Friday, July 20, 2007

JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon on leveraged buyout loans, and equity bridge loans

"I'm not going to give you specific numbers...because I don't think we disclosed those nor have I seen anyone disclose them. There are loans, and there are bridges, and I want to separate that. The loans are much more secured and senior, et cetera than the bridges...We're involved in a couple, and that's life. That's the world we live in, and we think the loans themselves are good, so we obviously are going to pay a lot of attention to it. If you look at the business, we have our share of ongoing loans, and on the other hand do think there is some deals I have seen out there which are not good. I am not going to mention the names, but we aren't involved in the ones we...think are not good.

Everything you underwrite you do thinking you may own it one day, and so if a lot of the stuff we have out there ends up on our balance sheet, we're still okay. We won't like it, but we'll be okay. We may have to put up some reserves against it, and I should also point out and I will not go into equity bridges other than to say like our private equity positions on our balance sheet, not in the investment bank are $6 billion. That's now under 10% of our equity, so it is really conservative, and the bridge equity stuff would change that number but not dramatically in terms of the company's balance sheet, we're not particularly worried about it. I think equity bridges are a terrible idea. I think they're a bad -- I think they're a bad financial policy. I don't think they're good for the banks. I don't think they're good for the private equity guys, so I hope they go the way of the dinosaur because they're basically a one-sided put on our balance sheet. I also think the street is topped up on them. There is only so much you can do and feel comfortable with. It is kind of silly to take that downside risk and have none of the upside potential."

No comments: