Swiss Re Gets $2.6 Billion From Berkshire Hathaway

Swiss Re, based in Zurich, said it would receive 3 billion Swiss francs, or about $2.6 billion, from Berkshire Hathaway, Mr. Buffett’s holding company, and would consider raising another 2 billion francs in equity if the market would bear it. The company also reported a 2008 net loss of about 1 billion francs.
Mr. Buffett has moved opportunistically since the onset of the financial crisis, wrapping up deals to invest $5 billion in Goldman Sachs and $3 billion in General Electric, receiving lucrative terms in both cases.
In a statement on Thursday, Mr. Buffett said he was “delighted” with the Swiss Re deal, and was “very impressed” by the company chief executive, Jacques Aigrain, and his management team.
Berkshire already has significant business ties with Swiss Re. In January 2008, it entered a quota share arrangement with Swiss Re through which it acquired 20 percent of its new and renewed property and casualty business in exchange and acquired 3 percent of its shares at the same time.

Berkshire “is a very strong source of capital and liquidity and there are not many of those around right now,” said Mark Nicholson, an analyst at Standard & Poor’s Equity Research in London.
Swiss Re’s capital was depleted by losses of 6 billion francs on its financial market operations, including mark-to-market losses of 2 billion francs for its holdings of structured credit-default swaps. The Swiss company made its announcement as Deutsche Bank, the largest German bank, posted a fourth-quarter loss of 4.8 billion euros, or $6.2 billion, compared with a profit of 1 billion euros a year earlier. It also reported a loss of 3.9 billion euros for 2008. The results were in line with forecasts made by the bank in January.
“Looking forward, we see continuing very difficult conditions for the global economy,” Josef Ackermann, the Deutsche Bank chairman, said in a statement. Later, though, he said in Frankfurt that he was hopeful about 2009. “With all the appropriate caution, this gives us confidence for 2009,” Bloomberg News quoted Mr. Ackermann as saying. “We are certain Deutsche Bank will emerge from this crisis stronger.”

Banco Santander, the largest Spanish lender, said 2008 had been a complex year and warned that 2009 would be challenging. It said its nonperforming loans more than doubled in 2008, to 14.2 billion euros from 6.2 billion euros a year earlier, suggesting more pain was ahead.
Last week, Santander said 2008 net profit fell 2 percent from a year earlier, to 8.9 billion euros. The bank was required by regulators to report its 2008 results ahead of schedule because of concern about the extent to which it would be hurt by its clients’ exposure to funds run by Bernard L. Madoff, the financier who investigators say has acknowledged running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Santander has offered compensation of 1.38 billion euros in shares to those clients.



[SigmaForex Bonus Revolution]

Have you ever imagined that even the hardest times can lay your interest?
You may now wonder and asking yourself how it can be done while we live the toughest time in our economic world. All imagine that we have reached the top of the crisis and will remain there for a cloudy time, which has been specified predictably by the economic experts.

But what if you have the key for passing by all that?
Actually the key solution is within your hands! But what happened is that you have got blinded with the shock of unexpected financial crisis that extends its arms to hold the entire economic world for a not specified time. All what you need is some confidence and a helping hand guiding you to a real bright path.

Almost all successful people have learned how to make their own interest even from their own loss! Just some confidence and resistance, and above all the choice of the right hit at the right time. It is a common goal for money makers to have a continuous ability of preserving their financial status. So, stop thinking of the goal only and start thinking of the way you are going to do it, and ask yourself how can I still make the amount of money I was doing before even in the worst time in economic history?

One of the most necessary steps in your thinking and performance is not to take a long time in thinking and planning to be able to catch the chances available in the market, especially at this time. This doesn't mean to be rash, but to be selective and have the deepest insight.

In reversing the situation for the sake of your own interest, SigmaForex has strived to think and produce the best solution for money makers in FOREX through it's three types of accounts.
The motto of SigmaForex is "Not only physical power that can make you win, it is the power of mind that helps you the most to make the best living in all its sides".
The second step you need to go through after thinking is to apply the principle of "use the useless for your usefulness", by catching the best chances available. And here in speaking about the chances, Sigma Forex offers three unique business accounts with three bonus budgets existed nowhere else and we called it"The Bonus Revolution"

Enter Now The Bonus Revolution