Monday, September 15, 2008

Goldman Loan or: Oh Canada? Manulife, Sun Life and Great-West possible buyers for AIG and Lehman assets (AIG; GS; GWO.TO; MFC; SLF)

From Bloomberg:

Goldman, JPMorgan Try to Arrange $75 Billion Financing for AIG
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are trying to arrange financing for American International Group Inc., the biggest U.S. insurer by assets, to plug a $70 billion to $75 billion financing gap, according to people familiar with the situation.

The Federal Reserve urged AIG to seek private capital and discouraged the insurer from expecting a loan from the central bank, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions...MORE

But they have their own problems. Earlier today Nouriel Roubini said* GS had an "unsustainable business model". Also from Bloomberg:

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Bonds Drop as Bank Default Risk Surges

From the Financial Post:
Manulife, Sun Life and Great-West possible buyers for AIG and Lehman assets

The recent woes of U.S. financial firms may be an opportunity for Canada’s biggest players and a new report suggests Manulife Financial Corp., Sun Life Financial Inc. and Great-West Lifeco Inc. may be smelling blood and itching to make an acquisition.

Manulife is in a strong position to acquire American International Group Inc.’s U.S. variably annuity business, if it choses to sell, RBC Capital Markets analyst Andre-Philippe Hardy told clients. He noted that AIG was the largest writer of U.S. variable annuities in 2007 at 11.8% of the market, with Manulife second at 8.6%. Sun Life had an estimated 1.9% and Great-West had 1.1%.

“Manulife is in a strong position to acquire these assets, in our view, given its existing expertise and scale in the market, and would likely be interested,” Mr. Hardy said in a research note....MORE

*From ClusterStock:
Roubini: Goldman , Morgan Toast, Too: Need To Find Buyers Immediately

The man who predicted this whole mess, Nouriel Roubini, reiterated his prediction this morning that all the major independent broker-dealers would disappear. Two have now gone, which leaves two more: Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS)....GO FOR THE VIDEO