Brightbridge Wealth Management Headlines: Franc Expected To Boost Swiss M&A In Second Half

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ZURICH (MarketWatch) — The Swiss mergers and acquisitions market is expected to continue its resurgence in the second half of 2011 after the second quarter saw deal volumes go up threefold, according to consultancy Ernst & Young.

The continued economic upturn together with the surging value of the Swiss franc is expected to drive an increase in acquisitions past 2010 levels.

In the second quarter of the year, deal volume rose to 38.2 billion Swiss francs ($47.5 billion) up from CHF12.5 billion in the first quarter and significantly higher than the CHF4.6 billion achieved in the second quarter of 2010.

The total number of deals remained relatively unchanged during the period at about 225.

“Last year the total volume was $52 billion with around 460 deals. For this year, total deal volume might be able to increase to $100 billion,” said Marc Reinhardt, senior manager for mergers and acquisitions at Ernst & Young in Zurich.

The Swiss franc has risen 6.8% against the euro and 9.3% against the dollar during the second quarter of 2011, making it cheaper for Swiss companies to buy foreign companies.

“We know there are a lot of deals being helped by the Swiss franc. Companies are buying firms in the euro area and in emerging markets, and the strength of the franc is making it easier for them in some cases,” said Reinhardt.

Many companies have sufficient funds available for acquisitions, he added.

Companies are looking to have more of their costs outside the franc area, which would help reduce the impact of the currency eating into their margins.

“They want to encase their natural hedge,” said Reinhardt, who added revenue growth was the other main motivation for companies.

But the number of deals coming in might drop if the Swiss franc continues appreciating at its current pace, the consultancy said.

Areas such as high tech, IT telecommunications, financial services and energy are expected to be among the most active for M&A activity during the remainder of 2011, E&Y said.

The largest transaction announced in the second quarter was the $13.7 billion deal by Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Company (4502.TO) to buy Swiss pharma company Nycomed SICA S.C.A.

The $21 billion acquisition of Synthes Inc. (SYST.VX) by Johnson & Johnson JNJ -0.45%was actually the largest in the period, but wasn’t included in the Swiss M&A statistics because Synthes is headquartered in the U.S.

The media, technology and telecommunications sector was the most active industry in terms of the number of M&A transactions during the second quarter, accounting for slightly more than 20% of the deals, E&Y said.

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Brightbridge is a world-wide private equity firm with the resources and expertise to source, evaluate, and manage private investments globally in both developed and developing markets and across many industrial and commercial sectors. Brightbridge is manager of -- or principal advisor to -- private equity funds covering Asia, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Islamic countries that span the globe from North Africa through the Middle East and into Asia.

Brightbridge Wealth Management Headlines: Destination for Swiss investors

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ZURICH – President Swiss Business Council Pakistan Farukh Mazhar, currently leading a delegation of heads of Pakistan based Swiss companies and prominent Pakistani businessmen to Zurich, said that Pakistan is a huge opportunity destination for investors despite all odds.

Mazhar was addressing a seminar in Zurich at the start of an extensive interaction between the business leaders of the two countries, says a press release.
Presenting the opening address in Zurich, Farukh Mazhar said, “The Pakistani delegation is anxious to explore possibilities of mutual interest with their counterparts here in Zurich.”
Pakistani business leaders fully understand the objective behind this initiative and the dynamic members of the delegation aim to highlight investment opportunities.
within Pakistan for soliciting Foreign Direct Investment from Switzerland as well as exploring export opportunities to Switzerland, Mazhar further added.
In November 2008, Swiss Business Council in Pakistan formed an alliance with Swiss Asian Chamber of Commerce (SACC) to work together in order to develop and expand trade and investment opportunities between both countries. SACC headquartered in Zurich is a strong Chamber of Commerce in Switzerland with business links to 12 Asian countries. Pakistan is now a part of this great Swiss Asian business axis. The Swiss Business council Pakistan and its members hugely value this association, said Mazhar.

