On 16 Sept 2008, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank stepped in to prevent the financial collapse of AIG by announcing its plan to lend the World Largest Insurer US$85 billions in exchange for a 79.9% equity stake.
AIG's top management team including CEO would be replaced. AIG also had a big incentive to embark on a massive asset sale program to pay back the loan with come with a steep interest rate as quickly as possible.
AIG's history dates back to 1919 by when Cornelius Vander Starr established an insurance agency in Shanghai, China to sell insurance to the Chinese. After his business became successful in Asia, he expanded to other markets, including Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. As today, AIG employs about 116,000 people and operates in more than 130 countries around the world
Its main core business include the Insurance and Finance business, the International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) which is the world's largest aircraft leasing company, majority stakes in Bulgarian Telecommunications Company, P&O Ports of North America and substanstial stakes in People's Insurance Company of China, Ocean Finance of UK and more other more
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Fed Rescue AIG
Lehman Filed For Bankruptcy
Global financial markets were shaken on Monday with the news of US investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, citing bank debt of $613 billion.
On September 15, 2008, Lehman filed for bankruptcy protection making it the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. The next day, Barclays plc announced that they will acquire a portion of Lehman Brothers asset for $1.75 billion which includes the Lehman Brothers Times Square headquarters and the bulk of Lehman's trading and debt security operations, which now become part of Barclays Capital.
Lehman which was founded in as a dry goods store, transform itself as a commmodities trading company to a IPO underwriter and then with a merger with American Express in mid 80s and finally to a global investment firm had finally collapsed under the current credit crisis. Do rem Lehman Bro (1850-2008)
Friday, September 12, 2008
Forbes Global CEO Conference 2008
Singapore was the host for the recent Forbes CEO Conference 2008 where more than 400 global CEOs, tycoons, entrepreneurs, capitalists and business leaders gathered for a annual 3 days event at Sentosa Island. It is perhaph one of the largest and most high profile business event of the year with hundreds of business leader met.
Some of the high profile speakers include
William Amelio of Lenovo, U.S.A.
Philippe Collas of Société Générale Group, France
Tony Fernandes of Tune Group, Malaysia
Juergen Gessler of Porsche Design Group, Germany
Lakshmi Mittal of ArcelorMittal, U.K.
Sir Howard Stringer of Sony Corporation, Japan and U.S.A.
Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister, Singapore
Lee Kuan Yew, Minister Mentor, Singapore
and many others....
Check the below link for program detail
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Singapore Sovereign Wealth Fund Deals 2008
Recent report by Business Time highlighted a very interesting articles on Singapore two sovereign wealth fund - Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) & Temasek Holding which have been involved in five of the 10 biggest deals involving sovereign wealth funds on record, according to the latest estimates by Thomson Reuters.
Singapore's two state-owned funds have invest billions of dollars into US and European banks since last year. Together, both SWFs accounted for 10 out of the 22 major deals involving sovereign funds this year, until 28 Aug 08
The Biggest Sovereign Wealth Deal is GIC's injection of 11 billion Swiss francs (S$14.24 billion) into Switzerland's biggest bank, UBS, late last December is a sovereign fund single investment record, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.
GIC was also part of the consortium led by Spain's Ferrovial Group that bought UK-listed BAA, the world's biggest airport operator, for £10.3 billion (S$26.7 billion) in May 2006. That deal remain as the largest investment involving sovereign funds on record.
This year alone, both GIC and Temasek have made a combined US$9.1 billion worth of investments, more than a third of all deals involving sovereign funds worldwide according to Thomson Reuters estimates.
GIC invests Singapore's foreign reserves including pension savings, estimated at over US$300 billion, while Temasek manages a separate S$185 billion investment portfolio.
