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OXY Inks Partnership in Bahrain – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:34:31 +0000

Recently, Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) entered into a partnership to develop oil and natural gas fields in Bahrain. Occidental along with partners Mubadala Development Company (Mubadala) and the National Oil and Gas Authority of Bahrain (NOGA) formed a new joint operating company, Tatweer Petroleum-Bahrain Field Development Company, which will serve as the operator for the Bahrain field.

The company will operate under the Development and Production Sharing Agreement signed in April 2009 by all three partners, approved by the parliament of Bahrain in May 2009 and ratified by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Kalifa. Tatweer Petroleum will begin start operations in the Bahrain field immediately. The operating team would include individuals from the Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco), Occidental and Mubadala employees and few local employees.

Oil and natural gas production from the Bahrain field is expected to peak at 100,000 barrels per day and 2.5 billion cubic feet per day, respectively. As per the production agreement, Occidental holds a 48% stake, Mubadala holds 32% and NOGA holds the remaining.

The partnership is a win-win for both companies. For Occidental, Tatweer Petroleum is a key element in its growth strategy in the Middle East. For Mubadala, such joint operations are progress on its ambition to include Enhanced Oil Recovery projects as one of the key pillars of its investment strategy in the region.
Read the full analyst report on "OXY"
Zacks Investment Research

PennyOmega.com Stocks Upgraded, Downgraded and Short Highlights Before the Bell Monday August 24, 2009

PennyOmega.com — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:34:18 +0000

PennyOmega.com Short Highlights Before the Bell! PennyOmega.com Short Highlights Before The Bell! PennyOmega.com Stocks Upgraded, Downgraded and Short Highlights Before the Bell Monday August 24, 2009 ************************************************************** Industrial Nanotech, Inc. (Pink Sheets:INTK), an emerging global leader in nanoscience solutions, today announced that the Company’s sales are growing rapidly in the Middle East through their established distributor, Nanofan Industrial Coatings, [...]

PennyOmega.com Stock Report! 8/18/09, LAZ, UDR, STWG, HD, HILL, DOX

PennyOmega.com — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:12:47 +0000

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MENA correction may be imminent, warns analyst and managers alike

Jason G. Wulterkens — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:14:49 +0000

Interesting comment by S&P Fund Services lead analyst Alison Cratchley, made to Business Intelligence Middle-East, on the possibility of an impending correction across MENA markets: “Relative to other emerging markets, the MENA region significantly underperformed (12.7% rise compared with 37.8%) in the six months to the end of June 2009. This probably reflects investors’ perception [...]

Sukuk market to double by year’s end, and new tax laws will help its reach

Jason G. Wulterkens — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:28:31 +0000

A Dow Jones report published last week quoted Standard & Poor’s Financial Services as theorizing that the $700 billion global Islamic finance industry would “weather the financial crisis” and moreover would resume its growth on the support of “high demand for Shariah-compliant products, which are considered less risky than convention debt.” While [...]

Yousif’s Istikhlaf to be an “Islamic Goldman Sachs”?

Jason G. Wulterkens — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:45:47 +0000

An interesting feature in this week’s Economist (“Face Value: Godly but ambitious”) focuses on Adnan Yousif (pictured right), who in 1980 with the Bahrain-based Arab Banking Corporation was one of the first to establish an Islamic-finance practice and is now the chairman of the Union of Arab Banks and chief executive of Al Baraka Banking [...]

Bahrain’s sukuk is priced low, but will be absorbed nonetheless notes manager

Jason G. Wulterkens — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:12:13 +0000

According to Mohieddine Kronfol (pictured left), managing director of Algebra Capital, a Dubai-based investment firm, pricing of Bahrain’s $750m, five-year sovereign sukuk (Islamic bond) issue–which is being managed by Calyon S.A., Deutsche Bank and HSBC and is expected to yield somewhere 340-350 basis points above similar maturity U.S. Treasuries–is on the “low end of expectations” [...]

Who’s Foolin’ Who?

Contrarian Profits — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:12:30 +0000

pJobs Jamboree gets a lift#8230; The real numbers#8230; The dollar comes back with vengeance! RBNZ to meet this week#8230;br / And Now#8230; Today#8217;s Pfennig!/p pGood day#8230; And a Marvelous Monday to you! You know the Jobs Jamboree data that printed on Friday, and created some HUGE euphoria among the media types that love to just #8220;read the news#8221; and not actually do the research to report it? Yes#8230; It was a very good number, on the outside#8230; Not that losing 345,000 jobs in a month is a good thing, but it is far better than the near 700,000 jobs lost a couple of months ago./p pSo#8230; I#8217;ve got that to talk about today#8230; And the rebound by the dollar that has taken the euro to the 1.38#8230;/p

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation – Value – Zacks Rank Buy

Tracey Ryniec — Wed, 20 May 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (GLDD), which operates dredging projects around the world, saw revenue surge 32% to a first quarter record. It also has its eyes on possible stimulus projects. GLDD surprised on estimates by 550%.

Company Description

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is the largest provider of dredging services in the United States. Founded in Chicago in 1890, the company has been involved in some of the largest dredging projects in the country including the creation of Lower Wacker Drive in Chicago.

The company's fleet consists of 13 Cutter Suction Dredges, 8 Hopper Dredges, 6 Bucket Dredges, 2 Drill boats, 1 Unloader, 7 Booster Pumps and 184 support vessels.

Great Lakes' vessels deepen shipping channels, reclaim land from the ocean and assist with beach restoration for storm-damaged coastlines.

About 25% of the company's operation is outside of the United States, with a large portion of the international business located in the Middle East.

Additionally, Great Lakes also has a 50% interest in a marine sand mining operation located in New Jersey which supplies sand and aggregate used for road and building construction.

First Quarter Sees Record Revenue

Great Lakes is operating on all cylinders as it reported record revenue for the first quarter and maintains a solid year-end backlog. The company will also likely be able to nab a portion of the $350 million to $400 million allocated in the stimulus bill to dredging projects that must be awarded in the next 18 months.

Revenue jumped 32% to $179.2 million from $135.7 million in the year ago quarter. Dredging revenue climbed 66% over a year ago as fleet utilization was improved across all sectors. The prior year quarter was also negatively affected by temporary loss of the dredge New York and downtime of several vessels.

The company continued its projects in the Ports of New York, New Jersey, and Tampa, along the Columbia River in Oregon and its coastal restoration work in Louisiana. Internationally, it continued work on the Diyar project in Bahrain.

Net income was $7.3 million, or 13 cents, compared to a loss of $1.2 million, or a loss of 2 cents a share, in the first quarter of 2008. Analysts expected just 2 cents in the quarter.

Backlog

As of Mar 31, the backlog was $344 million compared to $418 million at the end of December 2008. Included in the first quarter backlog is about $57 million remaining on the Diyar land reclamation project in Bahrain which was reclassified from backlog to options pending status so the customer could control the timing of the completion of the project.

Consensus Estimates Rise

Given the results of the first quarter and the prospects for possible stimulus projects going forward, covering analysts have been raising estimates for the second quarter and the full year.

Second-quarter consensus estimates rose 2 cents to 6 cents from 4 cents in the last 30 days.

Full year estimates jumped 81% to 29 cents from 16 cents per share in the last month with all 3 covering analysts raising during that time.

Value Fundamentals

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is a Zacks #1 Rank (strong buy) stock. It has a P/E of 13.6x forward earnings. The company's price-to-book is 1.12. GLDD also pays a dividend, with a current yield of 1.70%.

Zacks Investment Research

Sovereign entities as market makers means less mystery

Jason G. Wulterkens — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:26:01 +0000

International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), an Abu Dhabi-based investment company, announced on Monday that it has been assigned Aa2/AA/AA long term credit ratings by Moody’s, Fitch Ratings and Standard and Poor’s, with a stable outlook. “While we have no immediate plans to raise external capital, the ratings will facilitate future engagement with the debt capital [...]

Fitch dour on GCC banks’ retail lending

Jason G. Wulterkens — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:10:57 +0000

A recent report issued by Fitch Ratings concludes that the more challenging operating environment has negatively affected prospects for retail banking in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC, consisting of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE), although the degree of severity will vary. Fitch views the potential risks from retail lending as high [...]

Carlyle eyes the Frontier

Jason G. Wulterkens — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:07:58 +0000

Private equity giant Carlyle Group completed raising its first Middle East and North Africa (MENA) fund, Carlyle MENA Partners, with equity commitments of $500 million. Per the firm’s site, the fund will invest primarily in “healthy, growing companies in various sectors, including energy, financial services, healthcare, industrial, infrastructure, technology and transportation [...]

GCC update

Daniel Broby — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:38:00 +0000

The downturn has hit the region harder than expected but despite declining oil prices we still believe that the GCC will remain grow in 2009. Tighter liquidity will impact the region and budgetary adjustments will have to be made. br /br /The question then becomes, will that growth be adequate to starve off political concerns. In that respect, the GCC countries with greater socioeconomic challenges, such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, will come under more scrutiny. The others, like Qatar and the UAE will have to carefully manage reserves.

Savings to help oil-exporters maintain spending, run deficits

Jason G. Wulterkens — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 01:47:48 +0000

The current account surplus of $400 billion among the Middle Eastern and North African oil-exporting states will turn into a deficit of $30 billion this year, according to the latest IMF report, which classifies said exporters as Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the U.A.E. and Yemen. That said, according to [...]

Sri Lanka the new Arab tourist hotspot?

Jason G. Wulterkens — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:42:09 +0000

Sri Lanka saw a 24% surge in Middle East tourists in 2008, according to figures released by the Sri Lankan Tourist Promotions Bureau (SLTB). The country saw the strongest increase in UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon and Iranian visitors–making the Middle East the fastest growing source market for the country. “Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is [...]

Saudi Telecom expands as Q4 net profit plummets

Jason G. Wulterkens — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:32:21 +0000

Saudi Telecom Co. (STC), the Arab world’s largest telecom company by market value, posted a worse-than-expected 62% fall in fourth-quarter profit this past week, which it blamed on foreign currency fluctuations. The news caused STC shares to drop 10%, bringing this year’s total decline to 6.5%. The company’s fourth-quarter operating profit fell 20% to 2.38 [...]

Axial Vector Energy Corporation (AXVC.PK) is Focused on Making a Difference in the Combustion Engine Market

QualityStocks — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:40:08 +0000

Axial Vector™ Energy Corporation owns, develops and licenses internal combustion engine technologies. The company is applying these technologies to develop a new, smaller and lighter internal combustion engine that produces substantially more horsepower and three times more torque on less fuel than conventional engines of similar size. Although the internal combustion engine as we know [...]

Hedge Fund Backers | A List of Capital Sources for Hedge Funds

Richard C. Wilson — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:06:35 +0000

h1 style="text-align: center;"bHedge Fund Backersbr //b/h1h2 style="text-align: center;"bspan style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"Hedge Fund Backers | span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"Capital Raising/span/spanbr //b/h2span style="font-weight: bold;"br /span style="font-weight: bold;"As part of our /span/spana alt="Hedge Fund Blogger.com: Hedge Fund Startup Tools | 1 Page Guide for Startups" href="http://richard-wilson.blogspot.com/2008/09/hedge-fund-startup-tools-1-page-guide.html" title="Hedge Fund Startup Tools | 1 Page Guide for Startups"Hedge Fund Startup Guide/a please see our list of hedge fund backers below:span style="font-weight: bold;"span style="font-weight: bold;"/spanbr /br /br /Affiliated Managers Group/spanbr /Bostonbr /Brett Perrymanbr /Public company has taken equity stakes in four hedge fund shops: AQR Capital,br /Blue Mountain, First Quadrant and Value Act.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Asset Alliance/spanbr /New Yorkbr /Bruce Lipnickbr /Twice has backed off plans to sell stock to the public, most recently in August andbr /in 1998. Offers operational and marketing support in exchange for 50% ownershipbr /of management companies.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"BRI Partners/spanbr /Chicagobr /Adam Brassbr /Provides investment capital in exchange for marketing and operational support.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Boxtree Capital/span span style="font-weight: bold;"Rumson/spanbr /N.J.br /Robert Picardbr /732-939-9000br /Founded earlier this year by former Optima Fund Management chief investmentbr /officer Robert Picard, the firm has not yet made any acquisitions. Hopes to buybr /minority interests in funds of funds and hedge funds.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Capital Z Asset Management/spanbr /New Yorkbr /Jim Marronebr /212-965-0800br /Has backed 17 hedge funds, including John Burbank’s Passport Management.br /Takes meaningful minority stakes as an anchor investor in startups. In January,br /announced management buyout of hedge fund-sponsorship business from parentbr /Capital Z, in partnership with private equity shop Paine amp; Partners.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Citadel Investment/spanbr /Chicagobr /Bryan Lockebr /Has seeded three funds via its Citadel Discovery vehicle, which is run within itsbr /Citadel Alternative Asset Management unit. The vehicle invests only its parent’sbr /capital.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Financial Risk Management/spanbr /Londonbr /Patric de Gentile-Williamsbr /Big fund-of-funds operation run by Blaine Tomlinson launched a hedge-fundbackingbr /vehicle in January via a new unit, FRM Capital Advisors. Focuses on earlystagebr /and startup managers. Offers operational and infrastructure support,br /including risk-management, compliance and technology services. In exchange, itbr /shares in management and performance fee revenues.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Focus Investment/spanbr /New Yorkbr /Andrew Godfreybr /Provides seed capital to startups and is a strategic investor in more-establishedbr /managers. In exchange, it usually shares revenues.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Fortune Group/spanbr /Londonbr /Simon Hopkinsbr /Has seeded more than 20 firms over the past decade. Terms vary, but standardbr /model includes share of revenue in exchange for $25 million to $50 millionbr /investment.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Goldman Sachs/spanbr /New Yorkbr /Jonathan Sorrellbr /In the fall of 2007, word got out that Goldman had set up a private equity fund tobr /take stakes in hedge fund managers. At that time, it purchased 10% of Londonbasedbr /commodities manager Winton Capital.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Hardt Group/spanbr /New Yorkbr /Jeff Landlebr /Backs more than two dozen operations, usually sharing revenues, but also takingbr /equity stakes in some cases. Since 2004, has invested north of $200 million inbr /seed-capital arrangements.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Investcorp/spanbr /Bahrainbr /Hank Murphybr /Has financed eight hedge fund companies, including two deals slated to bebr /announced in the next month or two. New York unit typically provides $75 millionbr /of seed capital, as well as operational and marketing support. In exchange, itbr /shares revenues. Its affiliate managers, including Minneapolis-based Interlaken,br /have $2 billion of seed and client capital.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"J.P. Morgan Incubator Strategies/spanbr /New Yorkbr /Simon Lackbr /212-648-2593br /Expects to do a couple of deals per year, but no more than that because thebr /treacherous market makes it too difficult to evaluate hedge funds.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Jefferies Group/spanbr /New Yorkbr /Tom Witzbr /Still wants to seed hedge funds and offer operational support despite cutbacks inbr /the amount of capital parent is willing to provide.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Larch Lane Advisors/spanbr /Purchase, N.Y.br /Marc Jurishbr /Established in 1993 by Marc Jurish and became an affiliate of Old Mutual Assetbr /Management in 2005. In June, entered into a joint venture with the now-embattledbr /AIG Investments to provide seed capital between $50 million to $200 million perbr /deal.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Liberty Ermitage/spanbr /Londonbr /Jonathan Wautonbr /Still amenable to seeding deals, but it’s temporarily out of the game until it raisesbr /capital for a new vehicle. The life of an earlier vehicle recently ran its course.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Man Group (RMF):/spanbr /span style="font-weight: bold;"Hedge Fund Ventures/spanbr /Londonbr /Hans Hurschlerbr /Has backed 32 operations over the years in exchange for revenue or equity stakes.br /Terms have changed, however, with the November launch of its RMF Globalbr /Emerging Managers fund, which has backed eight management companies thisbr /year. Fund enters only revenue-sharing arrangements. One fund it has seeded isbr /Bill Seibold’s Noroton Capital.br /Man Group:br /Man Global Strategiesbr /Londonbr /Alex Lowebr /The Man unit uses parent’s proprietary capital to invest in early-stage managers.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"MD Sass-Macquarie Financial Strategies/spanbr /New Yorkbr /Steve Shenfeldbr /Has backed nine companies and expects to add a couple more to its roster bybr /yearend. Set up as private equity vehicle, investor money is locked up until 2014,br /with the possibility of extending to 2017.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Millennium Management/spanbr /New Yorkbr /Adin Kahnbr /Allocates capital in a flexible manner to satisfy unique business and investmentbr /relationships.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Ospraie Wingspan/spanbr /New Yorkbr /Eric Vincentbr /Since its start in 2005, has allocated capital to eight independent managers ofbr /commodities funds. Ospraie also offers marketing and operational support.br /Wingspan is a unit of Lehman-backed Ospraie Management, which is liquidatingbr /its flagship commodities vehicle due to losses.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Reservoir Capital/spanbr /New Yorkbr /Dana Craverbr /Has ownership stakes in 10 managers. Founded by Dan Stern and Craig Huff,br /former partners at Ziff Brothers Investment. Reservoir was an early backer of suchbr /big names as HBK Investments, Och-Ziff and Ellington Management.br /br /Skybridge Capitalbr /New Yorkbr /Anthony Scaramuccibr /Has seeded nine hedge funds. Skybridge formed a joint venture with Challengerbr /Financial of Australia to mine for talented fund mangers down under, as well as tobr /market current funds to investors. Computer tycoon Michael Dell is a big investorbr /in one of its funds.br /br /Triple A Partnersbr /Santa Monica, Calif.br /Hans Tidemanbr /Has so far seeded three Asia funds, its specialty. Provides working and seedbr /capital along with operational and marketing support.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Weston Capital Management/spanbr /Westport, Conn.br /Chris Kelleybr /Shares revenues with nine managers in exchange for a combined $1.5 billion ofbr /trading capital. Doesn’t supply working capital and doesn’t take equity stakes.br /Affiliated funds include White Oak, Agamas Capital and Frontfour.br /br /h4Related to Hedge Fund Backers | A List of Capital Sources for Hedge Funds:/h4ullia title="Hedge Fund Terms" href="http://richard-wilson.blogspot.com/2008/03/hedge-fund-terms.html" description="Hedge Fund Terms, Hedge Fund Definition, Define a Hedge Fund, Hedge Funds Definition, Hedge Fund Definitions" alt="Hedge Fund Terms"Hedge Fund Terms and Definitions/a/lilia alt="Hedge Fund Tracker Tool, Hedge Fund Press Release, Hedge Fund Press Releases, Hedge Fund Tools, Hedge Fund News" href="http://richard-wilson.blogspot.com/2008/08/hedge-fund-tracker-tool.html" title="Hedge Fund Tracker Tool"Hedge Fund Tracker Tool/a/lilia alt="Financial Certification, Financial Management Certification, Financial Markets Certification" title="Financial Certification" href="http://richard-wilson.blogspot.com/2008/08/financial-certification.html"Financial Certification/a/lilia alt="Hedge Fund Forum, Hedge Fund Forum Greenwich, Hedge Fund Manager Forum" title="Hedge Fund Forum" href="http://richard-wilson.blogspot.com/2008/08/hedge-fund-forum.html"Hedge Fund Forum/a/li/ulTags: Hedge Fund Backers, Hedge Fund Capital Providers, Hedge Fund Capital, Sources of Capital for Hedge Fund Managers, Institutional Hedge Fund Capitaldiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/richard-wilson-blog?a=508M5ss1"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/richard-wilson-blog?i=508M5ss1" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/richard-wilson-blog?a=RJ4XU2py"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/richard-wilson-blog?d=50" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/richard-wilson-blog?a=vpBT7iFC"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/richard-wilson-blog?i=vpBT7iFC" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/richard-wilson-blog/~4/rK-vup63gmQ" height="1" width="1"/

