The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway, The Blackstone Group, Toronto-Dominion and BlackRock

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 30, 2011 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Bank of America Corp. ( BAC - Analyst Report), Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK.B - Analyst Report), The Blackstone Group ( BX - Snapshot Report), Toronto-Dominion Bank ( TD - Snapshot Report) and BlackRock Inc. ( BLK - Snapshot Report).

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Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

BofA Close to Divesting CCB Stake

According to a CNBC report, Bank of America Corp. ( BAC - Analyst Report) is in the final stage of selling at least half of its stake in China Construction Bank (“CCB”). This is part of BofA’s effort to strengthen its capital position in order to reinstate dividend hike and meet new international capital standards. However, the company will continue to be a strategic investor in CCB, the world’s second largest bank by value.

BofA will sell around $8.5 billion of its 10% stake in the Chinese bank CCB, which is valued at about $17 billion, per the source.

Bloomberg data show that the company is the second largest stake holder in CCB after the 59% right held by the Chinese government. The lockup-period, wherein BofA is not allowed to sell its stake, will expire on August 29.

The potential buyers of BofA’s stake could be a consortium of sovereign wealth funds in Asia and the Middle East.

In 2005, BofA had paid $3 billion for a 9.9% stake in CCB, before CCB’s IPO. The company further raised its stake by exercising the option to purchase an additional 11% for $9.2 billion.

This is not the first time that BofA is planning to sell its stake in CCB. In January 2009, the company had sold 2.5% holdings in CCB, reaping a profit of $1.1 billion.

Further, in May 2009, the company sold another 9.9% stake leading to a pre-tax profit of $7.3 billion. Also, in 2010, the company sold its right to buy another 1.79 billion shares in CCB to Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore’s state investment company.

If BofA can successfully shed a sizeable holding in CCB on attractive terms, its capital ratios would come in for a real boost.

The $5 billion investment made by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK.B - Analyst Report) in the company on August 25, 2011 was also a confidence booster.  

BofA’s plan to sell about half of its stake in CCB is part of its long-term strategy to remove non-core assets from its balance sheet. The company also looks to concentrate more on businesses that directly serve customers, as well as fortify its balance sheet.

BofA has also broached talks with The Blackstone Group ( BX - Snapshot Report) to sell real estate assets held by its Merrill Lynch unit for nearly $1 billion.

Moreover, early this month, the company agreed to sell its Canadian credit-card unit to Toronto-Dominion Bank ( TD - Snapshot Report) for $7.6 billion. Non-core asset selling is not a recent hype. BofA shed a number of non-core assets earlier this year as well as the last.

Among others, BofA sold 43.6 million of its BlackRock Inc. ( BLK - Snapshot Report) shares for $163 each in November 2010. Furthermore, the company sold an additional 2.5 million shares of BlackRock to Japan’s third-biggest bank Mizuho Financial Group Inc.

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