Man United to lose Sponsorship.

[Barmy_in_Palmy]

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=794508

NEW YORK -- After a weekend spent hammering out plans for an orderly unwinding of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and a takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co., U.S. regulators are now in a frantic scramble to save what would be the biggest credit crunch casualty yet: insurance giant American International Group.

Shares of AIG (AIG/NYSE), the largest insurance company in the United States, were off 36% at 11 a.m. ET after plunging more than 50% in early trading, on top of a 60% sell-off Monday, amid fears the New York-based company won't be able to secure enough fresh capital to stay afloat.
The ongoing financial turmoil sent stock markets around the globe lower early today. But my late morning, the closely watched Dow Jones Industrial Average recouped early losses and turned positive. The gains came on top of a more than 500-point rout yesterday.

As with Lehman and Merrill, investors are spooked by AIG's massive exposure to toxic mortgage portfolios. Those concerns shifted into high gear last week, forcing Lehman to agree to file for bankruptcy protection yesterday after the 158-year-old Wall Street investment bank failed to find a buyer willing to step in without financial backing from the U.S. government. Worried it could soon face the same fate, Merrill agreed to a takeover by deep-pocketed Bank of America.

AIG sought as much as a US$40 billion bridge loan from the U.S. Federal Reserve over the weekend. But the Fed, which refused to help bail out Lehman over the weekend, rebuffed the request.

Worried about the issue of "moral hazard" – essentially encouraging bad behavior by providing a rescue net when things go bad -- the Fed is pushing for a private-sector solution to AIG.

With its outlook fast dimming, AIG is scrambling to raise as much as US$75 billion to avoid stumbling into bankruptcy Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are said to be trying to arrange the funding. AIG's fortunes stumbled into deeper peril late yesterday as major credit-ratings agencies slashed their ratings on the company.

With the lower ratings, AIG could be forced to come up with billions of dollars of collateral. An AIG bankruptcy would be a much greater financial calamity than Lehman's orderly unwinding. "I don't know of a major bank that doesn't have some significant exposure to AIG," said Kenneth Lewis, chief executive officer of Bank of America, in a CNBC interview.

An AIG collapse would "be a much bigger problem than most that we've looked at," he added. At the end of 2006, AIG ranked among the top five biggest financial companies around the globe, with a value of US$190 billion.
Since then, however, AIG's market value has shrunk by more than 93%. When asked on CNBC today whether regulators should allow AIG to fail Republican presidential nominee John McCain said, "I think you have to."
-- Financial Post, with files from Bloomberg

They need a $85 Billion cash injection to stop them from going bust. At first I was worried because I thought my car was insured through them, but its not, its through IAG NZ Ltd, I hope thats a difference. Don't give a fuck about United though.

 

[hashmander]

they got the $85b, the us government now owns 79.9% of AIG.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080917/ap_on_bi_ge/aig;_ylt=AgNvs7faveoxlNtGcwSG7BNv24cA

 

[Barmy_in_Palmy]

But should the US Government be paying an English private enterprise $14M pounds a year?

Surely it would be one of the expenses that they would get rid of?

 

[hellava_tough]

But should the US Government be paying an English private enterprise $14M pounds a year?

Surely it would be one of the expenses that they would get rid of?

Yeah, because the US really cares about 7 million quid.

That would probably buy them:

- A scud missile

- The turret on an Abrahams tank

- The left-side rubber fuel nozzel on one of their Joint Strike Fighters

£7 million would, however, keep the NYPD in doughnuts for a week

 

[Rocksuperstar]

I bet the Laughing Gnome and his lil tribe are enjoying this - official sponsorship by the US government now?? Man USA never seemed more apt.

Next up they'll change the kits to suit the American Dream: Away is khaki fatigues, home will be elastic topped jeans and t-shirts with slogans like "You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead fingers - NRA 4 LIFE"

 

[Barmy_in_Palmy]

Next seasons pre-season tour, a visit to Iraq to support the troops.