Bahrain real estate market

Daniel Broby — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 11:44:00 +0000

The Bahrain real estate market is not in as bad shape as the UAE. Buyers do not want to commit right now and the market is in mild decline. That said, the majority of homes in the Kingdom have been bought by owner-occupiers and speculator activity has been restrained, although it does exist. One aspect that has helped the Bahrain market so far is he presence of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. Despite falling house prices, there is a shortage of housing and that makes the long term picture look brighter.br /br /In the north, various new developments are being constructed on reclaimed land. This does not help the increasing demand in low cost housing, so investors are keenly watching demand.

Looking to 2009 after 2008: Fear but Much Promise

Jonathan O'Shaughnessy — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:53:36 +0000

As one of the most shocking and dismal economic years of our time comes to a close, it deserves a moment to take a look at the vast shifts which have transpired. Major banking giants which have fallen, stock markets have plummeted, and a whole host of issues have reared their head for the [...]

Reuters poll predicts GCC GDP growth

Daniel Broby — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 06:46:00 +0000

A new poll of 11 economists shows that economists expect real economic growth in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait to slow - but remain positive!br /br /The good news is that the sconomies are still expected to expand. What is clear, however, is that the Gulf is sensitive to the oil price. Obviously, a fall in oil prices from $147 a barrel to $34 a barrel has an impact. br /br /The forecasts are for real growth of 2.4 percent in Saudi Arabia, 2.7 percent in the UAE and 3.5% in Bahrain. Qatar, the world's top exporter of liquefied natural gas, is expected to see the fastest GDP growth next year at 9.5 percent!br /br /We will monitor the extent of the slowdown in the non-oil sectors. across the Gulf will be a key element to monitor," said Giyas Gokkent, chief economist at National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

Major Financial Events And Developments Of 2009

Contrarian Profits — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:14:38 +0000

pDollar-Euro parity? Crude at $12 a barrel? 15% unemployment? stronga href="http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/author/j-christoph-amberger/" class="alinks_links"J. Christoph Amberger/a /strongpresents the Today#8217;s Financial News top predictions for 2009#8230;/p blockquotepA month ago, I asked my colleagues at TFN to think about the year ahead… the events that will shape the year both politically and financially. In short, to come up with realistic “Predictions for 2009″. As history is fast-forwarding, some of these events have already taken place. Others look increasingly probable… and not half as far out as they appeared just a month ago./p pHere they are, in no particular order/p p*** Dollar hits parity against euro by June 2009./p p*** Oil bottoms at $12 per barrel by April 2009./p p*** Gold falls to $500 as Indian economy crashes and Dubai abandons spending spree./p p***#8230;/p/blockquote

Axial Vector Energy Corporation (AXVC.PK) Meets Energy Concerns with a Variety of Engine and Generator Solutions

QualityStocks — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:06:51 +0000

Energy is in the forefront of discussions in the US government and with consumers. Everyone seems to be seeking information on how to conserve energy, find alternative sources of energy, and new methods to store energy. Axial Vector Energy Corporation (AXVC.PK) is a company that owns, develops, and licenses proprietary intellectual property. The company has [...]

The Future Of Portfolio Construction?

Roger Nusbaum — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:10:00 +0000

Well, maybe.

IndexUniverse.com had an article about Bank of NY creating a bunch of GDR indexes (similar to ADRs but traded in the UK) for quite a few countries and a couple of broad based indexes too.

The list;

Bahrain
Croatia
Egypt
Estonia
Georgia
Hungary
India
Israel
Kazakhstan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Netherlands
Nigeria
Oman
Pakistan
Poland
Romania
Russia
South Korea
Taiwan
Turkey
UAE
Ukraine
Eastern Europe
Easter Europe ex-Russia
MENA
Middle East
Africa
Emerging Markets

It is a good bet that these indexes are being created in the hope that someone will license them into some sort of investment product like an ETF.

