ECONOMICS REPORT - Finance: Merrill Lynch CEO O'Neal Is Out After Huge Loss
Thu, 1 Nov 2007
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
经济报道――金融：美林巨额亏损，CEO奥尼尔下台。
2007年11月1日，星期四。
这是VOA特别英语的经济报道。
This week, directors of investment bank Merrill Lynch forced out its chief executive officer, Stan O'Neal. He retired less than a week after Merrill reported its first quarterly loss in six years, and the biggest in its ninety-three-year history.
Merrill is the world's largest brokerage company. It lost over two billion dollars in the period from July through September. That was because of more than eight billion dollars in write-downs. A write-down represents a reduction in the value of investments or other assets.
本周，投资银行美林的董事们赶走了其CEO斯坦.奥尼尔。美林报告其六年来首次季度亏损，这是93年历史上最大的一次，其后不到一周，他退休了。
美林是世界最大的经纪公司，在7月至9月期间，其亏损20亿美元以上。这是由于80亿美元以上的减值。减值即投资或其它资产的价值下降。
The results were mostly related to subprime mortgages -- housing loans to people with risky credit histories. Merrill has had the largest losses so far of any American bank with investments tied to subprime loans. Many of these investments are complex securities called collateralized debt obligations.
其经营成果主要与次贷抵押相关，而次贷抵押是向具有信贷风险历史人进行房贷。美林是讫今与次贷投资相关的、美国银行中亏损最大的银行，其大部分投资是称之为债务担保证券（CDO）的复杂证券。
Merrill had almost eight billion dollars in write-downs on C.D.O.s and subprime mortgages. That was even more than the four and one-half billion dollars expected. Its other divisions, however, remained profitable.
美林在CDO和次贷抵押方面的减值几乎达到80亿美元，预计尚有45亿美元。但是，其它部门仍然盈利。
Stan O'Neal worked for Merrill Lynch for twenty-one years. He held the top job since two thousand two. Board members were angry at the losses and at reports that he proposed a merger deal with Wachovia Bank without their approval. He chose most of the members of that board.
斯坦.奥尼尔为美林工作了21年，自2002年开始担任CEO。董事会成员对亏损及他建议的、未经他们批准与美联银行合并的报道非常愤怒。他选择了董事会的大部分成员。
Critics say he failed to listen to warnings about the risk of subprime debt. Yet his decisions to make riskier investments than chief executives before him helped produce record profits for the company. He also pushed to reduce costs, including thousands of job cuts -- a culture change for a company that was known as "Mother Merrill."
评论家说，他未听取次贷债务风险的警告。但是，他比前任CEO们进行更风险投资的决策也为美林公司带来了创纪录的利润。他也尽力降低成本，包括数千的裁员，即为以“美林妈妈”而闻名的美林公司带来了文化改变。
He leaves with about one hundred sixty million dollars worth of stock and retirement pay.
Stan O'Neal was the first African-American to lead a major Wall Street investment bank. He rose out of poverty. As a boy he picked cotton on a family farm in Alabama. Later he was a factory worker at General Motors.
他带着大约1.6亿美元价值的股票和退休金离开了美林。
Some market watchers think Merrill Lynch may have to write down an additional four billion dollars in the fourth quarter of the year. But the company was not alone in reporting big third-quarter losses.
In Europe the investment bank UBS said it lost about seven hundred million dollars. It wrote down more than three billion dollars of investments linked to subprime loans. And UBS warned that it could end the year with more losses.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter.
一些市场观察家认为，美林在今年的第四季度可能还必须再减值40亿美元。但是，报道四季度巨额亏损的决非美林公司一家。
在欧洲，投资银行UBS（瑞争集团）说，亏损了大约7亿美元；在次贷投资方面，其减值了30亿美元以上。并且，UBS还警告说，年底可能还会有更多亏损。
这是VOA特别英语的经济报道，我是Mario Ritter。
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