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Affiliated Managers Group Inc. (NYSE:AMG)
Q3 2009 Earnings Call
October 28, 2009 11:00 am ET
Alexandra Lynn – Vice President of Corporate Communications
Sean Healey – President and Chief Executive Officer
Nate Dalton – Executive Vice President, Affiliate Development
Darrell Crate – Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
William Katz – Buckingham Research
Craig Siegenthaler – Credit Suisse
D.J. Neiman – William Blair & Company
Dan Fannon – Jeffries & Company
Cynthia Mayer – BofA Merrill Lynch
Marc Irizarry – Goldman Sachs
Michael Kim – Sandler O'Neill & Partners
Robert Lee – Keefe, Bruyette & Woods
Roger Smith – Fox-Pitt Kelton
Sam Hoffman – Lincoln Square Capital Management
Welcome to the Affiliated Managers Group third quarter earnings call. (Operator Instructions) It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Alexandra Lynn, Director Corporate Strategies for Affiliated Managers Group. Thank you, Ms. Lynn. You may begin.
Alexandra Lynn
Thank you for joining Affiliated Managers Group to discuss the results for the third quarter of 2009. By now you should have received the press release we issued this morning. However, if anyone needs a copy, please contact us at 617-747-3300 and we'll send you one immediately following the call.
In this conference call certain matters discussed will constitute forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those projected due to a number of factors, including but not limited to those referenced in the company's Form 10-K and other filings we make with the SEC from time-to-time.
We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during this call. In this call the investment performance of certain products will be discussed and the benchmarks are deemed by AMG to be the appropriate benchmarks.
AMG will provide on its Web site a replay of the call and a copy of our announcement of our results for this quarter as well as a reconciliation of any non-GAAP financial projections to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure. You can access this information at www.amg.com.
With us on the line to discuss the company's results for the quarter are Sean Healey, President and CEO, Nate Dalton, Chief Operating Officer and Darrell Crate, Chief Financial Officer. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Sean Healey. Sean.
Sean Healey
AMG reported cash earnings per share of $1.05 for the third quarter reflecting continued recovery in global equity markets as well as excellent investment performance across our affiliate group and improving trends in client cash flows.
We had especially strong results in our global and international equity products, our fastest growing area. For example, two of our largest affiliates, Tweedy Brown and Genesis, are having excellent years with their flagship, global and emerging Markets products, continuing to build on their outstanding track records of outperformance, and they're substantially ahead of their peers in benchmarks over both the short and long-term.
Our affiliates include many of the industry leaders in global, international and emerging markets equities. With the addition of Harding Livener this quarter, global equity products now contribute over 40% of our EBITDA.
And as we see continued strong secular growth in global equities, it's an important strategic focus for us to further increase the breadth and depth of our position in this area. In addition to the general trend favoring the growth of international equities, our global distribution platform allows us to further leverage our international products.
Global and emerging markets products have a tremendous appeal to investors in Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and other markets around the world and we are actively pursuing opportunities to further expand our global distribution capabilities.
While international equities were the highlight of the quarter, we also had solid results from our domestic equity and alternative managers. Among our domestic products, Third Avenue's flagship Value Fund was a standout with year-to-date performance nearly 2,000 basis points ahead of the S & P in addition to an outstanding long-term record.
Our alternative managers including First Quadrant, AQR, Value Act and Blue Mountain, have generated strong performance this year and are well positioned to generate organic growth and performance fees going forward. We see a track of opportunities ahead for leading alternative firms and increasing our exposure to this area is another strategic objective for us.
Along with the strong performance of our affiliates across a range of strategies, we were pleased to see continued improvement in client flow trends. As noted in our release, but for one large Australian client, which closed its external management program affecting both AQR and First Quadrant, we have positive flows in all distribution channels.
Looking ahead, as Nate will discuss in a moment, we see ongoing positive trends in client flows as retail and institutional investors increasingly reallocate to risk-oriented assets including alternatives and equities, especially global equities.
Turning to new investments, we continue to have a very strong transaction pipeline, which includes an outstanding array of both traditional and alternative managers. With recovering equity markets the transaction environment has become increasingly favorable.
We see ongoing divesture activity and heightened interest by independent managers driven by a succession of issues as well as the expectation of rising tax rates. Our competitive position has never been better as the universe of potential competing buyers has diminished and we continue to benefit from our reputation as the partner of choice for outstanding boutique firms.
While we can't precisely predict the pace or timing of specific new investments, we're confident in our ability add meaningfully to our earnings growth through accretive new investments going forward. With that, I'll turn it over to Nate to discuss our Affiliate's results in more detail.
Nate Dalton
Thanks, Sean, good morning, everyone. We saw significant growth in the third quarter, primarily as a result of global equity markets being up 20% with domestic markets up 15% or so continuing its historic rally up the market bottoms back in March.
As Sean noted, against this backdrop, our Affiliates continued their strong, relative investment performance especially in key product areas like global equities and alternatives. This performance has positioned us very well because as clients and their intermediaries reassess their closures, they will need to increase their allocations to return oriented asset classes.
As this process unfolds, there will also be a significant opportunity for high quality managers with excellent long-term track records, such our affiliates to take market share through replacement searches.
Focusing on client flows and search activity, last quarter we saw improvement across the board with our mutual funds and high network channels turning positive and an institutional channel that would have turned positive but for a single Australian client taking the decision to bring all their asset management in house.
Unfortunately, as Sean noted, a couple of Affiliates had large mandates there. Our perspective on the overall flow in search activity is that while there is still a lot of volatility as clients and intermediaries continue sorting out their views, trends are taking hold.
First, from an asset allocation standpoint, we saw clients across distribution channels moving up the risk spectrum, from being significantly overweight and no risk assets and increasing liquidity in their portfolios to increasing allocations to return oriented asset-[based] fixed income.
We believe that as this trend continues, flows will migrate up the spectrum to higher return oriented assets, especially global equities and alternatives. From our internal search data as well as conversations with consultants so far this quarter, this migration seems to be happening.
Second, the very good relative performance at a number of our affiliates, especially in key product areas, is positioning us very well not only to participate in asset allocation changes but also replacing search activity.
Third, our goal of distribution platforms are driving increased search volumes off a very small base at the beginning of the year and we have a suite of products again in global equities, emerging markets and alternatives that is very attractive to institutional clients worldwide. Obviously, this is a potential source of real incremental growth as these searches move through [pipeline].
In terms of the details of our flows across our three channels of distribution and starting with institutional, we had net outflows of $1.2 billion for the quarter. More than 100% of that was due to the one Australian client I mentioned making the decision to move all their asset management in house.
In the mutual fund channel, flows turned up positive at $4 million of inflows as successful product launches at Third Avenue, with the Focus Credit Fund and AQR with their Diversified Arbitrage Fund as well as positive flows in our Manager's platform, offset outflows at Friess and a few other affiliates. One very recent exciting development in the mutual fund channel was the launch this week of an un-hedged version of Tweedy, Browne's flagship Global Value Fund.
Finally, in our high network channel, flows turned positive at a $120 million for the quarter. The drivers here were strong inflows to muni bond management Gannett Welsh & Kotler and Canadian Affiliate Butel, which offset outflows in the S&A space.
One additional note on flows, across channels we are seeing alternative flows stabilize, although in isolated exceptions, we do see some outflows mainly related to earlier decisions to gain liquidity. We expect these flows will turn positive as we move into 2010.
