Invensys applies and creates advanced technologies that enable appliances, manufacturing and energy-generating facilities, and transit rail networks to operate in an energy-efficient and safe manner. In all three of the Groups divisions the companies’ products and systems give their customers the ability to make the best decisions at the correct times to optimise their business value and their operations.

The Group’s Chairman, Sir Nigel Rudd, stated he was delighted to welcome David onto the Board as Chief Financial Officer. Following an extensive review of external and internal contenders, David had the most expertise and experience within the role. This was helped through his nine years with Invensys in the positions of CEO and CFO.

Invensys Plc Chief Executive, Wayne Edmunds commented that he was looking forward to working with David. During the past four months he has been able to manage both the group from a commercial and financial point of view and has shown he is well suited to assisting the management of the group.

David Thomas started his career at Invensys in 2002 when he became the Groups Controller. He has previously worked at Ernst & Young as a senior partner, specialising in long-term industrial contracting businesses. During his time at the company, David has worked within many of the Groups divisions and held the role of both CFO and CEO. He also took the role of SVP Business Risk with responsibility for risk management across the business.

The final thing that I noticed cause after that I stopped reading altogether was to be found in the company’s terms and conditions page. The following is copied and pasted here exactly as it is found on their website.

‘IN NO EVENT SHALL NUMIA.BIZ OR ANY FIRM ASSOCIATED WITH NUMIA.BIZ BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS DUE TO WRONG NUMBERS, BAD ADVISE, INTERRUPTED SERVICE OR DOWN TIME OR ANY OTHER REASON ANYONE CAN THINK OF.

NUMIA MAKES NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE AND BRAND FEATURES. THE SERVICE AND BRAND FEATURES ARE DISTRIBUTED AND PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS, AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. NUMIA DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE NUMIA.BIZ SERVICE AND BRAND FEATURES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THAT PERFORMANCE OF THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE INCLUDING ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS. NUMIA.BIZ HAS NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS. BACK UP YOUR DATA FREQUENTLY.

If this software or Service does something bad to your computer or network or provides information that you have no legal right to see, then that’s your problem. In some countries this software might be illegal. Don’t be stupid, and don’t come whining to us if you get into trouble. You’ve been warned. ‘

The last bit of the ‘warning’ must be the addition of a man that got really upset after too many court claims filed up on his desk! But this is certainly not a laughing matter, as we need to be extra careful when selecting service suppliers from the internet. They are not all professionals as you can see… However, I could not resist posting these three paragraphs here as I think they summarise nicely the phrase “too good to be true” and hopefully it will help us all put the word “free” into a safer perspective.

The National Statistical Service of Greece has recently published the unemployment report for June 2009. The report shows a rise in unemployed people from 7.3% in June 2008 to 8.6% in June 2009. The total number of employed remained pretty much unchanged where the non-economically active population of Greece has decreased from 4,314.8 thousands last year to 4,265.6 in June 2009.

The results of other industrial production statistics reports which show how the global credit crisis has impacted Greece and to what extent are summarised in the table below.

                                                                      July 2009 Year on Year Comparison (YoY)

 Industrial Production                  -9.2%

Mining & Quarrying                    -14.3%

Manufacturing                           -9%

Electricity                                  -9.5%

Water Supply                               -0.7%

The Consumer Price index is the main measure of inflation for macroeconomic purposes and should form the basis for the government’s inflation target. The below CPI summary report shows the yearly percentage change in prices of consumer goods and services purchased in Greece.

                                      August 2009 YoY % Change

Food and Drinks                               1.6%

Alcohol and tobacco                        6.3% 

Clothing & Footwear                       2.9%

House & Utilities                              -4.9%

Furnishings                                       1.9%

Health                                                2.8% 

Transport                                           -3.1%

Communications                              0.4% 

Culture & Leisure                             1.2%

Education                                          4.7%

CPI YoY                                              0.8%

This report shows how much prices have changed in the past 12 months and it’s obvious from the summary table below that since the credit crisis begun prices have mainly risen. There are only two categories that have dropped, namely House and Utilities and Transport services, but at least one can argue that the drop in prices for these two particular categories is quite significant. However the rise in Education prices is also substantial as it is the price rise for alcohol and tobacco consumption.

Statistics may not always reveal the full picture. That’s why my advice is always to do your homework and always evaluate each statistical report in comparison to others in order to reach a conclusion about the country’s current economic state.

Having said that I hereby provide you with a summary of the June retail sales report again from the National Statistical Service of Greece in Athens:

Finally, it would be wrong not to mention the state of the Greek banks at all so I’ll briefly mention the following: yes, it is true that the Greek banks had had no major exposure to the subprime mortgage market but once again if you only look at this event in isolation you are going to miss the point out.

Greek banks do face higher borrowing requirements to fund the current strong loan growth at a time of rising costs and this is all due to the global credit crunch crisis.

The large Greek banks are indeed well-capitalized compared to the standards set by central banks in other European countries; however please do not forget ever-ever again the first and most important economic lesson (pay attention!): Cash is King! And as a senior banker put it: “Banks are known to fail because of liquidity not capital”

Alpha Bank

Piraeus Bank announced the launch of a new bond issue that totals 500 million Euros. On the 9th of September, the bank published a press release which claims the great success of the new 3 year senior bond issue. The bond was issued under Piraeus Bank’s Euro Medium Term Note programme and it was accepted with great interest by the international markets.

In just a few hours the orderbook was oversubscribed by 1.5 times (730 million Euros). Almost 65% of the total amount was finally allocated to international investors from 20 different countries.

The new 3 year bond is a fixed rate note with a coupon of 4% and shall be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. The transaction was lead-managed by Barclays, Citigroup Natixis and UBS.