I've long been of the opinion that portfolio construction is in the middle of a rather swift evolution and have expected/hoped that the world of investment products would generally keep up with that need. Accessing individual stocks from these countries is very difficult and even if they were easily accessible the task of stock picking would be difficult too.

Chances are that when things get healthier in Poland just owning the WIG 20, or something close, would be sufficient for a US based investor.

The gang at Fistful of Euros spell out the problems Poland might be having these days and it does not look good but Poland, or any other country in trouble, will become attractive at some point.

If the US is like Japan in anyway it could be that returns in our domestic market will be below normal (long running theme) so US based investors will have to find another solution besides 75% in domestic equities.

Perhaps the answer will have to be something like one of the do-it-yourself hedgefunds (but heed this warning from Mebane Faber) that gets written about sometimes. I've written about this before of course but some weighting to absolute (I have my favorites), a heavier weighting to TIPS products (after asset deflation ends we could be in for some nasty inflation), a little something in commodities, another little something in currencies, a small weight in maybe two countries from the above list, a small weight in a couple of bigger emerging countries and a slightly larger weight in four or five developed countries could add up to 70% of a portfolio before getting to domestic equities and maybe something to hedge a little bit of all that foreign currency exposure.

I've written a couple of hundred posts over the years about having a plan for defense having thought a bear market less severe than we've actually had was a real possibility. Now I'm writing a lot about figuring out what to do in case the US continues to offer subpar returns because I think that is a real possibility.

There have been comments left of late along the lines of the stock market not working or whatever and while I'm not here to try to talk anyone out of anything, we all need to save for our futures and do something effective with what we save. The issue seems to be that do something effective might be changing. I don't know if it is changing but it might be and I feel it is important to figure something out.

Albania – revisiting old frontiers

Gabriel Didham, CFA — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:55:07 +0000

Objective Capital report issued on Oct 08, 2008 titled 'Albania - revisiting old frontiers'. Modern Albania was forged in the crucible of communism. For over four decades after WWII it was a communist state. Since the “fall of the wall” in 1989 she has struggled through the violent break-up of Yugoslavia to carve slowly her own identity among western capitalist democracies. Earlier in 2008 she was invited to join NATO and aspires to EU membership in due course.

Albania’s natural resource base and a slow but purposeful programme of freemarket reforms now underway suggest opportunities for resource investors after decades of under-investment.

Surveying The Landscape

Roger Nusbaum — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:17:00 +0000

A few things today.

There is a new frontier market CEF from Morgan Stanley that has ticker FFD. Here is a little bit of info, here is a little more but for now the MS page has no info to speak of.

According to the Yahoo News release, linked above, frontier can include Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ecuador, Estonia, Ghana, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macao, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.

The money was just raised so the fund owns nothing yet. It may take a while to deploy the assets and for now it has a premium to NAV to pay for the sales charge that will likely erode over the next couple of months.

Frontier will become an increasingly important asset class to access. For now there is no way to know whether FFD will be any good or not. Generically speaking this space might lend itself to active management. For example an active fund could avoid Latvia for now, which could add value versus its benchmark. Further value could then be added by adding Latvia back in at some opportune time in the future.

When the fund populates and MS discloses I will write more about it.

Here is an interesting idea from James Picerno over at The Capital Spectator about benchmarking a portfolio against the yield of the ten year TIPS which he cites for the purposes of the article as 1.69%. It does not sound like a high hurdle but he makes an interesting observation that has fascinating implications. He said that five years ago the ten year TIPS yield was 2.43%. Five years ago to the day the S&P 500 closed at 1026.27. Yesterday it closed at 1274.98. Using simple math that averages out to 4.8% per year plus 2% (which is generous) for the dividend.

2003 was a great year for equities but most of the lift was in by the time September rolled around. The numbers for equities would look a lot better going back five years and a few months but at the same time there many people missed 2003 as they did not trust equities yet.

