leider auf "inglisch"
1: Signs and Portents.
AIG signaled the impending reverse split back in may of 09. There was more than enough prior warning about this and there is no use crying about it now as it will change nothing. The price slowly dropped as we drew closer and closer to the shareholders meeting where the reverse split was to be decided. A lot of people waited until the shareholders meeting with the knowledge that if the reverse split was going to be shot down then the price would immeadately skyrocket as shorters breathed a sigh of relief and got back in. If however the reverse split passed then the price would plummet as everyone scrambled to get out. The reverse split passed and everyone freaked and tried to sell as fast as possible. All stock was frozen as the reverse split occured so as to keep the confusion to a minimum. You were told that this was going to happen. AIG told you with a notice that was mailed to you. People on these boards talked about it for months.
2: Why? OMG WHY?
The reason for the stock split is recovery. AIG took the fall for a lot of companies during the bailout fiasco and in return, a lot of government institutions are looking the other way while AIG does what they want. What they want to do first off is clear up this debt and move on. AIG is a huge company with a lot of assets and own a lot of companies themselves. They were worth 800billion before all of this started, they have not fallen as far as they have pretended to. Instead of paying back the 180billion that they borrowed from the government they will drag the loan out and find new and inventive ways to say that they are paying it. One of which is stock. It's true that you have to really dig to find these news articles as they are not widely circulated, but they are out there. The government owned 80% of AIG through it's stock. Now listen carefully. Instead of paying the government with real life money or gold bars or some other tangible form of currency, they are instead playing games. This is what they are good at. This is what they have always been known for. They give the government X amount of stock as a 'payment' and the government, fully aware of what is going on, pretends to be stupid and accepts it. AIG then pulls a 20:1 reverse stock split to make their shares small and insignificant. AIG then creates more stock and sells it OR hands it out as compensation. Remember all the whining about bonuses? Internal documents in AIG have detailed that they will soon change their policy on Bonuses... guess what, this is it. Now instead of handing out cash, they will hand out stock and they hope this will keep them out of the news.
Fortunately for us, this means they will have to keep their stock price up. But lets not talk about that right now.
3: Miss-information
AIG is good at producing missinformation and have been playing the field since day one. For the last month they haven't needed to however since there were a lot of news outlets making them look sad and pathetic and broke and on the verge of collapse. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Remember that we are talking about a global business that owns 800 planes. These are the guys that ran off to a resort to celebrate their rip-off of the US government. AIG buys and sells billion dollar companies EVERY SINGLE DAY all over the world. They keep it quiet when they make large purchases and they make sure a reporter is there to see it when they sell something. On top of this, they have technically lost... NOTHING. All of those bundled sub-prime mortages that everyone keeps talking about... what do you think? Do you think they just dissapeared? This was the problem with the bailout to begin with is that the banks were basically being paid to evict people. Everyone in the country was saying 'Why doesn't the government just use this money to pay off people's loans?' Well, that wouldn't help their friends rip off the government now would they? I'm not saying that AIG is going to make an incredible proffit off of anything, I am however pointing out that EVERYTHING bad that has happened to AIG is an illusion. It was an illusion that made AIG look desperate... and it didn't come cheap.
AIG paid lobbyists tens of millions of dollars to get the ball rolling on this ever since greenberg was thrown out. Don't be decieved by thinking that this suddenly became an issue and the government decided to intervene. There was bribery going on, there was lobbying going on and yes... there were senate hearings about this long before the government came forward and said 'We may have to bail out some financial companies'.
4: What now?
The price will continue to fall but it does have a floor. You have to understand that now that the shares have contracted they CAN BE vulnerable to take over. How would you like to buy a 800 billion dollar company for 145 million? AIG still looks sad and pathetic but there is a floor here, there is a magic number that AIG will not allow their stock price to go below.
A: They will not risk a buy out at any point in time, if some one even looks at them funny they will ratchet up the price artificially.
B: They need the stock price to be high for a while so that they can use it as bonus money.
C: They want to be left alone. You won't see much of anything untill AIG gets clear of the media. The media is the only thing on this planet that they fear.
Now, a poster on this forum suggested that the floor for AIG is probably $15.00 and I agree. The new max will probably be at $40.00 for a while but this is going to be a long time in the making. What does this mean for all of us?
5: The plan
-Next couple of months the price will hop around and trend downwards towards $15 where it will stay. In actuality the price will continue to trend downwards but AIG watchmen will pick it up every time it gets below $15 to keep it there.
-Do not buy any more AIG untill it levels at $15 and who knows... maybe we're wrong. Maybe it's $14 or $13. Wait untill it levels off for a month or so before buying back in.
-Don't count on any more stock splits. I know that some of you are hoping for a 2 for 1 or something to get you back in black but it's not going to happen. AIG did this for a reason and that reason is to facilitate their own interests.
-Don't listen to crazy talk of bankruptcy or mass sales of assets, not unless AIG says it themselves. They are going to be doing a media blackout for a while so the only place you will hear crazy talk like that is from forums like this.
-After the dust has settled, AIG will begin to slowly raise the price back up by inviting investors and promising steady gains. This may be next year, it may be in the next couple of years, the important thing for AIG is that the dust has cleared before they begin doing this. These people (and their new board members) all come from stock- oriented backgrounds and they will want a swift return to the days of $100 a share but they won't even consider taking a step like this until the media has competely forgotten about them.
-The next quater report will outline a loss. Don't be surprised by it. You need to understand that they are not going to be chuckling about record profits while the US government sits there in a Jane Pauley interview talking about how much money AIG owes them. It will be a loss but it will be a small one.
-Wait for the price to level and buy in, hold for a steady climb. This is not for shorters (anymore). |