Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: Zurich Financial signs agreement with Santander in Latin America

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Switzerland-based insurer Zurich Financial Services Group has signed definitive agreements with Banco Santander to buy a majority interest in the bank’s Latin America insurance operations.

The insurer says the agreement is materially unchanged from what was announced on 22 February of this year.

Earlier, Zurich signed a 25-year strategic distribution agreement with Banco Santander where it would acquire 51% of the bank’s insurance business in Latin America and Santander would keep the remaining 49%.

Zurich will pay $1.67bn for its 51% participation in the insurance operations including the respective distribution agreements.

The alliance with Santander provides Zurich with access to over 5,600 bank branches and an additional 36 million customers in the region.

The two parties expect to close the transaction before the end of this year, subject to the receipt of regulatory approvals.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: Apple, Nokia show continued interest in InterDigital patents

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Following Google’s purchase of Motorola, a new report claims that Apple is still interested in acquiring InterDigital, as are Nokia, Qualcomm and others in the wireless industry.

Citing sources familiar with the situation, Reuters reported Wednesday that “several companies” are “pondering bids” for wireless telecom specialist InterDigital Inc. The forthcoming auction of the company will be postponed from next week until sometime after Labor Day.

More time is necessary because potential bidders have reportedly asked for more times to analyze the company’s patents. Companies in the wireless industry are interested in securing those inventions as patent infringement lawsuits involving all of the major industry players continue to mount.

Sources also reportedly said it’s unknown whether Google will remain in pursuit of the InterDigital patents. The search giant was previously named as a potential bidder, but the announcement that it will buy Motorola for $12.5 billion may have changed those plans.

Apple was first named as a likely bidder on InterDigital in July. The company has 1,300 patents related to wireless device technologies that would be of prime interest to any smartphone maker.

The industry-wide desire for patents was predicted to drive up the price of InterDigital by as much as 50 percent. But shares of the company dropped on Monday following the news that Google will buy Motorola, as investors are now less certain that Google will make a play for the InterDigital portfolio.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines:Obama sees China as a partner in Mars mission

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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama views China as a potential partner for an eventual human mission to Mars that would be difficult for any single nation to undertake, a senior White House official told lawmakers.Testifying May 4 before the House Appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice and science, White House science adviser John Holdren said near-term engagement with China in civil space will help lay the groundwork for any such future endeavor. He prefaced his remarks with the assertion that human exploration of Mars is a long-term proposition and that any discussion of cooperating with Beijing on such an effort is speculative.

“(What) the president has deemed worth discussing with the Chinese and others is that when the time comes for humans to visit Mars, it’s going to be an extremely expensive proposition and the question is whether it will really make sense — at the time that we’re ready to do that — to do it as one nation rather than to do it in concert,” Holdren said in response to a question from Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., a staunch China critic who chairs the powerful subcommittee that oversees NASA spending.

Holdren, who said NASA could also benefit from cooperating with China on detection and tracking of orbital debris, stressed that any U.S. collaboration with Beijing in manned spaceflight would depend on future Sino-U.S. relations.

“But many of us, including the president, including myself, including (NASA Administrator Charles) Bolden, believe that it’s not too soon to have preliminary conversations about what involving China in that sort of cooperation might entail,” Holdren said. “If China is going to be, by 2030, the biggest economy in the world … it could certainly be to our benefit to share the costs of such an expensive venture with them and with others.”

Wolf, who characterizes China’s government as “fundamentally evil,” said it is outrageous that the Obama administration would have close ties with Beijing’s space program, which is believed to be run primarily by the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA.

“When you say you want to work in concert, it’s almost like you’re talking about Norway or England or something like that,” an irate Wolf told Holdren, repeatedly pounding a hand against the table top in front of him. “As long as I have breath in me, we will talk about this, we will deal with this issue, whether it be a Republican administration or a Democrat administration, it is fundamentally immoral.”

Holdren said he admired Wolf’s leadership in calling attention to China’s human-rights record, but noted that even when then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan referred to the former Soviet Union as “the evil empire” in the late 1980s, he continued to cooperate with the communist bloc in science and technology if doing so was deemed in the U.S. national interest.