Additionally it would have only taken a couple of bad mistakes (panicking out at the wrong time or making an incorrect sector decision) for someone to have missed out on that 4.8% number in the last five years.

What makes this interesting is that I think the post helps to better conceptualize what benchmarking is about and although not mentioned by James I think it stresses the importance of dividends. 6.8% total return is low historically. Anyone who increased his yield in the time either had better returns or got the same returns without having to work as hard.

James Stewart had a post in the WSJ about investing like the Harvard Endowment. A caveat; you really need to be be careful reading this guy's stuff.

He says "Individual investors can emulate the principles, if not the exact returns, of Harvard's approach....But you too can achieve similar -- maybe even better -- results by embracing a variety of asset classes."

I say "No you can't."

Don't get me wrong I can't either, not with any regularity (applies to you and me). The point here might be granular but it is important. Access to many of the sorts of asset classes are now available in exchange traded vehicles. However I don't think it is a stretch to say that in addition to the asset classes available to the super endowments they also have a little bit of know how for when to make changes to these holdings that other people may not have.

As long commodities as we think these funds are, something tells me they did not take the full brunt of this summer's decline. If one of the endowments was 25% commodities on June 1 and somehow you knew that, took your position up to 25%, the market then corrects with much velocity which they sidestepped; they are fine. Would you have likely taken the same evasive measures? In real life did you take evasive measures?

If you had 25% or thereabouts you better hope you did. If you had a moderate weight then you didn't need to.

Learning from and being influenced by these funds (like owning some commodities as opposed to 25%) is plausible and unlikely to leave anyone holding the bag.

Finally, congrats to Charles Kirk on five years of blogging.

Axial Vector Energy Corp (AXVC.PK) – Improving Global Demand for Electrical Power

QualityStocks — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:21:01 +0000

Axial Vector Energy Corporation (OTCBB: AXVC) owns, develops and licenses proprietary intellectual property with unique internal combustion engine technologies. By applying these new technologies, the company has developed a smaller and lighter internal combustion engine that produces significantly greater horsepower and three times more torque on less fuel than conventional engines of similar size. [...]

Making Money Alert Recommends Wisdom Tree Middle East Dividend Fund

CEO Blogger — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:29:42 +0000

Although not yet formally recommending the ETF, fund expert Doug Fabian takes a look at the a new ETF invested in dividend-paying Middle Eastern stocks in his Making Money Alert . Track Making Money Alert’s picks at: http://trackthepros.com/categories.php?category_id=1534 “When the stock market is trending downward, it is difficult to know what to do. Amid the uncertainty is the [...]

Middle East Event

Richard C. Wilson — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:45:21 +0000

Middle East Hedge Fund Event

Hedge Funds Review - Middle East Summit

The editorial and conference teams at Hedge Funds Review are proud to announce that our 4th Annual Middle East Summit will once again be held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel & Spa, Bahrain on November 11-12th 2008.

Last year’s event was hugely successful, bringing together over 250 key players in the alternative investment landscape. More than 70% of delegates were end investors.

Highlights included official endorsement from the Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain and guest speeches from some of the most successful hedge fund managers from across the globe.

This year the keynote address will be given by HE Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa, Minister of Finance for Bahrain and chairman of the Mumtalakat Holding Company. We will also be hearing an update on regulations from the Central Bank of Bahrain, particularly on how the recent collective investment undertaking (CIU) rules have affected hedge fund investment in the region, as well as a chance to hear about the recently launched Al Safi Shariah compliant investment platform.

Throughout the two-day programme we will have expert managers discussing individual investment strategies. These include commodities, managed futures, emerging markets and many others. We also have leading academics sharing their views on the global credit crisis and the affect this will have on the Gulf region.

Full information on the programme and our outstanding speaker line-up can be found here – www.hedgefundsreview.com/middleeast

For further information, please contact:
Sarika Mehta
Senior Marketing Manager
Tel: +44 (0)20 7968 4551
Email: sarika.mehta@incisivemedia.com
About Hedge Funds Review
www.hedgefundsreview.com

- Richard

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