One is learning more than one ever knew before about who owns what & how some of the deals were structured
Russian oligarchs are having to give up some of their share holdings which had been pledged as collateral for loans. So one has had to hand over his holding of shares in a Canadian car parts company. He also owns Leyland Daf, which is closer to home & so more worrying. His stake in a nickel company, owned by his aluminium company, has fallen sharply, but maybe he can make up for that with a bargain basement deal on Icelands smelters
Sir Tom Hunter wisely got rid of his Booker shares earlier this year. Baugur, another Icelandic company, was less fortunate & is now looking for a distressed sale
The chairman of the Swatch company has lost more than 3 billion Swiss francs
Lehman’s bonds fetched only 8.625 cents on the dollar at auction. This leaves perhaps 350 organisations holding about $365 billion of credit default swaps, among them AIG, the sponsors of Manchester United shirts
Our cancer hospital, Christies, has nearly £7 million, mostly raised by charity, and our local council has £2 million, locked up in an Icelandic bank
If I had invested £100 in the FTSE 100 index 10 years ago, it would be worth about £80 now