Now, let me spend a minute on investment performance. Starting with global equities, markets have driven absolute performance with EP up 20% and NFIC emerging markets up 21%. But we also had very strong relative quarter, especially in the [inaudible] product.
For example Tweedy, Browne's flagship Global Value Fund outperformed his hedged EP index by 90 basis points in the quarter, remaining significantly ahead of its benchmark for the one, three and five year time periods. While our largest global equity product by assets, Tweedy product, outperformed its benchmark by nearly 200 basis points during the quarter and 290 basis points for the year-to-date.
With respect to emerging markets, the flagship product at Genesis, beat its benchmark by 290 basis point in the quarter and was up 740 basis points for the year-to-date, remaining ahead for the one, three and five year time periods as well.
In terms of absolute performance, the Genesis flagship product was up another 24% in the quarter, hitting their year-to-date returns to 72%. Now as Sean noted, during the quarter we also expanded our already broad global equities lineup with the addition of our new Affiliate, Harding Loevner, which has an excellent long-term record in global, international and emerging market equity.
Turning to our alternative products, we had very strong performance in a number of our key affiliates. The majority of AQR alternative strategies produced outstanding results. For example, their flagship Absolute Return Fund was up about 13% in the quarter and 35% for the year-to-date. And their Global Risk Premium and Global Asset Allocation products also performed very well, up 25% and 20% for the quarter and 32% and 52% for the year-to-date respectively.
At Blue Mountain, the firm's flagship Credit Alternative Fund was up 9% for the quarter and 29% for the year-to-date, while at First Quadrant their GGA Global Macro and [inaudible] product all had good performance in the quarter and [asset] performance was very strong, up 11 to 15% across the major product.
Now, moving to our domestic products, our affiliates in general had more mixed performance. Starting on the value side at Third Avenue, their flagship Value Fund continues to have a tremendous run, outperforming its benchmark by 255 basis points for the quarter and over 1,900 basis points for the year-to-date.
While at Tweedy, Browne and Systematic, all of their domestic products remain ahead of the one, three and five year periods, although some of the products trailed their benchmarks in the quarter. On the growth side, we had a more challenging performance quarter, although with the exception of Friess Associates, the longer term track record that our growth oriented firms remain very strong, where literally every product at Frontier and Times Square is ahead of its benchmark for the one, three and five year selling period.
On the operational front, as we've discussed over the past several years, we continue to work with our affiliates to determine the most efficient ways to allocate our and their resources. We've been working closely with the principles of two of our smallest affiliates where changes in their businesses, an AMG Affiliate relationship is no longer appropriate and during the quarter, sold our equity in these firms back to the management team.
These affiliates combined contributed significantly less than 1% to AMG's EBITDA and the sales back to management will provide the firms with the right tools and continue to run their businesses in the best interest of their clients.
With respect to our distribution platforms, in the U.S., we continue to make excellent progress with Managers Investment Group, as their mutual fund flows were positive for the quarter and we continue to launch products with our Affiliates. This past quarter we launched a muni bond fund for Gannett Welsh & Kotler and also launched funds for First Quadrant, Frontier and [Third].
On the global institutional side, we're seeing a full pipeline from searches to wins in our Australian, Middle Eastern and European platforms. While we remain very focused on the profitability of each of the regions, we and our affiliates are continuing to invest in the growth of these platforms with both additional sales and client service infrastructure for the regions we already serve while ramping up to launch our effort in Asia next year.
Now with that, I'll turn it over to Darrell to discuss our financials.
Darrell Crate
During the quarter our Affiliates continued to build on their long-term track records, producing superior returns across the diverse array of investment styles and positioning our products for strong growth.
The strength and diversity of our affiliates' products along with our revenue share approach has provided stability in our earning this year and with our new investment efforts along with a recovering equity markets, we're well positioned for strong earnings growth in 2010.
As you saw in the release, we reported cash earnings per share of $1.05 for the third quarter. On a GAAP basis, we reported earnings of $0.40 for the quarter. Performance fees added about $0.02 to our cash earnings, which were offset by approximately the same amount in onetime restructuring charges.
And turning some to some modeling items, the ratio of our EBITDA contribution to end of period, assets under management was about 14.4 basis points, reflecting the strong growth in our assets under management in the third quarter.
As we look to the fourth quarter, we expect this ratio to increase to about 15.7 basis points, as we realized the full effect of our increased assets under management. Holding company expenses were $11.4 million for the third quarter and include transaction expenses associated with new investments and FAS 123(NYSE:R) expenses. We expect holding company expenses to be $11 million in the fourth quarter.
With regard to taxes, our effective GAAP tax rate for the third quarter was 18%, which primarily relates to the disposition of two smaller Affiliates that Nate mentioned earlier. This rate will return to a more normalized 42-1/2% for the fourth quarter.
Our cash tax rate for the third quarter was less than 1% as state and foreign tax payments were offset by federal refund opportunities. We expect our cash tax rate to be approximately 10% for the fourth quarter and for this rate to trend up slightly in 2010 as we further grow.
Intangible related deferred taxes were $6.2 million for the quarter, again as a result of these restructurings. We expect intangible related deferred taxes to return to a normalized $10.2 million in the fourth quarter, which of course includes the full impact of Harding Loevner.
Amortization for the quarter was $16.1 million, including $8 million of amortization from affiliates accounted for using the equity method. The earnings from equity method affiliates are included in the income from equity method investments line on the income statement, all net of amortization.
Depreciation for the quarter was $3.2 million, with $1.9 million of that amount attributable to affiliate depreciation. We expect amortization and depreciation to remain at these levels for the fourth quarter. We reported total interest expense of $19.5 million for the third quarter, of which $3.4 million was non-cash interest expense related to the recent accounting changes for three of our convertible securities. We expect interest expense to remain at about this level for the fourth quarter.
Our capital position remains very strong, and we have substantial resources to execute upon the significant new investment opportunities that we are currently evaluating. In addition to the recurring free cash flow generated by our business, we now have over $375 million of cash resources as well as $770 million available under our credit facility. I would also note that we have no net debt other than convertible securities.
Now turning to the guidance for the remainder of 2009 and the full-year of 2010, beginning with 2009, we expect our earnings results for 2009 to be in the range of $4.15 to $4.50. You will notice that with this guidance, we are bringing up the bottom-end to reflect the strong performance of our affiliates, while maintaining the same top-end to reflect our current view of our fourth quarter performance fee opportunity.
Our alternative products, which totaled $31 billion in assets under management, are generally uncorrelated to the equity markets in providing AMG with an important source of earnings diversification, as well as incremental earnings growth.
The performance of these products has been very strong this year. And roughly half these assets are now at or above their high-water marks and can provide considerable upside opportunity and deliver material performance [fees] in future areas. Our 2009 guidance assumes a weighted average share count for the year of 43 million.
Now looking ahead to 2010, we expect our cash earnings per share to be in the range of $5.00 to $5.75. Given the recovery in equity markets over the past couple of quarters, this guidance returns to our prior convention and assumes 2% quarterly growth in markets in 2010. We also assume a weighted average share count of 45.5 million.
Our guidance for 2010 does not include additional earnings from investments in new affiliates but does assume an earnings pattern similar to the one you've seen from us in prior years, where we recognize the majority of earnings from alternative products and performance fees in the fourth quarter.
Our guidance for both 2009 and 2010 is based on current expectations about affiliate growth rates, performance and the mix of affiliate contributions to our earnings. Of course, substantial changes in the equity markets and the earnings contributions of our affiliates would impact these expectations. And I will be happy to answer your questions.
