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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: carranza2 who wrote (37773)	7/31/2008 8:42:49 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 217592

PIMCO the insurance link. "Pimco, majority-owned by Munich-based Allianz SE, runs the world's largest bond fund and has $829.5 billion under management on behalf of corporate pension plans, public retirement funds and foundations. Pioneer Investments is the fund-management arm of Italy's largest bank, Milan-based UniCredit SpA, which oversees 190.5 billion euros for 40 million customers in 23 countries." Gonzalez's lender, Caja de Ahorros de Gipuzkoa y San Sebastian SA, a savings bank in northern Spain known as La Kutxa, has sold 2.5 billion euros of mortgage-backed bonds since the end of 2005. Pimco, based in Newport Beach, California, and Pioneer Investments bought Kutxa bonds for funds sold to investors around the world. Hong Kong Investors Pimco's Euro Bond Fund, sold to savers in Hong Kong, is the biggest investor in Kutxa's 2007 issue with a 20.6 million-euro holding, according to a March 31 regulatory filing. Pioneer Investments' CIM Euro Fixed Income Fund, which is sold to Italian savers, holds 11 million euros of the bonds. bloomberg.com

To: carranza2 who wrote (37773)	7/31/2008 8:51:19 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 217592

PIMCO: A 'Quantum Leap' for Allianz (int'l edition) Henning Schulte-Noelle took his time getting into third-party asset management. But the Allianz chief executive more than made up for his slow pace when he bought control of PIMCO Advisors L.P. for $3.3 billion last September. At a stroke, he increased Allianz' business in the sector sevenfold, to $300 billion from $44 billion. He also acquired the services of William Gross, PIMCO's star bond manager, in the process (box). ''It's a quantum leap,'' says Klaus Becker, an insurance analyst at Munich bank Merck, Finck & Co. The move propels Allianz to sixth place in global money-management league tables, from a modest 13th before. Including insurance-fund assets, it now manages a huge $630 billion. Natural growth alone will turn that into more than $1 trillion within three years. But Allianz is also likely to pounce on other firms if they become available, paying for them from the sale of old-line industrial companies. ''This company is on the move,'' says Joachim Faber, the board member in charge of asset management. Critics contend that Allianz paid top dollar and then some for PIMCO. Not so, says Faber. The nearest comparable deal--and the only bigger one to date--was Merrill Lynch & Co.'s $5.3 billion acquisition of Britain's Mercury Asset Management in 1998. Merrill paid 3.1% of assets under management, the standard measure of the cost of buying such companies. Allianz, meanwhile, paid just 1.8% of forecast 1999 assets for PIMCO--and got access to 1,600 institutional clients worldwide. HUGE OPPORTUNITIES. Allianz' move certainly makes sense. Last year's introduction of the euro, plus the growing interest in private pension provision and health insurance, opens up huge opportunities in Europe. Schulte-Noelle first explored offering asset management jointly with Dresdner Bank, in which Allianz holds a 21.7% stake. But they could only agree on sharing some technology. Soon afterward, Allianz set its sights on PIMCO. ''A couple of us chatted over a cup of coffee,'' recalls Faber. ''A month later we graduated to dinner.'' Boat trips off the California coast and evenings at a Bavarian farmhouse followed. Allianz believed PIMCO could turn it into a global player, while PIMCO was betting Allianz would give it easy entree to foreign markets. ''We recognized that European and Asian clients presented us with a great opportunity for development,'' says PIMCO CEO William Thompson. He also liked Allianz' hands-off approach with subsidiaries. Now Schulte-Noelle has to quickly make Allianz, PIMCO, and Oppenheimer Capital, PIMCO's equity arm, brand names among institutional investors in Europe and Asia. It won't be easy. Archrivals AXA and Zurich Financial Services are already well established and determined to grow, too. AXA had $655 billion on its books at the beginning of last year, of which some 42% was handled on behalf of third parties, and Zurich managed $415 billion, of which almost 60% was for third parties. ''Whether Allianz can catch up depends on whether they can make a success of integrating PIMCO,'' says a rival. In the cutthroat world of asset management, even the friendliest deals can flounder easily. Keeping star managers from walking is a big challenge. As a start, Allianz has offered top PIMCO executives incentives it would never provide at home, including $200 million over the next five years for Gross. ''We have learned to live with different incentive schemes,'' Schulte-Noelle says. If Gross can repeat in Europe and Asia what he has done in the U.S., Allianz' investment will really be worth something. Otherwise, it's going to be a costly lesson.

To: carranza2 who wrote (37773)	7/31/2008 11:05:58 AM
From: Rolla Coasta	Respond to of 217592

You don't believe there's some nuts working in government ?? If someone threaten you personally, then you have your reason to deny any people's belief. But in fact, if a crowd of people think so or believe to be so, there is certainly you can build a case by looking into the possibility. You can't simply say he is crazy by talking trash on youtube. Look at what political agenda many people are having right now. It is just a mess out there. If you don't see a problem in America, then here's one more liar in this forum.

To: carranza2 who wrote (37773)	7/31/2008 7:04:00 PM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217592

very good news! and so much the just-right-thing for what i was looking for ... some vehicle, just like softbank that was once traded in new york, tokyo, and frankfurt, that we can play with around the clock and around the world, directly, on seconddary market, and optionable on the main market. Biggest gold ETF lists today on Hong Kong stock exchange The World Gold Council sponsored SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest of its kind with assets of around $19 billion, was listed today on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Author: Lawrence Williams Posted: Thursday , 31 Jul 2008 LONDON - Today, the world's biggest gold ETF, the World Gold Council sponsored SPDR GoldTrust, formerly known as StreetTracks, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (Ticker: 2840) and is the first gold-backed ETF to list there. The SPDR Gold Trust marketed by State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), is designed to track the price of gold and trade like any stock on the exchange. The SPDR GoldShares are backed by physical allocated gold bullion and will be denominated in Hong Kong Dollars. Investors can buy as little as one board lot of ten shares, with each share priced at approximately one-tenth of the spot price for an ounce of gold. James Burton, Chief Executive Officer, World Gold Council, commented: "The listing of SPDR Gold Shares on to the HKEx is a significant landmark for all Hong Kong investors, providing them with an efficient means of investing in the gold bullion market through a security that is listed on a regulated stock exchange. "We have witnessed a significant increase in demand for gold from Hong Kong investors, with demand for gold at the retail level more than doubling in 2007. With inflationary pressures from elevated oil prices, higher cost of imported goods and the weakness of the Hong Kong dollar, there are several compelling reasons for investors to seek access to gold's unique investment attributes as a safe haven and inflation hedge. "We're confident that the latest listing of the SPDR® Gold Trust will be an appealing prospect for investors in Hong Kong." Gold ETFs have performed significantly better than gold stocks over the past few months as physical gold has come into favour, while the miners have been adversely affected by significant cost rises in labour and equipment, exacerbated in many cases by the fall in value of the US dollar, which is very much a global phenomenon affecting all sectors of the mining industry. The SPDR Gold Trust (Ticker:GLD) was launched by World Gold Trust Services on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2004, and traded on the NYSE Arca, since December 2007. It was the first US commodity based exchange traded security, and has emerged as one of the fastest growing exchange traded products. It is now one of the largest and most liquid commodity ETFs on the global market with total net assets of approximately US$ 19 billion.