Topic: Growth Stocks

The Stock Pickers Digest Hotline – Friday, April 18, 2008

Article Excerpt

BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS INC. $17.94, New York symbol BR, has outlined details of a recent transaction by its clearing services subsidiary, Ridge Clearing & Outsourcing, in response to last week’s downgrade of its credit rating by Standard & Poor’s. In late 2007, Ridge Clearing accepted $380 million worth of securities as collateral. That transaction increased Broadridge’s short-term debt to just $426 million, which is equal to only 17% of its current market cap of $2.5 billion. The transaction involved 143 pools of AAA-rated mortgage-backed bonds issued by the Federal National Mortgage Association. The company states “there were no exotic or illiquid mortgage-backed derivative securities in this transaction”. As well, the party who had committed to purchase these bonds is a global financial services company rated A+ by Standard & Poor’s. This party completed the transaction on January 17, 2008, and Broadridge repaid the related short-term loan. Broadridge states that Ridge Clearing accepts only high quality, readily marketable securities as collateral. It also…