“The efforts we are undertaking to do things together with China in science and technology are very carefully crafted to be efforts that are in our own national interest,” Holdren said. “That does not mean that we admire the Chinese government; that does not mean we are blind to the human rights abuses.”

Holdren said that as White House science adviser, his capacity to influence the president’s diplomatic approach to Beijing is limited.

“I am not the person who’s going to be whispering in the president’s ear on what our stance toward China should be, government to government, except in the domain where I have the responsibility for helping the president judge whether particular activities in science and technology are in our national interest or not,” Holdren said.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: LulzSec is back, hacks Rupert Murdoch’s Sun tabloid

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LulzSec is back and this time they have gone after Rupert Murdoch’s embattled News Corp., hacking the website of to its British tabloid, the Sun.

The group, along with the self-proclaimed “hacktivists” Anonymous, first defaced the Sun’s website, placing a fake story about the death of Murdoch and other made-up reports, on top of the website’s actual content.

“WE HAVE JOY WE HAVE FUN, WE HAVE MESSED UP MURDOCH’S SUN,” LulzSec tweeted.

Members of the two groups then began tweeting the login information of former employees of News Corp., including that of Rebekah Brooks, who recently resigned her post as chief executive of News International, the British division of News. Corp. Others whose information was tweeted included Pete Picton, a former editor at News Corp. publications, and Bill Akass, a former editor at the now defunct News of the World, also owned by News Corp.

LulzSec and company then proceeded to have The Sun and News International’s websites redirect to its Twitter feed.

The hacking attack on News Corp. comes a day before Murdoch is set to appear before the British Parliament to be questioned about phone hackings conducted by employees of his News of the World tabloid. The scandal has resulted in the resignations of many high-ranking officials in Murdoch’s company and British law enforcement. The weekly News of the World itself was shut down.

The return of LulzSec, however, was unexpected as the group announced its retirement three weeks ago, after 50 days of hacking. Before retiring, the group banded with Anonymous to commence Operation Anti-Security, calling on hackers around the world to go after governments and large organizations to expose classified information.

“Not so fun to get hacked Mr. Murdoch, is it? u MAD?,” retweeted an account that was tweeting some of the login information.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: Taliban Releases Disturbing Video Showing Horrific Group Execution

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The notorious Taliban terror group has released a video Monday showing them brutally executing 16 Pakistani men who were captured in a raid last month.

The Taliban has claimed that the men were responsible for the deaths of six children in the Pakistan area.

The disturbing video shows the 16 men standing in a line with their hands tied behind their backs while four rebels stand in front them holding assault rifles with scarves hiding their identities.

As the 16 men stand timidly, one insurgent gives a speech before the shooting begins.

The speech which was given in a Pakistani dialect was translated by The Long War Journal, a website that specializes in reports on militancy.

The insurgent states, “These are the enemies of Islamwho originated from Pakistan…They are the Pakistani police, soldiers, and their supporters who recently lined up six kids in Swat and shot them execution-style… These Pakistanis are now our captives, and we will avenge the death of the children by doing the same to them.”

Hypo Venture Capital Headlines: Sony insurer sues to deny data breach coverage

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One of Sony Corp’s insurers has asked a court to declare that it does not have to pay to defend the media and electronics conglomerate from mounting legal claims related to a massive data breach earlier this year.

The dispute comes as demand soars for “cyberinsurance,” with companies seeking to protect themselves against customer claims and associated costs for data and identity theft.

How to write such policies has become a huge subject of debate in the insurance industry.

Zurich American Insurance Co asked a New York state court in documents filed late on Wednesday to rule it does not have to defend or indemnify Sony against any claims “asserted in the class-action lawsuits, miscellaneous claims, or potential future actions instituted by any state attorney general.”

A Sony spokesman in Tokyo said his company does not comment on pending litigation.

Zurich American, a unit of Zurich Financial Services, also sued units of Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, AIG and ACE Ltd, asking the court to clarify their responsibilities under various insurance policies they had written for Sony.