Question-and-Answer Session
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of William Katz – Buckingham Research.
William Katz – Buckingham Research
I was wondering, Sean, maybe it's just me. I just seem to say the same thing every quarter, but from your tone and comments, plus what was in the press release, it does seem like you have a higher level of conviction around the deal environment and you seem to continue to point towards global alternatives. I'm sort of wondering if you can help me think along those lines of what type of product and/or distribution makes the most sense right here? And then an update on pricing expectations?
Sean Healey
Well, I think you're right to read – in fact, I think the word that we used in our release was enthusiasm. Obviously, it's always a challenge for us to provide some gauge of the level of expected forward activity without describing transactions, which had not yet been announced.
But I think it is fair to say, as we have been saying for a while, but clearly we're at a point where we have very strong momentum in the new investment area. As you heard me say in the prepared remarks, our pipeline includes both high-quality traditional as well as alternative firms.
I would say the other kind of indicator I could give you is that what we have described. In fact, I described in my earlier remarks, the ongoing focus to increase what is already a significant relative position in global and international equities, as well as to continue to invest in the alternatives area.
And I would say in the alternatives area it's – and then maybe more broadly in thinking about investing in boutique firms. The silver lining to the challenges of the past year is that there was a great sorting process, both for boutique firms as well as for perspective investors and acquirers.
And so we're in a position now where we're able to see which firms – especially in the case of alternative firms – have weathered the storm, are positioned with strong franchises and outstanding products in areas like for example, distressed investing, which are currently seeing lots of organic growth and prospectively one imagines that will continue.
So that's the nature of the pipeline in as much detail as I can give. And I would say pricing, as we've said earlier – partly based on the changes in the competitive dynamics. Pricing continues to be attractive relative to what our historical range has been, although in a consistent pattern with our historical pricing.
William Katz – Buckingham Research
And then maybe a quick question for Nate. You were going pretty quick, so I was trying to take notes as fast as I could. But you mentioned that the institutional pipeline is seeing a step-up in – for a variety of reasons. But then towards the end of your comments you mentioned that some of non-U.S. pipelines in particular were seeing some strain. Could you dimension maybe the size of the pipeline today versus at June, and where are you seeing the specific interest?
Nate Dalton
Sure. So the pipeline today versus June is, call it a third or so larger. This is the way to sort of roughly size it. I'm talking about the institutional pipeline. So you're seeing good growth. If you think about our business, the fastest component of that growth is coming through non-US, and it's coming there for two reasons, right.
One is some of the secular things you've heard us talking about, and then the other is we're increasing our resource allocation against the opportunities by building these global distribution platforms. And the added distribution we're bringing online is very fast growth albeit off of a small base. So I hope that's sort of helpful.
William Katz – Buckingham Research
Yes, it is. And then finally, Darrell just for you, your 2010 guidance is rather wide, particularly against really just tightening the lower-end of this year and leaving open the upper end. So I guess your performance fees are still not quite steeled yet. But what would be the $5.00 range type environment and what would be the $5.75? Is the swing impact really just performance fees here?
Darrell Crate
Well, I think if you looked to 2010 – and again there's a lot room between now and December 2010 – but the $5.00 takes a conservative approach in thinking about flows and outperformance in the business. And it assumes, of course, a 2% market growth in each quarter through 2010.
The $5.75 of course allows for performance fees. And as a sharing and we keep trying to talk about the performance fees and give folks a better sense of what that portfolio looks like. But we now have, as we'll enter 2010, 1,000 affiliates who have a product that is exposed to performance fees. This is a much broader set of affiliates than we had at the beginning of 2009, where you'll recall we were essentially relying on two affiliates to contribute.
So $5.75 allows for that performance fee opportunity, which again just making reasonable assumptions about it. In addition as Nate talked about and Sean talked about our emphasis on global, our global distribution platform is very well positioned. And so we can look for incremental flows and again as you see the way our individual firms are positioned with very strong track records in an environment where potentially a substantial amount of dollars will be returning to risk product.
I think we feel it doesn't take much imagination to imagine that we could see some very nice growth among our AMG holding company activities or our affiliates all on their own in addition to performance fee potential. And remember all of that range, albeit wide, also does not include all the capacity that we have which I said was about $1 billion of money to put to work in new investments in 2010.
So you know I don't know how. I just did say it and said again and we say it with a lot of back. We are really very excited about 2010 just in our core business. All the seeds that we've been planting through a very difficult environment and in addition new investment opportunities is one where I think we'll all be very pleased when we look back over the prior 12 months at the end of 2010.
Our next question comes from the line of Craig Siegenthaler – Credit Suisse.
Craig Siegenthaler – Credit Suisse
Thank you, good morning. As first on the net flow results I was wondering if you could provide a little more granularity out on the large institutional redemption, maybe just in terms of size and in the nature of this mandate?
Sean Healey
Okay, so first to describe the type of mandate, this was a large Australian governmental entity that had effectively historically outsourced its management, so that was sort of an implemented consulting outsource provider and they sort of locked the details down, but they took the decision to bring all of that back in so you know it affected sort of all the actively managed assets, affected 25 managers and all that.
We had two affiliates that were managing outfits for them and those affiliates had done a good job and none of this has to do with performance or the quality of service provided. In fact as the governmental entity sorts out what to do with the assets they have now taken back yet we're in conversations with them and, and it's entirely possible that we will get the opportunity to manage some of those assets. As I said, the size of it was larger than the outflow number, was larger than the outflow number in the institutional channel. So call it sort of a billion and a half or so.
Craig Siegenthaler – Credit Suisse:
Got it and if we just add that back to your net flow run rate this quarter, we're sort something around I guess 0.3 billion or 0.4 billion positive of an underlying run rate. And you also talked on how RFP activity has, or at least investor interest activity has increased in a few areas. Do you think that in the fourth quarter we'll be looking at flows north of 0.3 billion?
Sean Healey
What I can tell you is activity is obviously, look, early in the quarter, all those sort of caveats, but no you're thinking of that the right way. Our fee activity picked up. It will take some time for those RFPs for the dark days to move through the cycle, right, but we should see that growth reflected in finals and then net new assets and feel like the future certainly looks brighter than the period we just went through, right. So I'm probably being overly cautious but yes, the answer is yes.
Nate Dalton
And the products, especially global equities and alternatives and our relative performance in those products make this optimistic.
Sean Healey
Sure and then not to keep hounding on it but plus we're also bringing more resources on line, right, so I wouldn't think of that RFP ramp that we've seen as the extent of it, right. We're going to continue to see that ramping as we bring more resources on line.
Our next question comes from the line of D.J. Neiman – William Blair & Company.
D.J. Neiman – William Blair & Company
Hey Nate, a couple quick questions here. I'm going to start with Nate. You didn't mention the Third Avenue distressed fund. I think they're in kind of fund-raising mode right now. Can you give us just an update on where it stands and you know might have hit in the quarter?
Nate Dalton
Yes, I did mention briefly in the prepared remarks they are a focused credit fund which they launched. It's been a great start and is over a couple hundred million at least at this point. I haven't checked in daily but it's –
Darrell Crate
Over 250 as of yesterday.
Nate Dalton
And some of that was in the second quarter as well as in the third quarter.
D.J. Neiman – William Blair & Company
Okay, turning to Darrell a couple detail-oriented ones here. Just thinking about holding company cash, you said $370 million total. How much of that is at the holding company level after the close of the Harding Loevner deal?
