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To: GST who wrote (121529)	3/24/2001 3:54:32 PM
From: H James Morris	Respond to of 164684

>HJ: What do you think of Biogen? Gst, I don't know. I haven't tried her yet. Do you know how tall she is, because I don't like to bring a step ladder with me while I'm courting. Btw I like Bmet. Its not a bio-tech but they sure have great margins. >Biomet, Inc. designs, manufactures and markets products used primarily by orthopedic medical specialists in both surgical and non-surgical therapy. For the nine months ended 2/28/01, net sales rose 10% to $740M. Net income rose 12% to $138.4M. Revenues reflect continued penetration of the reconstructive device market and higher sales of fixation products. Earnings also reflect increased sales of higher margin products

To: GST who wrote (121529)	3/24/2001 4:30:58 PM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Gst, the best news I've heard out of Japan in a long time. Now, if they can get write off the remaining $500 billion Japan might finally get it together. Btw I think I'll start to buy Sony (sne) again as a long term buy and hold. Oh! Japan just had another earth quake. What a bummer.:-( >March 24, 2001 TOKYO -- Admissions by two major banks that loans gone sour would result in losses for this fiscal year were welcomed yesterday as a sign of change in a nation increasingly worried about the financial industry's bad debts. Hopes have been growing that banks and politicians will deal with the towering load of debt, which has hurt share prices here. "The write-offs could hurt the economy and the banks over the short term. But that pain is what's needed to give the economy a chance," said Darrel Whitten, chief strategist at ABN Amro Securities Japan. Daiwa Bank said it expected losses of $146 million for the fiscal year ending March 31 after writing off $260 million in bad investments and loans to Tokyo Mutual Life Insurance Co., a mid-tier insurer that filed for bankruptcy yesterday. The Osaka-based bank had initially said it expected $227 million in profits. Asahi Bank abandoned its forecast of a profit of $244 million and now expects a loss of $81 million because of bad debts of $2.5 billion, up from the previous estimate of $1.6 billion. The news helped send up Tokyo stocks already energized by higher U.S. technology shares overnight. The benchmark Nikkei Stock Average climbed 2.8 percent yesterday. Japanese banks have an estimated $520 billion in problem loans, a mountain of debt that is at the root of the economic woes of this nation as it struggles to shift to new, growing businesses instead of stagnant sectors entrenched in their political and corporate ties. Falling stock and land prices have worsened the problem at banks, which have stalled on action despite a 1998 bailout earmarking about $488 billion in public money to help lift them out of trouble. Long-term improvement will come only if banks fix the way they carry out future lending, not just get rid of old problems, rating agency Standard & Poor's said. "Key initiatives to help prevent the re-emergence of bad loans have not received a similar degree of attention," said Naoko Nemoto of Standard & Poor's in Tokyo. "So we have no grounds at this stage to expect any improvement." Hints of what may be in store for Japanese banking came yesterday, when Sony Corp. received preliminary approval to go into banking -- the first non-banking business to receive such permission in Japan. Japanese banks have long been criticized as lacking in attractive services. Major banks lowered interest rates for individual regular savings accounts to a 0.02 percent this week. Last week, Sanwa Bank, Tokai Bank and Toyo Trust & Banking Co., which are merging to form the UFJ Group, said they will post a combined loss of $1.8 billion because of bad debts. Adding to the emerging signs of change, Asahi Bank promised yesterday to streamline management, reducing its pool of top managers by 20 percent and slashing their pay by a still undecided amount. The bank will also trim its work force by 8 percent, to 9,500, by the end of this month, two years earlier than planned. Over the next five years, it will get rid of 2,000 additional workers, or about a fifth of the remaining total. The bank will also close 35 of its 353 branches in Japan.