.

But Bank of America analyst Michael Hecht said Bear's smaller bonus pool could lead to attrition and hinder a strong rebound for the investment bank.

Goldman Sachs employees were the best paid among the four investment banks, taking home an average of $661,490.

A table showing relative pay at the firms is below.

Bear Stearns 2007 2006 Net revenue, full year $5.95 bln $9.23 bln Compensation and benefits expense, full year $3.43 bln $4.34 bln Number of employees, end of year 14,153 13,566 Revenue per employee, full year $420,052.29 $680,156.27 Compensation expense per employee, full year $241,998.16 $320,138.58

Morgan Stanley 2007 2006 Net revenue, full year $28.03 bln $28.84 bln Compensation and benefits expense, full year $16.55 bln $13.99 bln Number of employees, end of year 48,256 43,124 Revenue per employee, full year $580,777.52 $668,745.94 Compensation expense per employee, full year $343,003.98 $324,320.56

Goldman Sachs 2007 2006 Net revenue, full year $45.99 bln $37.67 bln Compensation and benefits expense, full year $20.19 bln $16.46 bln Number of employees, end of year 30,522 26,467 Revenue per employee, full year $1,506,683.70 $1,423,092.91 Compensation expense per employee, full year $661,490.07 $621,793.18

Lehman Brothers 2007 2006 Net revenue, full year $19.26 bln $17.58 bln Compensation and benefits expense, full year $9.49 bln $8.67 bln Number of employees, end of year 28,556 25,936 Revenue per employee, full year $674,359.15 $677,938.00 Compensation expense per employee, full year $332,469.53 $334,245.84

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source: reuters.com

PFF Bancorp rebuffs investor over stake plan

BOSTON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Financial services firm PFF Bancorp Inc (PFB.N: Quote, Profile, Research) urged an investment firm on Thursday to withdraw its application to the Federal Reserve seeking permission to buy up to 24.9 percent of PFF Bancorp.

"After careful consideration, including consultation with financial and legal advisors, the board has unanimously concluded that the proposal that you seek to undertake would not be in the best interests of our shareholders," PFF Bancorp Chief Executive Kevin McCarthy said in a letter to the chairman of FBOP Corporation, which made the application to the Fed.

"Accordingly, we respectfully request that FBOP promptly withdraw its application," McCarthy said in the letter to FBOP Chairman Michael Kelly.

If the application is not withdrawn before the end of the public comment period, PFF Bancorp intends to file a protest with the Federal Reserve, he said. The letter was disclosed in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

FBOP Corporation, based in Illinois, is a privately held holding company with stakes in several small banks.

Shares of PFF Bancorp, which provides financing and consulting services to home builders and land owners, closed up $1.13, or 9.5 percent, at $13.08 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Muralikumar Anantharaman, editing by Richard Chang)

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source: reuters.com

UPDATE 5-Bear Stearns has huge loss, cuts executive bonuses

NEW YORK, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Bear Stearns Co Inc (BSC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) posted a much bigger-than-expected quarterly loss on Thursday, capping a fiscal year when the fifth-largest U.S. investment bank took a beating on bad bets on risky subprime mortgages.

It was the first loss in the history of the company, which decided top executives would not receive bonuses. Bank of America analyst Michael Hecht said Bear's smaller bonus pool could lead to attrition and hinder a strong rebound.

Bear Stearns said it took a $1.9 billion write-down in the fourth quarter ended Nov. 30, reflecting the reduced value of subprime mortgage-related securities. That was bigger than the $1.2 billion the company estimated in early November.

The quarterly net loss of $854 million, or $6.90 a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $563 million, or $4 a share.

The loss was nearly four times bigger than the $1.80 a share that analysts were expecting, according to Reuters Estimates.

Goldman Sachs analyst William Tanona said the good news was that Bear's subprime mortgages problems might be largely over, but there is doubt that the company is diversified enough to recover as quickly as rivals.

Bear Stearns' shares were down for much of the session, but rallied late in the day as the broader market rose, closing up 82 cents at $91.42 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has fallen nearly 44 percent this year, compared with a 16 percent decline for the Amex Securities Broker Dealer index .XBD.

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source: reuters.com

Former RenRe CEO launches insurance mgmt firm

NEW YORK, Dec 20 (Reuters) - James Stanard, former chief executive of RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd (RNR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) who resigned amid a regulatory probe into the reinsurer's accounting, has formed a new insurance management company.

New Asset Class, based in Greenwich, Connecticut, will manage and acquire large portfolios of investment risk, manage insurance risk portfolios and provide risk analysis for clients including insurers, hedge funds and private equity funds, according to a statement on Thursday.

The venture is being launched by Stanard and Rod Fox, former CEO of Praetorian, which was Hannover Re's (HNRGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) U.S. specialty arm until its June sale to Australian insurer QBE (QBE.AX: Quote, Profile, Research).

New Asset plans to also open offices in New York and Bermuda, and said it will disclose investment details shortly. The company is wholly owned by F&S Ventures, a privately held investment company. No other financial details were disclosed.

A spokesman for the firm could not immediately be reached to comment on whether F&S is owned by Stanard and Fox, or on the status of civil charges which were last year brought against Stanard by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Stanard founded Bermuda-based RenaissanceRe in 1993, and was chairman and chief executive until November 2005 when he stepped down as a result of the SEC's probe into transactions between RenRe and Bermuda finite risk reinsurer, Inter-Ocean Reinsurance Company Ltd.

Reinsurers provide insurance to other insurers, thereby spreading the risk of losses among several carriers.

Finite risk reinsurers, a niche market that flourished in years past, came under scrutiny in 2004 when former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched a probe into whether companies were using finite policies more as business loans to "smooth" earnings, or reduce their variability over time, than for bona fide risk transfer.

source: reuters.com