Darrell Crate
Yes. We essentially are at approximately the same cash level today as we were, you know, prior to announcing Harding Loevner and so as we look to the end of the year I think that we have about $100 million of additional holding company cash to get put to work. And then after that we're using money from the revolver.
D.J. Neiman – William Blair & Company
Okay, $100 million additional. Can you just remind me what it was prior to closing the Harding Loevner?
Darrell Crate
We were roughly in that – we had got our holding company cash at approximately $100 million and we used that cash to buy Harding Loevner.
D.J. Neiman – William Blair & Company
Okay, okay, I'm with you. And next could you just review in detail for us the forward equity sale contract? I'm a little confused if the one that was announced with Deutsche Bank in the last quarter I guess if that was ever executed? Can you just go through where those stand and how you're thinking about those.
Darrell Crate
Sure, sure, sure. We have approximately $300 million of a forward contract with both Bank of America And Deutsche Bank. That $300 million is money that stands available for if we want to draw it down and issue equity.
Again the purpose of that is not to fund deals directly with equity but in this environment where equity markets have been volatile, of course, we want to get money put to work. We will use cash off the balance sheet and then we will use our revolver which as you know is at LIBOR plus 80. It's very cheap money.
The only way we can give our shareholders the benefit of being well positioned from a cost and debt perspective is actually use it so we'll do that. But it is also not lost on us in its environment in this – where investor views vacillate from optimism to credit concerns, by having that extra $300 million in reserve it gives us the opportunity to de-lever our balance sheet instantly if we are in an environment that is more challenging where investors are concerned about leverage.
So we look at these forward agreements as essentially buying insurance on a balance sheet so that we can run in levered way and be in an environment where we can give investors extreme comfort on the stability of our balance sheet should that be required, because as Sean mentioned our price line for new investments is very strong.
Through this period we have certainly shook out and have a much better sense of quality managers and for us to build our business getting that money put to work with quality managers at this time is critical to what we do. So having a capital structure that allows us to do that is in the objective for this year.
Our next question comes from the line of Dan Fannon – Jeffries & Company.
Dan Fannon – Jeffries & Company
Thanks, guys. Sean, your commentary highlighted both alternative and traditional investments and this seems somewhat like a shift that we've heard from probably the last six months where I thought you were more focused on kind traditional investment firms. Can you discuss kind of the split of your pipeline between these two types of firms and kind of what you're – if you're looking at any certain kind of focus or strategy to kind of fill a gap or just kind to add to what you already have?
Sean Healey
I would say that there has been a shift from the beginning the year, in the first quarter amidst the turmoil in the markets generally and among alternative clients, specifically I think we, when asked about our interest in making further investments in the alternative area, we said we would be cautious.
I think the pace and magnitude of the recovery in the market generally has surprised probably almost everybody and I think that is especially the case in the alternatives area where we've seen for certain firms and by no means all because I think, as I said earlier, it's clear that there was a winnowing of the hedge fund universe over the past year and so as always one has to be quite careful about the people and the quality of the franchise and the firm that you invest in.
But it is clear to us that there are a number of very attractive alternative firms which have emerged from this difficult period with their franchises very much intact. In fact some of them, some of the strongest firms are actually taking advantage of the difficult environment and making some great hires and additions. They're generating organic growth and they're seeing, depending on the product category, some very attractive investing opportunities.
So those kinds of firms are, as you would expect, very appealing investment prospects and we are very well positioned as, I would say not just with traditional succession-oriented firms, but also with alternative firms that are looking for an institutional partner to take a minority investment. AMG is really positioned as the partner of choice.
I think, with respect to your question about breaking down the pipeline, it includes significant opportunities in the alternative area with some great firms, but also some large and attractive opportunities in the traditional space both in the U.S. and outside the U.S.
Dan Fannon – Jeffries & Company
Great, that's helpful. And then just in terms of the activity in terms of flows, you mentioned some replacement activity. I just want to get your sense of kind of where we are in that stage, and are we just at the beginning stage of seeing where our RFPs coming out because of replacements, or just get a sense of that.
Sean Healey
I still think we're early in that. I think people are still in the stages of finalizing where they're going to be on their asset allocation views. And I think as they're doing that, they're turning – I think we're seeing an increased number of what you'd call replacements. It's just I still think we're in the early stages of that, more to come.
Our next question comes from the line of Cynthia Mayer – Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Cynthia Mayer – Bank of America Merrill Lynch
I guess just following up on the last question in terms of acquisitions, alternatives versus lung-only boutiques. I'm just wondering, between the two, is there any difference in the pricing at this point, and does that influence you?
And if you're looking forward to a strong year next year in terms of performance fees, I guess so, would some of the alternatives firms that you're looking at, and does that mean prices there are recovering faster than they would be for the lung-only firms?
Sean Healey
I would say the competitive environment for both traditional and alternative boutiques is quite favorable for us. In light of that, I'd say pricing for both kinds of firms continues to be attractive, albeit within the range that we have historically paid in our investments.
The other point that I would make with respect to the pricing for alternative firms is to recall that the structure of our investments inevitably in our alternative investments includes a synthetic revenue share, which gives us a quote guarantee on some level of cash flow attributable to performance [V] products even in periods when none are earned.
So that element complicates the direct comparison between the two types of firms. That said, we're seeing similarly high-quality firms in each area and the pricing is actually quite comparable, I would say.
Cynthia Mayer – Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Great, thanks. Then just to clarify on the 2010 performance views, maybe I missed this, but did you say what the total, current total performance VAUM is at this point?
Darrell Crate
Yes. We have $31 billion.
Cynthia Mayer – Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Great, okay and any thoughts on just holding company expenses at this point, given the way the market's been?
Darrell Crate
Yes. If you look to next year, that's our $11 million run rate, is a core holding company expense number and of course deal costs are incremental to that. I mean, we factored in a modest amount of deal cost, so holding company expense will increase as we execute transactions.
Our next question comes from the line of Marc Irizarry – Goldman Sachs. Please state your question.
Marc Irizarry – Goldman Sachs
Great, thanks. Sean, just a question, view on acquisitions in terms of maybe what's holding up some of the transactions in the pipeline from coming to fruition. Is the public equity market playing a big role in seller's expectations or maybe stealing potential opportunities from you?
And then also are your affiliates or potential new affiliates thinking differently about when they want to partner up with someone, what the distribution relationship looks like more so than they have in the past?
Sean Healey
I would say that the pace is I feel very good about the pacing, actually. We just closed an investment in an outstanding international equities manager, Harding Loevner. The early part of the year, and of course pretty much all of last year while we had a very robust pipeline and a number of transactions that we could have closed, it was the right thing to defer those and some, including Harding, have come back, but I feel very good about our momentum going forward.
The public market is – there's been at least one transaction done and rumors of a couple more to come. But very different than in 2007 when we heard regularly from boutique managers that they were thinking about going public and how does our approach compare to an IPO.
We hear that very little, very little from both traditional and alternative firms, maybe especially health-alternative firms. I think the past year has been challenging for all companies but it certainly has made many, I would say most, of the boutique firms who we talk to quite, quite reluctant to think about going public. So of course there will be some, but it's not something that we're encountering as any difficulty at all in the current environment.
The other thing I would say with respect to distribution, we have a great story to tell on international distribution and that is that's increasingly a component of what makes us appealing to outstanding boutique firms.
