tarrrp!

The Somali pirates, renegade Somalis known for hijacking ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, are negotiating a purchase of Citigroup.

The pirates would buy Citigroup with new debt and their existing cash stockpiles, earned most recently from hijacking numerous ships, including most recently a $200 million Saudi Arabian oil tanker.

The Somali pirates are offering up to $0.10 per share for Citigroup, pirate spokesman Sugule Ali said earlier today. The negotiations have entered the final stage, Ali said. "You may not like our price, but we are not in the business of paying for things. Be happy we are in the mood to offer the shareholders anything," said Ali.

The pirates will finance part of the purchase by selling new Pirate Ransom Backed Securities. The PRBS's are backed by the cash flows from future ransom payments from hijackings in the Gulf of Aden. Moody's and S&P have already issued their top investment grade ratings for the PRBS's.

I think it’s a good match. After all, the old letters of marque system effectively enabled pirates to become banks in that their spoils contributed to national/royal treasuries. Now we’re back in the days of arrr, there’s no reason why you can’t have a management buyout. No-one quite knows what to do with the Somali freebooters. I wonder what the legal position would be if they were reclassified as the Puntish navy. Punt is a country of sorts – in fact more of a country than the rest of Somalia.

Comments

[Madam Miaow]

I'd say this was the honest face of capitalism.

[dan]

Well.....if they took over the NYSE we'd get the Dhow Jones index.