“Zurich doesn’t think there’s coverage, but to the extent there may be a duty to defend it wants to make sure all of the insurers with a potential duty to defend are contributing,” said Richard Bortnick, an attorney at Cozen O’Connor and publisher of the digital law blog CyberInquirer.

Hypo Venture Capital Headlines: Bayern Munich 2-0 Zurich: Schweinsteiger & Robben strikes down Swiss

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Bongarts

Bayern Munich gained a decisive upper hand in their quest for Champions League qualification as they earned a 2-0 win over Zurich in the first leg of their play-off tie.

Bastian Schweinsteiger nodded the Germans in front on eight minutes, and although the visitors did well to avoid having the match slip away, Arjen Robben’s curling effort on 72 minutes put the Bundesliga side well in control of the tie.

The visitors were first to attack and Amine Chermiti had a warning shot sail over the bar early on. However, Bayern showed more bite, and Schweinsteiger struck shortly thereafter. Arjen Robben whipped in a dangerous cross from the left, and after a slight deflection from Mathieu Beda, the Germany international nodded into the lower-right corner of the net.

Philipp Lahm should have made it 2-0 in the 12th minute, but Johnny Leoni made an excellent save after the full-back had surged into the left side of the penalty box. The defender turned provider not long after as he set up Mario Gomez, but the off-form striker hesitated and the chance went begging before he even had the opportunity to shoot.

Gomez again failed to take advantage on the hour mark; through on goal he was stopped in his tracks as he struggled to slip the ball onto his favoured right foot.

Possession was rare for Zurich, and even more scarce were opportunities on goal. Chermiti headed a free kick straight into Manuel Neuer’s arms, but was nonetheless called offside, and Ricardo Rodriguez had a long-ranged blast miss a couple yards wide.

Not satisfied with the result of the first 45 minutes, Bayern came out firing in the second half. Following some good lead-up play from Franck Ribery, Gomez missed an absolute sitter from the edge of the six-yard box on 51 minutes. Moments later, the France player’s drive was parried, but Leoni recovered to deny Lahm’s follow-up.

Ribery was unlucky not to make it 2-0 on the hour mark as his free kick hit the right post, but Robben eventually got the vital second goal as he struck a trademark left-footed effort into the upper-left corner.

Zurich tired late in the game as the hosts pressed mercilessly for a third. Gomez looked to finally have his goal, but Dusan Djuric cleared his effort off the line after the striker had rounded Leoni.

The visitors managed to keep the score down to two, but things nonetheless went from bad to worse late in the game. Defender Mathieu Beda received his marching orders for a second yellow card, meaning that he will miss the second leg of the tie.

Bayern will be pleased to have kept a clean sheet for the third time in four competitive matches this year, and to bring a two goal advantage into the return fixture. However, Zurich are not to be under-estimated and can head into the second leg with hope – albeit slim – of reversing the tie.

Hypo Venture Capital Headlines: Bayern Munich 2-0 Zurich: Schweinsteiger & Robben strikes down Swiss

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Bayern Munich gained a decisive upper hand in their quest for Champions League qualification as they earned a 2-0 win over Zurich in the first leg of their play-off tie.

Bastian Schweinsteiger nodded the Germans in front on eight minutes, and although the visitors did well to avoid having the match slip away, Arjen Robben’s curling effort on 72 minutes put the Bundesliga side well in control of the tie.

The visitors were first to attack and Amine Chermiti had a warning shot sail over the bar early on. However, Bayern showed more bite, and Schweinsteiger struck shortly thereafter. Arjen Robben whipped in a dangerous cross from the left, and after a slight deflection from Mathieu Beda, the Germany international nodded into the lower-right corner of the net.

Philipp Lahm should have made it 2-0 in the 12th minute, but Johnny Leoni made an excellent save after the full-back had surged into the left side of the penalty box. The defender turned provider not long after as he set up Mario Gomez, but the off-form striker hesitated and the chance went begging before he even had the opportunity to shoot.

Gomez again failed to take advantage on the hour mark; through on goal he was stopped in his tracks as he struggled to slip the ball onto his favoured right foot.