I would say, though, it's always important to remember that the firms that we're investing in are firms with great track records, strong organic growth and prospects for ongoing growth. Really that's the bet that they're making by partnering with us and keeping such a substantial portion of the equity.
So those firms care most about the quality and track record of AMG as a partner, including through this past year. And then after that, they certainly appreciate the additional opportunities that we offer in various areas of distribution.
Marc Irizarry – Goldman Sachs
Okay, great. Then just in terms of the VAUMs on the alternative side, how much is subject to potential redemptions gates as listed?
Sean Healey
So again, we – our affiliates really did not sort of do dates. We had a few products where people did some restructuring, but there really weren't gate. So I think there are still some outstanding redemption – as people sort of sorting through their own things, and again I think I alluded to that in my prepared remarks. But there's not a lot there.
Marc Irizarry – Goldman Sachs
Okay, any way to quantify that?
Darrell Crate
Obviously if you look to the end of the year, and there's $300 to $400 million that was slated to redeem back in March that we'd like to redeem that at the end of December. A lot's changed since then.
Sean Healey
Yes. And who knows when – some people might take the notices back and just who knows what ultimately –
Darrell Crate
But again, I don't think there's anything about that that's material relative to the trajectory that we see in the business.
Marc Irizarry – Goldman Sachs
Okay and then just, Darrell, maybe you could just touch on your capital priorities as – into the end of the year, here.
Darrell Crate
Get as much money as possible for deals I think is what we do. We've got an envelope. We'll be able to spend it as cash first and then the revolver, and as I said, that is – that gives us plenty of capacity in order to get transactions done.
Our next question comes from the line of Michael Kim – Sandler O'Neill.
Michael Kim – Sandler O'Neill & Partners
First, maybe just a comment, the deal pipeline, a bit differently, I understand why some of the motivated sellers may not be as motivated these days, just given the market rebound. But are there any lead indicators that might suggest succession-oriented transaction might start to pick up here, whether it's higher taxes, better markets or what have you?
Sean Healey
Yes. Everything you said. I think if you're talking about motivated sellers, we really – except for some isolated opportunities, most of which went away, where you have high quality boutique firms embedded within larger financial services firms that felt a level of motivation, especially in the first quarter. Some of that motivation on the part of corporate sellers has ebbed.
But with respect to independent firms and succession-oriented transactions or minority investments into alternative firms, I think the recovery in the market and the stability that has come is absolutely one of the key elements that would make firms, for example, which faced succession-oriented issues where demographics have not stood still.
In fact the demographics issues have become more focused and timely over the past couple of years, as obviously firms with succession-oriented issues stayed out of the market. So it has been, if you will, a little bit of a buildup of those kinds of opportunities.
And with some relative stability, we are seeing, as I mentioned in my remarks, heightened interests on the part of such firms. I think the other point you made, which I had noted earlier as well, is about taxes is quite important to understand.
The degree to which taxes are expected to rise, for both traditional and alternative firms, is quite significant, and I think will provide some good tailwinds into next year because the level of taxes is one thing.
But, also, the Delta, between ordinary and capital rates makes capital transactions much more attractive and also makes a structure such as the one inherent in an AMG partnership where capital incentives, equity incentives are much more important and much more prominent in a firm's incentive structure.
It makes such incentives much more attractive, much more potent than incentives, which rely entirely on ordinary income, which is the norm for firms that are entirely independent. So I think that in a bunch of ways the tax environment, along with these other secular factors, I think, are going to be important, are and will continue to be important drivers of transaction activity.
Michael Kim – Sandler O'Neill & Partners
And then as it relates to asset allocations more broadly, given what I guess we're seeing in Australia, how much of a risk do you think it is for pension plans to kind of increasingly favor maybe index type products over actively managed mandates at this point?
Sean Healey
So again, all we can really add to that conversation is what we are seeing, and we are seeing in the infusional market place across all these factors and certainly increasing, more of, even more outside the U.S, we're seeing increased search activity for active mandates in global equities, in alternatives, in emergent markets.
So I am sure part of that is the fact we are just participating in more opportunities because of our growing [inaudible]. But, we ourselves are not seeing that trend really impact us. And then one just ne footnote to that, what happened with the mandate we talked about, for the mandates we talked about in Australia, it's not necessarily what you described which is bringing them into a passive environment.
They are going to have to sort out how those mandates are managed. I don't think they have done that yet, so I certainly understand the broad mandate, but I am not sure that applied in that specific case.
Our next question comes from the line of Robert Lee – KBW.
Robert Lee – Keefe, Bruyette & Woods
I have a question on the flows, specifically the other outflows, the $4 billion. How much of that, I am assuming some of that was related to the affiliates who sold back to management and know there's maybe some other product closures, but can you maybe break that down a little bit and then, was there any kind of expectation for similar actions kind of over the coming quarters?
Nate Dalton
Almost all of that – the vast, vast majority – almost all of that is the two closures that we spoke about. And then with respect to looking forward, I don't see anything that's looking like that again. We're going to keep working through with our affiliates as we always do, but so I don't see anything like that sort of coming up.
Robert Lee – Keefe, Bruyette & Woods
Great, and then maybe just one quick question on the Harding Loevner. I'm just curious, heading into closing the transaction, just curious what their specific flow experience have been like, because they obviously have a variety of products from funds to separate accounts.
Sean Healey
Yes, they've been good. The flows have been good, and I think along with that I think they have a lot of opportunity to grow into a bunch of these channels. And I think they're very strong in some potentials in U.S. retail, and they have a growing opportunity to grow outside the U.S. and they have launched sort of assets and jumped on assets and so –
Darrell Crate
They had a very big win in Australia earlier in the year and they're continuing to get assets there, so yes, all good.
Robert Lee – Keefe, Bruyette & Woods
Great, and maybe just one last question on the guidance for next year, Darrell. You mentioned that the $31 billion of product and performance fees gets about half or at or above kind of high watermarks. If we think about the high end of your guidance for next year's, kind of baked into that assumption that pretty much all the $31 billion currently of assets would be above high water marks in generating some level of performance fees?
Darrell Crate
No, actually it's a more conservative approach than that, which is – and again, it is difficult given that there are nearly 100 different contracts and arrangements across the complex that I'm so hesitant to create a metric around it, but I would say that, you know, example.
In an environment if approximately half of our products are above high water mark, and all of those that are above high water mark were to outperform either an absolute basis which is what some of the contracts are, or they're indexed by 600 basis points, we would realize performance fees that are over $1.
So it gives you a sense that our sensibility for, again, if terms were to outperform by 300 to 400 basis points, just that half of that they're above their high watermarks, we'd be getting to the upper end of the range.
Now, that is speaking broadly about it, and I think quite frankly, speaking in broader terms today is more in line with reality than it was at the beginning of 2009, again because I said there are about a dozen firms, a much more diverse set of firms and products that will contribute to performance fees in 2010.
So generalizations can make sense, and hopefully that just gives you a sense that we're not the $5.75 remembering it does not include investments; includes some positive assumptions about global distribution and good effort at firms. But with regard to performance fees, it's not shooting for the moon.
It's, again, it would be a good year broadly for those $31 billion. We've seen years like that before, and so I hope that gives you just a flavor for how our thinking about how we're thinking and incorporate it into the guidance.
Your next question comes from the line of Roger Smith – Fox-Pitt Kelton.
