Word: cashed
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...says his company is in sound financial shape and will weather the storm. But other Hong Kong companies - particularly those that invested some of their capital in property and stocks - are facing crippling cash shortages. On Oct. 9, U-Right, a clothing retailer with about 100 outlets in Hong Kong and another 500 in China, was forced to liquidate after it could not meet bank demands to repay its debts. Analysts say the company borrowed too much and expanded too fast in the rush to catch China's economic wave. As the global economy slows, that's likely to become...
...state capitalists are not immune to a global meltdown. Indeed, decreased Western consumer demand will dent China's economy as well as that of any that relies on exports. But the free-market autocrats stand in far better shape than the rest of the world. With their massive cash reserves, current-account surpluses and, often, capital controls, countries like China can better weather a downturn (China probably will still grow by 9% this year). And with no pesky U.S.-style congress to stand in their way, they don't have to worry about anyone vetoing their plans to stabilize their...
...financial alchemists at Macquarie Group, Australia's biggest investment bank, never managed to turn lead into gold, but they hit on the next best thing: turning asphalt into cash. In May, the bank's shareholders welcomed a $1.3 billion profit, thanks largely to a new way of looking at highways, airports and power stations...
...idea behind the Macquarie model is to borrow a lot of money cheaply, buy infrastructure assets with a guaranteed cash flow, then sell those assets to the public, letting shareholders take over the debt. Macquarie and imitators like Australia's Babcock & Brown make money at every step, with fees for the deal, for advice, and for managing the assets. Macquarie runs toll roads in America, bridges in Portugal, French autoroutes, a tunnel in Germany, and airports from Sydney to Copenhagen. About 290 million people ride its buses each year, and 17 million light...
...Macquarie insists that its distributions to shareholders are paid strictly from cash, but other analysts say they're often funded by new rounds of refinancing. Steve Johnson, a former Macquarie staffer turned financial adviser, says the bank has managed to borrow ever-rising sums against its assets because "credit markets were more and more willing to lend. That game is over...