Possession was rare for Zurich, and even more scarce were opportunities on goal. Chermiti headed a free kick straight into Manuel Neuer’s arms, but was nonetheless called offside, and Ricardo Rodriguez had a long-ranged blast miss a couple yards wide.

Not satisfied with the result of the first 45 minutes, Bayern came out firing in the second half. Following some good lead-up play from Franck Ribery, Gomez missed an absolute sitter from the edge of the six-yard box on 51 minutes. Moments later, the France player’s drive was parried, but Leoni recovered to deny Lahm’s follow-up.

Ribery was unlucky not to make it 2-0 on the hour mark as his free kick hit the right post, but Robben eventually got the vital second goal as he struck a trademark left-footed effort into the upper-left corner.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: North Korea Diplomat to Visit US for Nuclear Talks

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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday that Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s first vice minister and former chief nuclear envoy, will visit New York this week to meet with senior U.S. officials.  Clinton said Kim will meet with an interagency team of U.S. officials for discussions on the next steps necessary to resume

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: Walmart exec says Chicago suits chain’s growth plans

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Thomas A. Mars, Executive Vice President and Chief Adminnistrative Officer of Walmart U.S. speaking at the Metropolitan Planning Council’s annual luncheon today, June 27, 2011. | Photo by Karen Kring

Updated: June 27, 2011 4:57PM

A top executive of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. told local business leaders Monday that returns from the company’s small-format stores have recently become as profitable as those of its well-known supercenters.

The changing business model means that Chicago is the best venue for Walmart’s growth, said Thomas A. Mars, executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Walmart U.S., during the Metropolitan Planning Council’s annual luncheon at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

The climate also gives Walmart the incentive to launch in Chicago its nationwide minority supplier program, Mars said. The program aims to increase the diversity of the retailer’s suppliers, primarily in food, general merchandise and professional services. No launch date was immediately available.

Mars didn’t say it aloud, but observers said after his presentation that Walmart undoubtedly perceives Chicago as a more hospitable political climate, too, despite continued protests by labor unions and some residents and politicians about its worker policies.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: The Belgians Are Screwing Google

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A group of Belgian newspapers sued Google for including them its Google News search results, and now they are saying that Google is boycotting them, by not including them. Google can’t win.

Google is going to be screwed one way or the other if the Belgians have their way. In 2006, Google was sued by a group of Belgian newspapers for including them in its Google News listings. The papers said there was a clear copyright violation. According to the Belgians, copying a selection of a few words for a search result was an onerous violation of copyrights. The newspapers won in a European court, and so Google pulled the papers from all search results. Now the papers are crying bloody murder. They claim Google is boycotting them. What? Are they psychotic? Apparently, showing up on the search results page with the exact same information as you would see on the Google News page is okay by them. Google sees Google News search and Google Web search as functionally the same thing, so it is filtering the Belgians out of everything. This has created a bad scenario for Google. I’ll explain why this is true after I explain why Google is doing the exact right thing. First of all, the results on the Google News page are just a re-organization of the Google search page. If it wanted to, Google could do a half-dozen specialty sites like this that are based on search engine filtering. These Belgian newspapers said the snippet that appears with the headline of an article in the news section was a violation of their copyrights, but they are okay with it in another place? I don’t think so. What really happened is these idiots in Belgium have realized that this wasn’t such a good idea, and now they are whining to get back into the mix. They should be begging. The problem for Google is that this will be spun to make it look as if Google is the bad guy that’s ruining a company by altering the search engine results because of an a vendetta. It’s crucial for Google to avoid this sort of image lest the users get upset. Nobody wants to see Google become the TSA of the Internet.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Management: News Corp. Swaps Diverge as S&P Considers Cut: Corporate Finance

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Credit-default swaps on News Corp. (NWS) are the highest on record relative to its media peers as Standard & Poor’s says it may cut the publisher’s bond rating because of risks associated with the phone-hacking scandal.