Roger Smith – Fox-Pitt Kelton
Yes, thanks a lot. I want to come back to the tax rate issue because I think that's somewhat interesting, meaning the tax on the affiliate or the tax rates that the affiliate might get on some of these sales. I just want to make sure I understand that that's really a capital gains tax rate to the seller, because this is a taxable event to them. Is there then future tax payments that they would make on the remaining equity that they own as well, or is that all paid at the time of the sale?
Darrell Crate
When they sell equity to it in the future, it's a capital transaction.
Roger Smith – Fox-Pitt Kelton
Okay, so –
Darrell Crate
But you don't pay – you sell 50% of the equity day one, you pay taxes on that 50% capital gains, and obviously it's distributed broadly through the firm's partner group, but when that remaining equity comes back, typically many years into the future, it too is taxed at a capital gains rate.
Darrell Crate
I don't know if there'd be, again, just to run through the mechanics for others on the call, and what that means, we can all say that taxes going up would encourage folks to think about a transaction today, understanding, again, if taxes on capital gains were to double, that would mean that for a seller to have the same after-tax proceeds from a transaction, that they would have to deliver materially more growth to us in the future to get to that same level as they would prior to Congress increasing the tax on capital.
So it would be run through the map.
Nate Dalton
So it's twofold. One is what Darrell's drive is, that people see rates going up and they obviously want to get more proceeds and they'll make some judgment about growth, but the other, more subtle aspect which I described earlier but maybe just to add to it a bit, is when the delta between capital and ordinary rises, as it's forecast to, based on what the administration is saying, then the independent who [AUDIO GAP] firm owners which receive their income as ordinary income and they're making this calculus that Darrell's describing of, "Okay, I know I need to want to do a succession-oriented transaction sometime in the next five years. Do I do it today or do I do it five years from now? What do I think the growth rate is going to be?"
Historically the growth rate might have been 10% or 11%. That sort of made you, if you said, "If I grow at least 10% or 11% I'll be neutral on an after-tax basis." Now, given the expected delta between capital and ordinary, the expected growth rate, the growth rate you would have to believe in in order to be held harmless or in the same position on an after-tax basis, is much higher.
So it's both elements, and believe me, the principals of these boutique firms, traditional and alternative, are increasingly sensitive to those dynamics as they think about their forward plans.
Roger Smith – Fox-Pitt Kelton
Got you. But should we then potentially worry about affiliates that you already have putting stock back to you at any time or –
Nate Dalton
First of all, there are strict limits on how much can come back in any period. And so people whose judgments are affected by what they're allowed to do, but also – this is very important – the forecast, and we know as much as anybody else, which is to say we don't know precisely what is going to happen to tax rates, but what has been described by the administration has been a dramatic increase in ordinary rates.
And the President has made statements around increasing capital gains rates to a much more limited degree. And that is more in line with what historical norms have been. Typically there is a big delta between the ordinary and capital rates.
So the change in capital rates is not expected to be so great. People who are going to be taxed at a capital rate, in any event, are going to be pretty much indifferent and much more making decisions based on their own personal circumstances or their judgment about forward growth.
Our next question comes from the line of Sam Hoffman – Lincoln Square Capital.
Sam Hoffman – Lincoln Square Capital Management
Good morning. Can you comment on what type of net flows are included in the top and the bottom range of guidance? And also on performance views at the bottom end of the range assume no performance views?
Sean Healey
Yes, maybe in reverse order. Yes, the bottom end of the range presumes very modest to no performance fees. Think of it as $0.05 or so. From a flow perspective, again, we're not going to give specific metrics, but if you look at flows for AMG on a historical basis, getting to those historical levels is roughly in the midpoint of the range.
Sam Hoffman – Lincoln Square Capital Management
Second question is, given that you're now at a net cash position, under what market conditions and under what amounts of net cash and growth cash would you consider starting your share repurchase again?
Sean Healey
One component of our strategy has always been disciplined capital management. And the degree to which we did not see material new investments on the horizon and getting to put that money to work in a reasonable period of time for shareholders, we think about share repurchase. And again, that's consistent with our behavior over our history, but I mean how many times can we say that we look at this period and our horizon for the next year for putting money to work? I think we will not be repurchasing shares any time soon.
Sam Hoffman – Lincoln Square Capital Management
You don't think that – you had made some comments earlier that some shareholders and others had a view that doing a share repurchase in this type of environment would not make sense. And I just wanted to clarify that that doesn't mean you would not – you wouldn't just run up the cash –
Sean Healey
No, no, no, this isn't some ideological thing. This is just about making sure we provide stronger turnover time. And look, for us I'd rather – growing the company I think we all are focused on growing the company through new investments, doing what we do and share repurchase is really the base case, but there's a lot of value that gets added above and beyond that.
Nate Dalton
The bit that obviously we can't share, but we see, is the strength of the new investment pipeline and the opportunities beyond. And in the current environment they are extremely attractive. So on an ongoing basis, of course, share repurchase is going to be an important element of our capital allocation strategy, but it's always been judged against other uses of cash, and clearly in the current environment – the environment may change – but from everything we can see, the current environment and looking out into the medium and long term, we can see very attractive opportunities.
Sam Hoffman – Lincoln Square Capital Management
Do you feel that there's a minimum amount of cash plus credit facility that you kind of need to keep as kind of the floor?
Sean Healey
Look, I think again it all falls under the umbrella of disciplined management. And we always want to make sure that we have capital to execute on our strategies, one which is putting money to work in new investments, and continue to do what we need to do in order to grow the extant business.
As you would expect, we always did, and continue to model sensitivity cases of the business both up and down. We were pleased with the relative stability of our earnings through the very difficult market environment, and we are always opportunistic but also sensitive and prudent in the way that we allocate our cash.
There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to Sean Healey for closing comments.
Sean Healey
Thank you again for joining us this morning. As we discussed in the call, we're pleased with our results for the quarter and confident in the long-term growth prospects for AMG and its affiliates. We look forward to speaking to you next quarter. Thank you.
This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
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Board to review more cost estimates on South Whidbey High School-Middle School consolidation effort
LANGLEY — The swirl of numbers involved in the consolidation of Langley Middle School with the high school will increase at tonight's school board meeting.
South Whidbey School Superintendent Fred McCarthy will present estimates to the school board on the relative costs of moving the sixth-graders to the high school, moving them to the primary school or folding them in with elementary school students.
Currently, LMS houses sixth through eighth grades. McCarthy believes the transition should include all three grades moving to the high school. Some have argued, however, that younger children should not be exposed to older children.
But McCarthy has stated that unless the school board asks him to go in a different direction, sixth-graders will move to the high school, but be separated from the other grades.
Earlier this month, board member Rich Parker asked McCarthy to look at other options.
Parker said that discussions with parents revealed that people are worried about mixing pre-teens with teens and the potential for overcrowding and that a solution must be found well before the fall 2012-planned move.
That move is at the core of the board's plan to put a bond issue before voters later this year or early in 2011.
McCarthy has recommended an initial bond amount of $12.8 million (for grades six through 12), most of which will go for building repairs (including seismic upgrades), improvements at all schools and more than $2 million for prep work at the high school to get it ready for middle school programs and students.
Rough financial projections from business manager Dan Poolman indicate it would take $20.8 million to move all LMS students to the primary school, and a bit more than $13 million to move just the sixth-graders to the primary school.
However, McCarthy has other plans for the school.
He said the facility is intended for the district office — moving there from its current location this summer — Whidbey Island Academy, Head Start and the Family Resource Center. Other programs, funded by grants, might follow.
