Fifth Third disposes majority stake in processing unitOn June 30, Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) sold a 51% stake in its processing business to Advent International, the leading global buyout firm. The deal is valued at $2.35 billion, before any valuation adjustments.The deal was announced in March this year. Fifth Third will retain the remaining 49% stake in the new company and will also keep its credit card issuing business, including retail credit card and commercial multi-card services.We are encouraged with this transaction, as it will enable Fifth Third to focus more on its core business while boosting its Tier 1 common equity.Fifth Third will realize a pre-tax gain of around $1.7 billion or $1.0 billion post-tax on the transaction. Approximately $1.2 billion will be contributed from this transaction to the bank's Tier 1 equity. ...

Maverick CapitalMaverick Capital Management Holdings AnalysisThis post is being written as part of HedgeFundBlogger.com's Investment Securities Tool which analyzes the holdings of hedge fund managers.Lee Ainslie started Maverick Capital back in 1993 with $38 million. Nowadays, the fund is worth $10 billion. Ainslie, like many of the other fund managers I've profiled, has a background rooted in learning from legendary great Julian Robertson at Tiger Management. So, due to the fact that these proteges learned from the best and have had great success running their own hedge funds, I continually try to find a reason not to follow these funds. And, needless to say I'm never successful. Some contacts over at Maverick have explained that their hedge fund strategy is straight up stock picking, both long and short. They made ...