Commentary: Yen crosses stabilise following a heavy selling. US equities closed falt and the Nikkei was down by 1.38%. The Aussie, USD and EUR rallied against the Yen as investors took profit on risk trades on short covering. The previous support levels are now considered the key sell levels as the market is selling in to any rallies.

Data due today:

06.00 GMT – German Consumer Price Index exp 0.4% for June

06.00 GMT – German Consumer Price Index YoY exp 0.1% for June

06.00 GMT – German Trade Balance exp Euro 9.0 Billion for May

06.00 GMT – German Current Account exp Euro 3.7 Billion for May

06.00 GMT – German Imports exp 0.8% for May

06.00 GMT – German Exports exp 1.5% for May

08.00 GMT – ECB Monthly Report for July

08.30 GMT – U.K. Visible Trade Balance exp Deficit Gbp 6.75 Billion for May

08.30 GMT – U.K. Total Trade Balance exp Deficit Gbp 2.85 Billion for May

11.00 GMT – BOE Rate Announcement exp No Change at 0.5%

12.15 GMT – Canada Housing Starts exp 130,000 for June

12.30 GMT – U.S. Initial Jobless Claims exp 603,000

14.00 GMT – U.S. Wholesale Inventories exp -1.0% for May

The construction activity fell by 6.9%, three times as much as initially predicted. The UK’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is now estimated to plunge by 4.3% in 2009, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development reported on 24th of June. The GDP decline for the euro area is estimated to be 4.8% which compares with a 2.8% estimated decline in the USA.

To make things a bit worse, unemployment figures are still on the rise as financial services companies are still trying to strengthen their balance sheets by controlling their leverage (debt) and cutting down their expenses. The only pleasant surprise in this week’s economic data releases is the stabilisation of house prices. However, demand is still low and mortgage lending too limited to support the scenario of a full recovery in house purchase activity.

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King confessed last week he feels “more uncertain now than ever”…

Stock prices have risen substantially (some over 80%) over the past 3 months but was this rise justified? Theory says that prices go up when earnings expectations rise. As we are counting almost 2 years into the worst recession of the modern times, I really cannot see how anyone expects earnings to go up. What we do expect and hope is for their (and ours!) debt to go down! And this is what is happening. We have actually funded their debt repayments in a barely disguised stockmarket trap.

How? By being overly optimistic, even though millions of us recently lost their jobs. The strangest thing of all (I need a psychiatrist to explain this, please come forward if you are one!) is that while as taxpayers we still moan about governments using our taxes to bailout the same companies we blaim that bombed the whole economic system up with crap securities…. as investors we have used up any savings left to step our foot in the stockmarket so not to miss out all these eye-popping opportunities (yes, they are not seen or judged as companies anymore; little attention we pay to their balance sheet and other financial statements). So who is to blaim again?

So far so good. Companies are very happy with the results. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, it has been reported that over 165 companies (didn’t specify if they were all American) raised a record $87 billion since the start of the sucker’s rally (beginning of March 2009) in US secondary share sales. What they are doing with all these money is deleveraging, which means repaying as much debt as humanly possible at the earliest possible date. They know that without healthy balance sheets they cannot even start talking about profits!

Another reason, especially true for the banking industry, is that they do not enjoy the loss of control of their business affairs that they have had to agree to in order to get their dirty hands in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds. Who would?! Repaying similar debt would mean that they can go back to the way they are used to doing business.. more or less (supposingly they will be more closely regulated, but this is just in theory).

If you are one the suckers and got stuck in this rally don’t be too hard with yourself. Psychological research has proved that the poorer a person feels, the more likely he will be willing to undertake risk, his only true asset being his hope for a quick turnaround.

So the deeper the recession the more money companies make? I hope not…

Have you or are you looking to invest in stocks?

When do you think it’s the best time to invest?

What’s your exit strategy if any?

GM had so far used up $19.4 billiion in US Treasury loans but billions more are needed to keep the giant running. So the suggested a deal to their existing bondholders… an exchange offer that got easily rejected.

The 100 year old automaker has been trying to convince its bondholders to exchange their debt for equity in a newly formed company but as bondholders spurn the debt offer the company is heading for dead end and the bankruptcy filing is now certain, said analysts and laywers.

The German government has not taken the news lighthearted and is trying to protect GM’s Opel unit by splitting the carmaker off from its US based parent company after 80 years. The Chancellor Angela Merkel is the hostess of a metting taking place in Berlin later today where the future of Opel will be discussed. Ultimate goal would be to place Opel in a trust to receive further bridge financing of over $2 billion, governmental spokesperson Thomas Steg said.

GM, the US parent is supporting this act by transferring its European assets such as sales force, technology and plants to Adam Opel. GM Europe spokeswoman Karin Kirchner believes that this move will help ring-fence the Europen Open/Vauxhall operations from the prospective bankruptcy.

HIG Capitalcreated HIG Europe to specialise in European investments. The company has a €600 million European fund with offices in France, the UK and Germany. They have a team of over 40 investment professionals and are lead by 6 Managing Directors including; Paul Canning and Matthias Allgaier.

HIG Capitalspecialise in small and mid-sized businesses, their investments fall into 3 different categories;

• Management lead buyouts of well established, profitable businesses
• Investments in distressed and under performing companies
• Development capital investments in companies with promising high growth.

The company offers their portfolio companies more than just capital. HIG Capital help talented management teams with operating and strategic expertise as well as a network of industry contacts to help them become industry leaders. The HIG Europe team lead by 6 MD’s including Paul Canning, have substantial operating, technology, consulting and financial management expertise allowing them to contribute meaningfully to their companies.

The company has acquired over 6 businesses during the past year including AIRCOM and Silent Night. What HIG Europe and its UK MD’s Paul Canning and Matthias Allgaier acquire next is anyone’s guess.