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Brilliant!

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  • Brilliant!

    This is how we do it:
    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=a6bQVsZS2_18

    Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which got $10 billion and debt guarantees from the U.S. government in October, expects to pay $14 million in taxes worldwide for 2008 compared with $6 billion in 2007.

    The company’s effective income tax rate dropped to 1 percent from 34.1 percent, New York-based Goldman Sachs said today in a statement. The firm reported a $2.3 billion profit for the year after paying $10.9 billion in employee compensation and benefits.
    And this is how the Swiss are doing it:

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...E&refer=europe

    Credit Suisse to Use Illiquid Assets to Pay Bonuses (Update1)




    By Christine Harper
    Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG’s investment bank has found a new way to reduce the risk of losses from about $5 billion of its most illiquid loans and bonds: using them to pay employees’ year-end bonuses.
    The bank will use leveraged loans and commercial mortgage- backed debt, some of the securities blamed for generating the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, to fund executive compensation packages, people familiar with the matter said. The new policy applies only to managing directors and directors, the two most senior ranks at the Zurich-based company, according to a memo sent to employees today.
    “While the solution we have come up with may not be ideal for everyone, we believe it strikes the appropriate balance among the interests of our employees, shareholders and regulators and helps position us well for 2009,” Chief Executive Officer Brady Dougan and Paul Calello, CEO of the investment bank, said in the memo.
    The securities will be placed into a so-called Partner Asset Facility, and affected employees at the bank, Switzerland’s second biggest, will be given stakes in the facility as part of their pay. Bonuses will take the first hit should the securities decline further in value.
    “It’s monstrously clever,” said Dirk Hoffman-Becking, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. in London who has a “market perform” rating on Credit Suisse stock. “From a shareholders’ perspective it’s great because you’ve got rid of some of the assets and regulators will be pleased because you’ve organized a risk transfer.”
    ‘Better Than Nothing’
    For employees, “there’s some upside in there and if the alternative is nothing, it’s a lot better than nothing,” Hoffman-Becking said.
    Credit Suisse said earlier this month it would eliminate 5,300 jobs and cancel bonuses for top executives after it had about 3 billion Swiss francs ($2.8 billion) of losses in October and November. Unlike larger Swiss rival UBS AG, Credit Suisse hasn’t received a government rescue.
    Brilliant! Simply brilliant!!!!

  • #2
    Re: Brilliant!

    Originally posted by $#* View Post
    Brilliant! Simply brilliant!!!!
    Agree. And here's the predictable reaction...
    WSJ; December 18, 2008, 7:02 pm
    Some Credit Suisse Bankers Livid Over New Bonus Plan

    Posted by Heidi N. Moore

    Some Credit Suisse Group bankers were left reeling after the bank said it would pay a substantial percentage of their 2008 compensation with an illiquid group of junk bonds, mortgage-backed securities and corporate loans.

    The move Thursday represents a radical revamp for the Swiss bank, which posted as much as $4.6 billion in losses so far this year, a number that could increase when it announces full-year earnings. For years bankers had received about half their compensation in cash, and the rest in stock.

    This year, up to 80% of the stock portion will come via what Credit Suisse is formally calling a “Partner Asset Facility,” of the illiquid assets, largely corporate loans.

    Bankers won’t receive a return on the PAF program for eight years, although they can start to collect some of the principal in 2013. If the firm finds outside buyers for the assets, it will pay the proceeds to itself first, then provide the rest to employees...

    ...The announcement elicited livid reactions from senior bankers, many of whom questioned whether it was legal. Many said they believed they were being unfairly punished for risky assets bought by colleagues in distant parts of the firm. And while the securities may prove lucrative over time, many bankers are already stretched for cash.

    “I did not lose one penny for this firm this year,” complained one senior banker who advises on mergers and acquisitions. “I guess I had a hard time vacillating between which was more offensive: that cash is no longer cash or that equity is no longer equity.”...

    That last comment reminds me of Enron. During its death throes every executive head of every division in the company took great pains to broadcast through the media how profitable their unit was.

    All of us watching from close up marvelled at how every unit in the company could be wildly profitable while the company as a whole went bankrupt...:rolleyes:

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    • #3
      Re: Brilliant!

      Very impressed :-)

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