Brightbridge Wealth Management Headlines: Swiss Stocks Rise; Syngenta, UBS, Bucher Shares Climb in Zurich

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Swiss stocks advanced, led by gains in chemicals companies and banks. 

Syngenta AG, the Basel, Switzerland-based pesticides maker, climbed 1.7 percent. UBS AG added 0.8 percent.

The Swiss Market Index of the biggest and most actively traded companies rose 0.5 percent to 6,527.16 at 10:28 a.m. in Zurich. The benchmark has rallied 8.4 percent since March 16 as company earnings exceeded estimates. The broader Swiss Performance Index increased 0.5 percent.

Syngenta added 1.7 percent to 292.5 Swiss francs after announcing the launch of Vibrance, a seed treatment fungicide based on the new active ingredient sedaxane.

UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, increased 0.8 percent to 16.25 francs, its first gain in six days.

Bucher Industries AG rose 1.6 percent to 209.3 francs. The agricultural machinery maker said its Kuhn Group unit has a licensing and manufacturing agreement with Deere & Co. to cooperate on large square balers.

“The strategic cooperation with the world’s leading farm equipment producer underpins Kuhn’s product and manufacturing strengths in farming,” Fabian Haecki, an analyst at Vontobel Holding AG, wrote in a note to clients today.

Dufry Group climbed 1 percent to 109.6 francs after surging 6.7 percent yesterday.

Brightbridge Wealth Management: Author Archive

Brightbridge Wealth Management: Author Archive: "http://world.brightbridgewealthmanagement-mag.com/?author=1 15th July 2011 – In a continuing effort to innovate and help customers maxim..."

Author Archive

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15th July 2011 – In a continuing effort to innovate and help customers maximize productivity, Siemens Enterprise Communications has introduced AudioPresenceTM HD, which ensures that all OpenStage IP phone users can experience the highest quality audio for voice calls and audio conferences, at no additional cost for the functionality. Unlike other major brands, the OpenStage range provides high-definition voice capabilities across the entire line of OpenStage IP phones, including the newly announced OpenStage 5 entry-level phone. With the introduction of AudioPresence HD, the OpenStage portfolio extends its legacy of reliability and quality acoustic engineering.
“Siemens Enterprise Communications’ efforts to extend HD voice across its entire IP portfolio with AudioPresence increases the overall value of its already high quality proven IP desktop phones, allowing customers to enjoy a natural voice experience with higher voice quality, superior clarity, better intelligibility and a richer sound experience,” said Mohamed Alaa Saayed, Senior Industry Analyst with Frost & Sullivan. “The overall result is higher degrees of customer satisfaction and increased productivity.”
This innovation is particularly applicable to a truly global audience.  Research has shown that interactions among people with diverse native language backgrounds have increased dramatically and will continue to rise. For example, research from the Federal Institute of Research in Zurich, showed that official Globalization Indexes for information flows has increased more than 60% over the past two decades, and a global survey conducted by Associates for International Research, Inc. (AIRINC) showed that 42% of companies reported an increase in their expatriate populations in 2010, while 49% expect an increase in this number in 2011. Additionally, global research firm MZA Ltd. predicts the worldwide conferencing solutions market will grow to near $8 billion at a compound growth rate of over 13% due to the restrictions on business travel – demonstrating an ever increasing and high level of reliance on voice technologies to drive business communications, customer dialog and decision making.
Meanwhile, recent United Nations research indicates the global population of those over age 60 has grown by over 50% in the past two decades, while the number of U.S. workers over age 55 has increased by 53% over the past decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Further, The European Commission expects the employment rate of workers age 55 and older to reach 59% by 2025.  With this aging workforce demographic comes age-related hearing loss, progressively impacting up to 50% of people by age 75. The AudioPresence HD enhanced user experience reduces frustration and helps ensure customer interactions and employee communications are well understood, avoiding errors and misunderstandings.
AudioPresence HD leverages the standards-based G.722 high-definition audio codec, best-in-class speaker, microphone and acoustic components, and advanced noise rejection and echo cancellation in all OpenStage IP phones. Also, with the upcoming release of OpenScape UC Version 6, multi-party audio conferences will support AudioPresence HD as well as an industry unique Automatic Gain Control feature which normalizes the distraction and frustration of loud and soft volume levels from various conference participants.
“While knowledge workers are becoming increasingly reliant on advanced communications tools, voice communication remains the engine of the knowledge economy in many respects,” says Jonathan Spira, president of NYC-based communications analyst firm Basex.  “Missed information can lead to costly errors, muddled responses to questions require time-consuming repetition and clarification, and an unclear articulation results in frustration and stress for call participants as they strain to follow the conversation.”
According to new independent lab testing conducted by HEAD Acoustics, OpenStage IP handsets with AudioPresence consistently delivered strong balanced performance index scores across the entire range of OpenStage IP phones. For example, the entire range of OpenStage handsets tested all scored the maximum possible TMOS score of 4.2 for high definition audio sending, including the new OpenStage 5. This demonstrates that exceptional audio quality can be provided to customers seeking a cost-effective entry-level phone. Overall, the results support OpenStage portfolio’s legacy of superior acoustic engineering and component selection.
“Having deployed an Asterisk IP-PBX, we could have chosen any desk phone on the market. We chose 8,000 OpenStage 60 SIP phones, in a distributed branch office solution.  Being in a customer-focused and service-oriented insurance business it is important for us to have reliable, high quality phones to interact with our customers,” says Alfred Isenbeck of LVM Versicherung.  “We rely on the excellent audio quality of the OpenStage phones to ensure we provide excellent service to our customers.”
“We continue to believe in the importance of providing all of our customers with an excellent quality user experience, and superior audio quality does not have to be an expensive solution that is only available in high-end or ‘executive’ phones,” said Mark Straton, Senior Vice President Global Solutions Marketing at Siemens Enterprise Communications. “With AudioPresence HD available in every OpenStage IP model, it is our way of ensuring that regardless of how much a customer wants to invest in a phone, they are getting the best audio quality available.”
AudioPresence HD is available now on all OpenStage IP phones and can be enabled immediately by contacting your local Siemens Enterprise Communications representative or authorized partner.

