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Texas University Endowment Storing About $1 Billion in Gold Bars

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  • Texas University Endowment Storing About $1 Billion in Gold Bars

    our friend kyle bass managed to talk some sense into the fund.... although it's only 5% of their holdings.

    http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?...d=ak19r.iSm4M8

    "The University of Texas Investment Management Co., the second-largest U.S. academic endowment, took delivery of almost $1 billion in gold bullion and is storing the bars in a New York vault, according to the fund’s board.

    The fund, whose $19.9 billion in assets ranked it behind Harvard University’s endowment as of August, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers, added about $500 million in gold investments to an existing stake last year, said Bruce Zimmerman, the endowment’s chief executive officer. The holdings are worth about $987 million, based on yesterday’s closing price of $1,486 an ounce for Comex futures.

    The decision to turn the fund’s investment into gold bars was influenced by Kyle Bass, a Dallas hedge fund manager and member of the endowment’s board, Zimmerman said at its annual meeting on April 14. Bass made $500 million on the U.S. subprime-mortgage collapse.

    “Central banks are printing more money than they ever have, so what’s the value of money in terms of purchases of goods and services,” Bass said yesterday in a telephone interview. “I look at gold as just another currency that they can’t print any more of.”

    ..."

  • #2
    Re: Texas University Endowment Storing About $1 Billion in Gold Bars

    http://www.zerohedge.com/article/uni...1-billion-prec

    "Over the weekend, University of Texas made headlines after disclosing it was the first major institution to take delivery of $1 billion in gold, although still keeping it in the Comex system. Today, the CEO of the management company Bruce Zimmerman was on Strategy Session providing the rationale for his action to David Faber. First some prehistory: "We began buying gold in September of '09 at about $950 an ounce. Our average price is at about $1,150. We've invested around $750 million in gold over that twelve months and it now has a value around $1 billion." On what Texas thinks of gold (no surprise here): "The role gold plays in our portfolio is as a hedge against currencies. The concern is that we have excess monetary and fiscal stimulus. I noted a couple of days ago, i think there was a story out about Bernanke mentioning that while they may not increase quantitative easing, they may not necessarily reduce their exposure either. So i think that may be a signal that will continue to have a good deal of monetary stimulus. We read every day what's going on in DC and across the states. We'll see what fiscal policies look like. It remains a concern for us." As to the specific reason for demanding delivery: "We had gotten to a size and our thought was that we probably will have our position for a longer as opposed to shorter term, although we could sell at any time. But rather than continuously roll the futures contracts, it became easier and more economical for us to take possession of the bullion." So how long before many if not all other public fund managers decide the same logic should apply to them as well?

    As to the question of where UofT is keeping their gold: "in an undisclosed location, underground in New York." Somewhere just off Bryant Park perhaps."

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    • #3
      Re: Texas University Endowment Storing About $1 Billion in Gold Bars

      I remember an episode of Mission Impossible in which the crew stole gold from a dictator's vault to destabilize him. They drilled holes in the bottom of the vault and inserted heating rods in the vault. They turned the vault into a giant oven, melted the gold and poured it into molds as it drained out of the vault.

      Here's a disclosed location a little more downtown.

      http://www.newyorkfed.org/education/.../goldvault.pdf

      A homage to gold written by the New York Federal Reserve Bank with the following quote to preface it.

      ”There can be no other criterion, no other standard than gold. Yes, gold which never changes, which can be shaped into ingots, bars, coins, which has no nationality and which is eternally and universally accepted as the unalterable fiduciary value par excellence.”
      - Charles De Gaulle


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      • #4
        Re: Texas University Endowment Storing About $1 Billion in Gold Bars

        This is very funny to me.

        I play hockey with a guy who works for the UT endowment fund (he does something related to working with/hiring the hedge funds that run the money - not a very senior guy from what I can tell but he travels a lot around the world on business). I remember no more than 2 -3 years ago arguing with him one night after a game over beers about gold. He thought it was a stupid investment back then. Better late to the party than never I guess.

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        • #5
          Re: Texas University Endowment Storing About $1 Billion in Gold Bars

          Is this the opening salvo in gold's next move up?

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