Hints and tips:
...Rock and metal stocks are doing rather better than oil ones on surprisingly robust China trade data....
...The results from the Hartford, which sells mutual funds as well as property and casualty insurance and group benefit policies, are the latest sign of a squeeze on the industry’s profits....
...One day, they brought me a copy of the United Nations treaties on imprisonment and torture that I had requested....
...John Paulson, the billionaire investor, has taken public his efforts to get The Hartford Financial Services Group to split into two companies, says the FT....
...Of all the casualties of the financial crisis, AIG was the scariest. It had a balance sheet of more than $1tn and was involved in $2.4tn worth of derivatives trades....
...Hartford Financial Services after pressure from John Paulson, the billionaire investor, caused the insurance company to consider the sale of its life assurance business....
...Drew Greenblatt has been looking for more than a year for three sheet-metal set-up operators to work day, night or weekend shifts....
...Hartford Financial Services was up 13 per cent at $19.42. Allstate rose 8.5 per cent to $26.30....
...Like all bank holding companies with more than $50bn in assets, it is automatically designated, but the top 10 also includes four insurance companies: MetLife, which is structured as a bank holding company...
...As an insurance company, AIG was regulated by the US Treasury and by state regulators, so it was far from obvious why Willumstad was Geithner’s problem....
...The insurance group’s troubles began in the summer of 2007 when Goldman, which had bought credit insurance from AIG on subprime CDOs, began calling for collateral as the value of those derivatives started...
...., Inc., which was formed in 1950 and focuses on highly specialized insurance lines; far more, we believe, have joined other, larger companies....
...Another important element in rebalancing the city’s balance sheet is to clarify the extent of support for elements of Dubai Inc such as Dubai World and Dubai Holding, the investment groups....
...Hartford Financial, the Connecticut- based life and property-casualty insurer, said earlier this week it had raised $2.5bn in capital and would cut its dividend after warning of a big loss....
...In deal news, the insurance giant AIG said it would sell Hartford Steam Boiler,a subsidiary business, to Munich Re Group for $742m in cash and $76m in stock....
...Tokio Marine could support both companies with its substantial balance sheet, Mr Sumi said....
...By buying insurance against defaults on corporate debt and residential mortgages, banks could reduce the amount of idle capital they had to hold on their balance sheet....
...Australia suffered twice over: financial companies followed their peers around the world, and resource and energy producers were also hit by the fall in the price of crude and declining metals....
...Following the announcement of the first-quarter loss, AIG’s second in a row, the insurance group said it would raise $12.5bn to bolster its balance sheet....
...balance sheets across many companies remain solid.”...
...However, news that Liberty Mutual Group, the property and casualty insurer, had agreed to buy Safeco, a home and automobile insurer on the West Coast, for about $6.2bn in cash, helped limit the downside...
...Taylor Wimpey was the biggest single casualty, down 6.5 per cent at 42½p with Bellway down 4.7 per cent at 491½p....
...Tom Cholnoky Age: 52 Company: Goldman Sachs Sector: Insurance Education and career: Received an MBA in finance from University of Chicago and a BA in economics from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut...
...balance sheet....
...Mr Cusser also cautioned that “collateralised debt obligations are still stinking up the balance sheets of banks and insurance companies and they have to decide whether a bailout of the monolines makes sense...
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