Daily Archives: October 28, 2011

Checking & Savings, Financial, Financial Information, Financial Services, Investment, IRA, Money, Personal Finance, Retirement

Standard Life Reveals Inflation Can Reduce A Retiree’s Purchasing Power By 68%

Standard Life, the savings and investment specialist, has warned that the effects of inflation can seriously damage one’s retirement wealth. New data released today shows that a 90-year-old who retired in 1981, when petrol cost 35p a litre, would have seen the purchasing power of a £10,000-a-year level pension income fall to just £3,207 today.

John Lawson, Head of Pensions Policy at Standard Life said: “Inflation can have a huge impact on the purchasing power of your retirement income. As people are living longer, retirement income needs to go that much further, with a 60-year-old man retiring today living on average for another 26

years.

“Our research shows that 57% of people do recognise that an income keeping pace with inflation is attractive. But currently, and somewhat inevitably, the majority go for the higher starting income of a level annuity, leaving only 3% choosing an inflation linked annuity. This is perhaps understandable given that annuity rates have reached record lows and level annuities start at a higher rate than their inflation linked alternatives.

“People approaching retirement need to consider their own personal inflation rate may be higher in the future than that of the average person in the UK due to the types of products and services they will consume. After 10 years in retirement, a 60-year-old man who had purchased a RPI linked annuity with a fund of £100,000 could achieve a higher annual income than someone who had purchased a level annuity.”

An example provided by the data shows the purchasing power in today’s money of a £100,000 pension fund being used by a 60-year-old man retiring in October 2011 to purchase a level or RPI-linked annuity. Various rates of inflation are shown over a 30-year period. If inflation averaged 7% over a ten-year period, the then 70-year old man would begin to receive a higher annual retirement income than if he had purchased a level annuity.

Please note in this example the level annuity receives a higher starting income than the RPI-linked version. At year 10, with inflation at 7%, there is a crossover when the RPI-linked annuity annual income exceeds the level annuity annual income. At year 22, the total payments from the RPI-linked annuity exceed the total payments from the level annuity.

Lawson concluded: “Low inflation has persisted for the last 15 years or so, but there is no guarantee that it will continue. Rising world demand for food and fuel, without a similar increase in supply, has seen prices for the basics rocket. People retiring today need to consider that they will still need to pay for food, fuel and other essentials for a long time into the future and that these basic items are likely to cost a lot more in 10 year’s time than they do today.

“There are many options to consider at retirement which could minimise the impact of inflation on your income, so seeking financial advice is vital.”

Via EPR Network
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Business, Commodities, Financial, Financial Information, Financial Services, Investment, Money, Trading

Business Monitor International Highlights The Risks Of Turkey’s Tough Stance Towards Israel

Business Monitor International (BMI) has released the latest special report, “Turkey: A Decisive Break from the West?” analysing Turkey’s profound transformation as it adopts an increasingly assertive role in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean.

With Turkey’s position as one the world’s most strategically important countries and a major emerging economy, its evolving political dynamics are of global importance. A shift in Turkey’s foreign policy and a move towards authoritarian rule is strainings its relationship with Israel and could, potentially, damage those with its NATO allies at a time when the attraction of EU membership – a cornerstone of government policy for close to a decade – is clearly waning. According to BMI, Turkey’s tough stance towards Israel is clearly aimed at winning support from Arab countries as the country’s leadership looks to establish its position as a key player in the Middle East. Although Turkey is unlikely to leave NATO, it will increasingly be viewed as an unreliable ally in European capitals.

On a global basis BMI recognises Turkey as best-positioned among the non-BRICemerging market economies to become a major power over the coming years, thanks to its large economy, population, and military, growing ties with the Middle East and Russia, and its critical strategic location between continents. The report analyses potential strategic partnerships of the future if Turkey was to move away from its traditional Western allies and compete more directly with Iran and Egypt.

Moreover, “Turkey: A Decisive Break From The West?” assesses the impact of a new foreign policy on already strained relationship with the European Union and the probability of Turkey’s potential EU accession in context of Ankara’s attempts to nurture greater political and economic influence in the Middle East and irreconcilable relationship with Cyprus.

BMI’s portfolio of products provides comprehensive analysis across Turkey’s industries and enables global investors, emerging market strategists and decision-makers across the corporate spectrum to assess and evaluate global political and economic risks and aid strategic planning activities over the short, medium and long term.

Via EPR Network
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Business, Financial, Investment, Money, Profits, Venture Capital

Who Buys Masterseek.com?

The B2B search giant has been in the news recently as rumors are ripe that it will be acquired by another technology company. There are rumors that Masterseek lies in negotiation with Yandex, the Russian search engine giant, recently listed in Ney York Stock Engine for more than 5 billion USD. There has been no official announcement as yet either from Masterseek or from Yandex about this supposed acquisition of Masterseek by Yandex. But trade analysts believe that a partnership between these two companies will be mutually beneficial for their business interests and also to the share holders.

Masterseek has a market value of over $ 275 million in terms of equities and trade analyst believe that acquiring it will give the share holders of a company, $ 300 million dollars in profit. This has made it interesting as many IT companies, venture capitalist, both in US and outside the US, are competing to acquire it for increasing their share values and also for getting a firm grip in the US search engine market.

Masterseek founded in the year, 1999 in Denmark, by Rasmur Refer. Their current headquarters is at Ney York City in Wall Street. It is believed to handle ninety thousand B2B searches on a daily basis. Also, on 30 th of October, 2008, Masterseek announced that they have acquired the B2B search engine Accoona, which has been quite successful in the countries of US and China. It was initially launched in 2004 and at that time, the former US president, Bill Clinton was its spokesperson. This acquisition has helped Masterseek in improving profitability of the shareholders and since then it has attracted many potential buyers who are looking to enter the US market.

“It is correct that we are open for bids but are in no hurry as we can make an alternative IPO as early as Q1 or Q2 2012,” says Rasmus Refer, the CEO of Masterseek. Experts in the financial environment had estimated that Masterseek can get a market capitalization of up to 450 million USD at an IPO on Nasdaq. So, they are in no hurry to get into a deal with any company, they are looking at their options and thinking if they should consider bids for acquisition or strengthen their business module through IPO. Due to the recent success of Linkelin IPO, we think that they might go for an IPO if they do not get any favorable offers. In all conditions and circumstances, we do feel that their share holders are bound to make a decent amount of profit in the long run.

If any company or venture capitalists want to buy Masterseek, they will need to offer a business deal that the management at Masterseek cannot resist and we feel that Yandex does have the ability at this moment to offer such a deal. Due to the success of their IPO recently they have a lot of surplus cash and they have hinted that they are looking at acquisitions option to capitalize on it.

Via EPR Network
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