It has been a rough year-and-a-half for school officials.
During the past 18 months, the board has dealt with declining enrollment, reduced state funding of education, deferred building maintenance concerns and a $1.85 million budget shortfall.
The district estimates combined enrollment for both the middle and high schools to drop from 939 this year to approximately 803 by 2012.
About the only good news was the successful extension of the capital and technology levy that voters approved in February.
Last summer, a facilities report prepared by TCF Architecture found it would take between $20 million and $25 million to build a new middle school from scratch.
The estimates did not include soft costs, such as state sales taxes, surveying, permits, legal fees, a construction manager, demolition and clearing, stormwater and drainage.
That estimate, plus the enrollment figures, convinced the school board to close the 75-year-old campus in Langley and transfer operations to the high school.
The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the elementary school's community room.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Despite having chickened out of playing on the Saturday (I was supposed to be working but events conspired against me and I ended up over at the 4NCL venue anyway). That said, the team had been picked, I wasn't in it and I sat in the hotel foyer with a good friend of mine and mother of one of the countries' top junior players. The Junior 4NCL was being held at the same weekend and the aforementioned Mother's wee lass was competing in both the J4NCL and the full 4NCL! The mother was also managing one of the teams (roped into it so I believe but she appeared to be enjoying the "power" that comes with managing a team!!).
Anyway, this is more of a Bulldogs Blog so I have digressed somewhat. That said, there wasn't much to say about the poor old Bulldogs... as one by one they exited the playing hall.... Here's the result card from round 5....
Disaster! Yet another defeat and the Bulldogs fine run last season looks like it needs to be repeated if we are not to end up at the bottom of the pile! Our captain, Nick Martin, decided to desert the sinking ship, leaving me (as vice captain) in charge for the Sunday.
You'll recall (well, if you bothered reading my blog you might anyway) that I was also in charge in round 4 (our only win so far this season).
As all great leaders do, I steered clear of the grog on Saturday night and got some good rest.
Arriving in plenty of time for the start (unlike Nick on the Saturday who arrived about twenty minutes late - after his game had started) I rounded up the troops and gave them each some individual nuggets of wisdom.
Cajoling words of encouragement such as "don't lose all your smegging material", "avoid playing that crappy opening you always use", "your opponent is the top junior in their age group in the country" etc, etc, I felt I had done a decent job of motivating the lads.
End result?
Well, my game first. I was very very disappointed as I felt that I had done the hard work and calculated that I could comfortably draw even with the Bishop on the same colour square as most of my pawns... there didn't seem a way for White to be able to attack any of them easily enough and all I had to do was hold the Queenside together. What did I do? I decided to try and win, of course... why?!?!.....
I was the fifth game to finish. It was a long struggle and had I even drawn, we would have won the match. So, not a great result but sometimes, leadership comes at a price. In my case, my sanity!
That said, it wasn't a crushing defeat and we did get the draw after some dogged fighting from those in the trenches. Where was our leader I hear you ask? No one knows is the answer!
Here's the match card:
I see it as no small coincidence that when I captain a team, regardless of how useless my players are, we do seem to get results.
Clearly, I should be Prime Minister and I hope you'll all vote for me. For a better future for you and your children and your children's children.
PS - any of my teammates reading this, I'm only joking, you're not ALL useless (not ALL of the time anyway!)
As always, Yaroslav, you performed to an exemplary level. I know this even though I haven't seen your game because I expect nothing less, especially when I'm in charge!
It's a pleasure to know that my minions enjoy reading the ramblings. My fingers are clearly too far in front of my brain sometimes.
Do you post the Comrades on chess.com? You should do - I always forget to log in to the Banbury website to check your very own scrawlings!
I have done a bulletin myself in the past entitled "The Opposition". Very tabloid in nature! If I get time I may put it back into circulation!
Thanks for the account Tim. It's very useful and always a pleasure to read. As our imperious Captain you gave me my pep talk before I made my first move. This was somehting in the order of 'don't be nice to your opponent (I was talking to him casually), go for the kill. I did mention the 'smiling assassin' approach. Okay it didn't work but I never lost either. A half a point is better than none. Now I assume your approach WAS to do the hakka in front of your opponent but your result was somewhat different so you must have wound him up too much! Well done to the team though, we are still 'The Bulldogs' and bulldogs never give in.
Of course, Chris, and here it is... published in all it's glory!!!
A fine win by Chris in what turned out to be a very tight match with only two decisive games (Chris' effort and the endgame disaster from yours truly).
I don't make a habit of publishing every game since they are all freely available for download from the 4NCL website. Also, some players might not want their games put into print (though there are no copyright laws attached to anything, I wouldn't want to unintentionally upset someone by posting their game over the internet).
Valid point though Chris... this was written in a rush however, but hopefully I've put things right for you! There's nothing stopping members posting their own games in these comments fields (so I believe anyhow).
Hope you all enjoyed Chris' game - turning the tables on the normally pretty solid Scandinavian.
I think that my win here might have a small mention :)
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On Short and on English Chess....
by timlawson 18 months ago
by timlawson 19 months ago
Coulsdon Chess Fellowship Congress
by timlawson 21 months ago
Halloween Round Up
by timlawson 24 months ago
County Chess
by timlawson 2 years ago
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Clickers in hand, St. Bernard Parish residents voted Saturday (March 9) on improvements they'd like to see in their parish. The public meeting during which the votes were recorded was the second, and possibly last, before consultants prepare a draft comprehensive master plan that essentially is a vision, a blueprint for the parish's future more than seven years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
While about 200 people came to the first public meeting December, only about 40 residents attended Saturday's session in Chalmette. That meant each participant represented about 1,000 residents of the roughly 40,000-person parish.
The group on Saturday voted that it would like to see the parish move from one that is filled more with working and lower-income families to one made up of more working and middle-class families. Residents on hand stated they'd like more shopping and dining choices, fewer chain stores, and would like to beautify neighborhoods.
Charles Buki, founder of Alexandria, Va.-based czb LLC, a consulting group for the parish, described St. Bernard as "a very, very proud parish with real history, a phenomenal place to raise a family."
But Buki, who is handling strategy and analysis for the planning process, said, "on the other side of the coin, there was a lot of anxiety expressed to us that change is afoot, has been afoot, and that things don't quite feel right."
"'I'm not sure who is living next door to me anymore,'" Buki described as a typical sentiment. "'My folks didn't worry about my brothers and me playing ball until all hours of the night on a summer evening, but I'm not sure that I'd allow my kids to do the same because I don't know anymore who lives down the block from me.'"
In terms of retail, he said the general sentiment has been, '"We don't have the stores we want and the stores we have aren't what we want.'"
Jeff Winston of Boulder, Co.-based MIG/Winston Associates, who is spearheading the study with the various subcontractors, said parish residents also gave housing, property value, and property appearance negative assessments.
"So, where does the parish go from here? And, how much work are you willing to do to get there?" Winston asked the crowd.
Typically, the 40 attendees said they were willing to work hard to accomplish the goals, but, still, how representative the Saturday crowd was and whether residents really are willing to pay more in taxes to help make that happen, remains to be seen. Buki made clear, though, that it's not just taxes, its also attitude - how the community works together to prevent blight, crime and keep the schools strong.
Winston said in 8 to 10 weeks that the consultants will have a draft plan that they will present to the parish Planning Commission. The Planning Commission will hold additional public hearings on that draft plan before formally adopting it.
The planning process is expected to wrap up in September.