Archive for the ‘Investment’ Category

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Hayek – an economist whose theories inspired George Orwell to write his epic book 1984 and whom many credit for helping to bring down the Iron Curtain through his work as an economist — is now delivering a message from beyond the grave about the demise of the U.S. economy. In an interview that took place before Hayek’s death in 1992, he warns against how big government and the growth of the civil service have the potential to doom the American economy.

Kenneth J. Gerbino, CEO of an investment management company and founder and chairman of the 1980 reform advocacy group the American Economic Council, uncovered the interview that is the centerpiece of the new documentary film The Hayek Prophecies (www.thehayekprophecies.com). In it, Hayek decries the growth of the civil service as the poison pill that could put the country in a stagnant or slow growth mode with inefficiencies and waste.

“Hayek believed that the swelling of the civil service would grow government to such an unwieldy size that it would become an unsustainable beast, dragging down the government and the economy because of its endless hunger,” said Gerbino, also producer of the film.

There are currently 2,392 bills working their way through the House and 1,291 bills in the Senate. Besides the $20-30 billion in pork in these bills there will be more government agencies, bureaus and departments created to administer and regulate any new laws that are passed. They will then further complicate and slow down the real economy. More regulations and regulators are being added to the budget every year.

The government should be dismantling agencies and downsizing and allowing the people of this country to flourish by allowing them, not the government, to spend their money.

“Tax money going toward social security should not go toward hiring more people to inhabit more government jobs,” he said. “Taxes should be reduced giving elderly people money to buy food and pay rent. Because of the thousands of new regulations to various laws passed every year, the bureaucracy to administer these regulations and guidelines waste hundreds of billions per year.”

The Heritage Foundation reported the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that current reports of wasteful duplication include 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 safe water programs. Gerbino states that most of these agencies probably could be consolidated into three or four agencies eliminating overlapping work and reducing employed civil servants by 30-40%. Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties all for the civil servants.

