Rabid Cerberus Leads the Pack

May 16 (EIRNS) -- Mergers and acquisitions are topping last year's all-time high, by 60%, at $2 trillion, according to Bloomberg.com. The Cerberus hedge fund's attack on Chrysler helped drive the latest insanity in the M&A bubble. As EIR has reported, the M&A's are a financier swindle in which the "predator" swallows a viable company, by purchasing it with borrowed money. The "acquired" company is then looted as the predator sells off the most valuable assets and divisions, leaving a hollow corpse, loaded with the debt the predator dumped on it. The predators are then free to move on to the next victim.

Among this week's leading deals: Heidelberg Cement AG's $15.5 billion takeover of Hanson PLC and Thomson Corp.'s $17.2 billion purchase of Reuters Group PLC lifted Europe's total to $1.2 trillion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. And, of course, Cerberus Capital Management LP's $7.4 billion acquisition of the U.S. Chrysler auto unit from DaimlerChrysler AG.

Citigroup Inc. leads in arranging takeovers, working on $672 billion of deals, including Barclays PLC's $87 billion bid for ABN Amro Holding NV in the biggest ever financial-services merger (see John Hoefle's concise article in the May 11, 2007 EIR) . The price may go higher because of a possible counter-bid for ABN Amro from a group led by Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the top adviser in 2006, is second, followed by Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and JP Morgan Chase & Co. All six are based in New York. The leading European adviser this year is Zurich-based UBS AG, in seventh position.