The cost of protecting debt of the owner of the Fox TV networks and the Wall Street Journal from default soared 58 basis points this month to 142 basis points as of yesterday, compared with an increase of 10 basis points for the average contract on Rupert Murdoch’s company and its four biggest competitors. Relative yields on News Corp.’s bonds have risen 31 basis points, while those of similar companies widened one basis point, Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data show.

S&P said in a statement it may lower New York-based News Corp. (NWSA)’s BBB+ corporate credit rating after “broadening legal inquires” into the phone-hacking scandal centering on the defunct News of the World newspaper “increased business and reputation risks” for the media company. The review came just five days after the ratings company said the outlook was stable.

“The court of public opinion can be fairly merciless, and that’s the bigger headwind now,” Tom Farina, managing director at Deutsche Insurance Asset Management in New York, which oversees $200 billion, said in a telephone interview. While News Corp. may not see “direct financial ramifications,” the reputational damage is the larger risk, Farina said.

Most on Record

Credit-default swaps on its News America Inc. unit are the highest on record, compared with the average contract on the debt of competitors. Swaps on News Corp., Walt Disney Co. (DIS), Time Warner Inc.,Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), and Viacom Inc. (VIA/B) climbed to 79 basis points from as low as 54 basis points in December, according to CMA, which is owned by CME Group Inc. and compiles prices quoted by dealers in the privately negotiated market.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Management: Gold price climbs to new record on debt uncertainty

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19 July 2011 Last updated at 15:03 GMT

The price of gold has hit a new record price of $1,610 an ounce as debt worries in the US and Europe have intensified.

It climbed above $1,600 for the first time on Monday, capping a record-breaking rally of 11 days of gains.

Gold is considered a safe investment and usually gains at times of global economic uncertainty.

But Spanish and Italian bond yields eased and banking shares rose, reversing large falls seen on Monday.

Government borrowing costs are continuing to rise, though. A Spanish bond auction was oversubscribed, but the government was forced to offer sharply higher returns to sell 4.45bn euros (£3.9bn) of bonds.

On the 12-month bonds, the average rate soared to 3.7% from 2.7% at the last such auction on 14 June. For 18-month bonds, the yield was up to 3.9% from 3.3% last time.

Gold prices have been rising because of continued concerns over Europe’s debt crisis

Bank rises

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sday. The rate on Italian 10-year bonds fell to 5.7% having topped 6% on Monday, while the rate on the Spanish equivalent fell 0.15 percentage points to 6.12%.

On Monday, yields had risen in a sign that financial markets were sceptical that governments would be able to bring an end to the debt crisis.

European banking shares also rose on Tuesday, buoyed by the bond market and helped by a better performance from US bank shares late on Monday.

Shares in Lloyds Banking Group rose 4.1% in London, while French banks Societe Generale, Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas also rose by between 3.5% and 4.5%.

‘More advances’The record breaking gold price comes ahead of Thursday’s summit of eurozone leaders in Brussels where they will once again try to contain the growing debt crisis.

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Gold price reaches new high on eurozone debt fears

Investors are concerned that Greece may default on its debt, and countries such as Italy and Spain, who are also struggling with high debt levels, will get pulled into the crisis.

“Gold hit another milestone… at $1,600 as investors lose confidence in the ability of politicians to get a grip with the debt problems weighing down on sentiment,” said Michael Hewson from CMC Markets, a trading group.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: Swiss banks believed to house Greek taxes

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Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou believes many of the billions that have been withheld from the Greek taxman are lying in Switzerland. This, however, is largely the fault of Athens, according to Swiss-Greek economist Spyridon Arvanitis.   Ultimately, the only people who know how much untaxed Greek money is in Switzerland are the banks. “I’ve heard every amount possible – even up to the sum of the Greek debt,” Arvanitis, from the Swiss Economic Institute (KOF) at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), told swissinfo.ch. “There are rich Greeks, but talk of €200 billion (SFr230 billion) is getting carried away.” At any rate, Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos has told his Swiss counterpart Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf that Greece now wants to act and agree a withholding tax with Switzerland, similar to the one currently being negotiated with Germany and Britain. Arvanitis believes an exchange of information wouldn’t cause problems for Switzerland “as long as it’s not a fishing expedition but a concrete list of ten, 15 names of people suspected of keeping untaxed money here”. Fishing involves investigators trawling through masses of data in the hope of netting someone who might be committing a crime. He says Switzerland shouldn’t offer any more than it has already done to other European countries. “That would be enough to establish a bit of order. Concrete cases of tax fraud or evasion could also be submitted. And in cases where a firm suspicion exists, it’s already possible to make a request for legal assistance,” he said.