The civil service has created its own perpetual motion and continues to expand, costing taxpayers more money but in many ways costing private enterprise untold legal and accounting costs to comply with regulations many of which are not needed. These costs are then passed on to consumers. The civil service expansion defeats the purpose of actually shrinking government, which makes the political call for smaller government nothing more than a punch line to a bad joke. “If our leaders really want to reduce the size of government, they should listen to Hayek and start with the civil service.”

About Kenneth Gerbino
Kenneth Gerbino is head of Kenneth J. Gerbino & Company, an investment management firm now in its 37th year. The company manages private equity accounts and the Gerbino Gold Group, LLC, a private hedge fund that invests in precious metal mining stocks. Ken is advisor to the publicly traded Precious Capital Global Metals & Mining Fund traded on the Zurich Stock Exchange. Ken was the founder and Chairman of the American Economic Council (AEC), a nationwide economic reform group that was credited with the passage of the United States Gold Coin Act of 1984, which established the United States Gold Eagle coin. AEC seminars included participation by Alan Greenspan, Noble Laureate F. A. Hayek and Robert Bleiberg, ex-Editor-in-Chief of Barron’s.

Brightbridge Wealth Management Headlines: Leading Mexico drug gang suspect arrested

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Reporting from Mexico City—

A top leader of the notorious La Familia drug-trafficking gang, locked in an especially deadly internal fight in recent months, has been captured by Mexican federal police, authorities announced Tuesday.
Jose de Jesus Mendez, alias “El Chango,” one of Mexico’s most-wanted drug lords, was taken into custody in the central Mexican state of Aguascalientes, apparently without a struggle, authorities said.
Mendez led a faction of La Familia, the ruthless and sometimes cult-like network that authorities say specializes in producing and shipping methamphetamine to the United States. La Familia is based in Michoacan, the home state of President Felipe Calderon and a region strategically important for drug trafficking because of its rough terrain and large seaport.
“With this capture, what was left of the command structure of this criminal organization is destroyed,” Alejandro Poire, the government’s security affairs spokesman, said in a statement to reporters.
Poire described Mendez as La Familia’s most important operations chief and blamed him for a long list of crimes, including murder, kidnapping, extortion and grenade attacks on civilians — attacks that the government had previously attributed to another organization, the Zetas. The government had offered a reward of more than $2 million for Mendez’s capture.
Eliminating Mendez, whose alias means the Monkey, is a significant blow, analysts said, because he was the brains behind much of the organization’s vast trafficking operation as it grew by leaps and bounds in the last six years.
But La Familia has morphed into a number of heavily armed factions that are still active and are moving tons of cocaine and marijuana, along with meth, into U.S. markets, authorities say. Moreover, the capture of Mendez could clear the way for the even more violent Zetas to make further headway in La Familia’s territories of Michoacan and Guerrero, both Pacific states with long coastlines.
La Familia began to splinter after the death of its founder and top leader, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, known as “El Mas Loco” (the Craziest). He was killed by Mexican security forces in a major offensive in December.
With Moreno gone, Mendez disputed over control of La Familia with Servando “La Tuta” Gomez Martinez. The two split violently this year, with Gomez creating a faction bizarrely named the Knights Templar, after the Christian warriors of the Crusades.
Fighting between the two, as well as with government troops in April and May, displaced several thousand residents in Michoacan as families fled and schools and businesses were forced to shut down.
The bodies of about 50 people have turned up across Michoacan this month alone in what authorities say is a spate of attacks and reprisals. Most of the dead appeared to have been from Mendez’s ranks, killed by Gomez’s followers. Signs left on 22 of the bodies, found over the weekend, were signed by the Knights Templar.
Facundo Rosas, the federal police general commissioner, said three weeks ago that he believed Mendez’s group was substantially weakened after several arrests, shootouts with security forces and desertions to Gomez’s faction.
Calderon, in a message on his Twitter account Tuesday, congratulated the federal police for dealing a “big blow” to organized crime with the Mendez capture.
Nearly 40,000 people have been killed since Calderon launched a war on drug cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.