 

[Rocksuperstar]

Or you think they'll just decide to skip the formailities and declare war on West London and Merseyside, draft in tons of red-shirted troops to mill about the area, look bored, steal stuff from the locals and kill puppies :shrug:

 

[brasil_spur]

Another reminder of Levy's shrewd move with our sponsor. The chances of a Casino going bust are very very low.

 

[Rocksuperstar]

Another reminder of Levy's shrewd move with our sponsor. The chances of a Casino going bust are very very low.

But the laws on advertising gambling could put a spanner in the works...

Generally i hope we're making the most of this deal as there is no-way in fire-engine-red hell we'll be seeing a deal like that come around again anytime soon.

Unless the bloke who signed it off then got sacked has moved to another top dollar company and can swing the same for us with them too? :shrug: :lol:

 

[Barmy_in_Palmy]

Next season we will have more income from shirt sponsorship than the rest of the Championship combined.

 

[JKSpurs]

Man U will of got an agreement for sponsorship over a number of years and although all the money wouldn't of been paid up front AIG can't just cancel it as someone else has invested in to the company.

Its the same as Northen Rock still sponsoring Middlesex CC and NUFC

 

[brasil_spur]

But the laws on advertising gambling could put a spanner in the works...

Nah it's a different ball game, you'd have to be a blind one-legged retarded octupus not to make serious money as a casino, it's the most profitable legal industry in the world.

Man U will of got an agreement for sponsorship over a number of years and although all the money wouldn't of been paid up front AIG can't just cancel it as someone else has invested in to the company.

Its the same as Northen Rock still sponsoring Middlesex CC and NUFC

Yeh but if AIG do a Lehman Bros. (or an XL) and file for bankruptcy then they'll stop making payments to Utd.

 

[Kendall]

They still have to honour their contract or pay United a BIG fee to break it, now that they're effectively the US version of Northen Rock I can't see that.

 

[Kendall]

Nah it's a different ball game, you'd have to be a blind one-legged retarded octupus not to make serious money as a casino, it's the most profitable legal industry in the world.



Yeh but if AIG do a Lehman Bros. (or an XL) and file for bankruptcy then they'll stop making payments to Utd.

But they won't bcause they're backed by the US government.

 

[brasil_spur]

Guys AIG are not the US version of Nothern Rock, the bank of england was more than happy to step in and bail out Nothern Rock, the Federal Reserve are refusing to bail out AIG.

Also AIG are a lot bigger than Nothern Rock.

 

[Kendall]

Another reminder of Levy's shrewd move with our sponsor. The chances of a Casino going bust are very very low.

To be honest, you would've said that about a huge company like AIG 2 years ago when United signed up with them.

The credit crunch can and will effect people's spare money to throw away on gambling, so it could have a knock on effect to mansion.com.

 

[brasil_spur]

yeh correction there guys, my bad, i didn't read the news this morning that the fed reserve stepped in to bail them out.

 

[Kendall]

Guys AIG are not the US version of Nothern Rock, the bank of england was more than happy to step in and bail out Nothern Rock, the Federal Reserve are refusing to bail out AIG.

Also AIG are a lot bigger than Nothern Rock.

The US Federal Reserve has announced an $85bn (£48bn) rescue package for AIG, the country's biggest insurance company, to save it from bankruptcy.

AIG will get an $85bn loan, in return for an 80% public stake in the firm

 

[Kendall]

yeh correction there guys, my bad, i didn't read the news this morning that the fed reserve stepped in to bail them out.

:up:

 

[brasil_spur]

To be honest, you would've said that about a huge company like AIG 2 years ago when United signed up with them.

The credit crunch can and will effect people's spare money to throw away on gambling, so it could have a knock on effect to mansion.com.

People get desperate for cash and then tend to gamble more, not less, in fact people that gamble regularly aren't generally known for their solid judgement in financial management.

Yes they may take a hit on their profits, but not to the extend that a company like AIG can. Plus if you think that online gambling is not at all rigged than you really should do some reading up. All they need to do to keep profits up is change the odds slightly on games like poker and blackjack without people knowing - it's a very easy thing to do and happens all the time anyway.