Good sign

Arvanitis said he wasn’t surprised by Papandreou’s comments in the Financial Times Deutschland on Wednesday that 14,000 people in Greece together owed the state around €36 billion in taxes. “That’s always been known in the EU. It’s also been known that nothing’s been done about it. Nevertheless I see Papandreou’s comments as a good sign for Greece – if the prime minister addresses this problem in an interview, in front of the world, obviously he can’t now turn away from it.” He added that owing to the meshing of politics and the economy it was understandable why until now there hadn’t been any talk of the large tax evaders. “But the €36 billion has been known about for at least 18 months and as yet no one’s tried to round it up,” he said. “Without political protection and corruption it wouldn’t be possible for individuals to owe millions in taxes. The €36 billion is owed on income that has been declared. And the real figure is thought to be 25 per cent more. One can only speculate on what else has been hidden away.”

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: North Korea Diplomat to Visit US for Nuclear Talks

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Posted in Business, Financial, Investment | August 6th, 2011

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday that Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s first vice minister and former chief nuclear envoy, will visit New York this week to meet with senior U.S. officials.  Clinton said Kim will meet with an interagency team of U.S. officials for discussions on the next steps necessary to resume denuclearization negotiations through the six party talks, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia. The secretary said that although Washington is open to talks with North Korea, there is no appetite for lengthy negotiations that would only lead to the starting point again. Clinton also said that Washington would not give the North anything new for actions they have already agreed to take. She added that the U.S. position remains that North Korea must comply with its commitments under the 2005 Joint Statement of the Six Party Talks, relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions, and the terms of the Armistice Agreement.

Hypo Venture Capital Headlines: Zurich Life reports strong competition

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Zurich Life Assurance’s Irish new business fell by 11% to €83.8m for the first six months of 2011.

Zurich Life Assurance’s Irish new business fell by 11% to €83.8m for the first six months of 2011 compared with a 3% rise in the overall market.

Life new business annual premium equivalent (APE) was down marginally at €19.8m – this includes new business from protection, regular premium savings and single premium investments.

Zurich said that its pensions new business APE was down 14% to €64m. However it also reported a strong performance in single premium lift business.

Zurich Life Assurance Ireland CEO Anthony Brennan said the company is competing in a tough market in Ireland. ‘A number of competitors attached to banks are being prepared for sale and this is driving aggressive pricing for new business,’ he stated.

He said that the life market in undergoing significant challenges with regular premium sales slowing across the market, and especially in pensions.

Hypo Venture Capital Headlines: Zurich Life reports strong competition

http://hypoventurecapital-financialideas.com/

Zurich Life Assurance’s Irish new business fell by 11% to €83.8m for the first six months of 2011.

Zurich Life Assurance’s Irish new business fell by 11% to €83.8m for the first six months of 2011 compared with a 3% rise in the overall market.

Life new business annual premium equivalent (APE) was down marginally at €19.8m – this includes new business from protection, regular premium savings and single premium investments.

Zurich said that its pensions new business APE was down 14% to €64m. However it also reported a strong performance in single premium lift business.

Zurich Life Assurance Ireland CEO Anthony Brennan said the company is competing in a tough market in Ireland. ‘A number of competitors attached to banks are being prepared for sale and this is driving aggressive pricing for new business,’ he stated.

He said that the life market in undergoing significant challenges with regular premium sales slowing across the market, and especially in pensions.

He said this was down to the weakness in the economy, the introduction of the pension levy and the continued speculation about future tax relief.

‘If we are to avoid a future pensions crisis and encourage a pensions savings habit, it will be vital that the government continues to provide an incentive for all workers to save for their retirement’, he warned.