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Neko Case kills art contest, gets into it on Twitter
I noticed something in my Twitter stream late last night. Singer-songwriter Neko case was getting into it with artists and designers.
From what I can gather from the long string of tweets, Neko had invited artists and designers to create a poster for her upcoming "The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You" tour to support her new album. The winner would get $1,000 prize and Neko, a visual artist herself, would end up working directly with the winner. »Read Full Blog Post(1)


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The unluckiest lottery and a potty-mouthed musician were among the stories that got you, our readers, clicking this past week, and some were still on our most popular list as the weekend came into play. Here are the top 5 stories that piqued your curiosity — or raised the hair on your neck.
From Reuters.com
Graphic: BRIC nations by the numbers
Brazil, Russia, China and India, the so-called BRIC group of emerging powers, have gained clout on the global stage in the past decade as their economies grew faster than those of developed countries.


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Area brief: SU men's hoops improves to 3-0
FARMVILLE — The wait was worth it.
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The screening of an islanders movie will help fund a new
filmmaking effort.
Climbing a 350-foot old-growth redwood tree and gazing out onto the surrounding canopy is bound to engender a little perspective.
Thats the pivotal moment we have visualized, budding filmmaker Benj Cameron says.
Cameron and fellow islanders Ben Greené and Matti Freeman are fast developing a vision for a documentary about the redwoods that among other adventures, would take them up into the trees in the Redwood National and State Parks to learn about and share through film the science, history and culture surrounding what they call these sublime giants.
Since every big vision requires a little seed money, this weekend at the Historic Lynwood Theatre, Cameron will host a film screening of Greenés first documentary effort, Have I Got a Witness.
That film, which Greené made last year as an Oberlin College student project, depicts the first-person narratives of New Orleans citizens grappling with the housing crisis in their post-Katrina city.
And along with the introduction to Greenés film, the price of admission will include a discussion of the film thats yet to be, the one Cameron and Greené hope islanders support will help bring to fruition.
We want to show how humans interact with redwoods, Cameron said. And its a very multi-faceted interaction thats changed over time.
Growing up on Bainbridge, Cameron spent a great deal of time among the trees and developed a love of the forest, in particular the woods of his own Pacific coast.
Yet his environmentalist sensibility grew in concert with an awareness of the importance of his home states logging economy and culture.
Because thats why were here, Cameron said. Unfortunately, its a very rapacious industry, but even still.
Cameron and Greené want to begin their work on the film this January by visiting the epicenter of forestry and redwood study, Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif. There theyll begin laying groundwork for the film by making contacts, conducting initial interviews and getting the lay of the land.
Shooting will continue this summer along a roughly 100-mile strip from Oregon to Northern California. The trio is particularly excited about having gained permission to work throughout Redwood National Forest, notably the hard-to-enter Tall Tree Grove, where the then-tallest redwood in the world was discovered in 1963.
Greené, Cameron and Freeman have also made contact with and hope to work with the Save-the-Redwoods League, an environmental organization which since 1918 has pursued the preservation and replenishment of the California redwood population, and which now targets a science-based conservation strategy.
Yet, Cameron points out, there are many sides to every tale. And to that end, the filmmakers also want to connect with members of the Pacific coast timber industry, and to portray its century-and-a-half year-old symbiosis with the massive trees.
I do want to make it clear that there is sympathy to the loggers and their history, and their importance in the story, he said.
Cameron and Greené, both members of Bainbridge High School class of 2002, didnt get to know each other until Cameron acted in a play by French absurdist playwright Eugene Ionesco, directed by Greené.
After they graduated, Cameron did a year at the Evergreen State College, followed by a return to Bainbridge to focus on sculpture and film.
Greené, meanwhile, studied neuroscience at Oberlin and while there, made Have I Got a Witness, which Cameron helped edit.
Witness, solely focused on its subjects stories and free of voiceover narrative, was influenced by the filmmaking style of the sometimes-controversial, sometimes-surreal German New Wave filmmaker Werner Herzog.
We think of him as an example of the potential of documentary filmmaking. Not that we want to emulate him, but the way he makes documentaries is very inspiring, Cameron said.
The filmmakers also want to take lessons from their own work and are looking at Have I Got a Witness which will also be screened at this springs Celluloid Bainbridge Film Festival in a critical sense, and will try to build that experience into this one.
While Cameron has had a camera in his hand since middle school, the as-yet-untitled redwoods film will represent his first actual directing effort. But just as one young redwood needs another to thrive, hes already looking at how this filmmaking experience will inform the next one.
I feel very deeply about wanting to make films, Cameron said. Film is so young, and there are so many things that havent been articulated. Theres so much potential.
Screening for green
A special showing of Ben Greenés Have I Got a Witness, with an introduction by Benj Cameron, will take place at noon Dec. 15 at the Lynwood Theatre. An admission price of $10 will go toward their upcoming redwoods documentary film. For information, call 780-0354.
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Last 'No to constitution' rallies in Egypt
Egypt's mainly secular opposition gathered for last-ditch protests on Friday against a new constitution it slams as divisive, but on the eve of a referendum it held back from urging a boycott.
Ten Reasons Egypt Should Boycott The Constitutional Referendum
A debate is currently taking place on the constitutional referendum. Should we participate and say 'no' or just boycott?
Supporters of the first option say the following: We want to remove the legitimacy of this constitution through a high percentage that votes no. Should they insist on passing this constitution, the high numbers who vote against it will remove its legitimacy at the local and international levels.
They add that boycotting has led to Islamists dominating the Shura Council and allowed them to reach the highest position in the state. This resulted from our inaction and the boycott of this election. We have to learn from these experiences.
*Referendum Will Divide, Not Unite, Egyptians
*Egypt's Judicial Crisis Intensifies Ahead of Constitutional Referendum
*Brotherhood refused meeting with defense minister, sources say
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[QUOTE=Markbt;1157235]I haven't tried this as I have been more into intermittant fasting than snacking lately, but here's an idea. Melt a bunch of coconut oil, mix in your choice of other ingredients (dark chocolate, stevia, nuts, etc.) and let it cool in the fridge or freezer. It will melt above about 70something degrees though, but if you don't add too much crap it would be mostly healthy fat. That or just eat spoonfulls of coconut oil.[/QUOTE]
Use cocoa butter and it will be solid at room temperature.


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Times Cinema to reopen Dec. 28
The Times Cinema will reopen Friday with floodlight hitting the skies, a red carpet purportedly filled with paparazzi and "Django Unchained" on the screen.
The Times, at 5906 W. Vliet St., has been closed since March, when the lender for the building and other properties, including the Rosebud Cinema in Wauwatosa, began foreclosure proceedings. Investor Lee Barczak, who owns the Avalon Theatre property in the Bay View neighborhood, bought the Times and Rosebud at a foreclosure auction in May, and reopened the Rosebud in August »Read Full Article(1)
Bar owners scramble to keep up with fake ID technology
The arms race between bar owners and college students with increasingly sophisticated fake IDs is heating up.
Students today can spend $100 to $150 on fake identification through a number of websites that claim superior quality down to the holograms and bar codes. There's an underground review that rates the quality of fake IDs from different sites. Students can even watch YouTube videos on how to make IDs showing they're 21, the legal drinking age. »Read Full Article(30)
The Dirty Heads' Jared Watson talks about Landing Their Big Gig
Jared Watson, left, of hip-hop-flavored reggae band the Dirty Heads, performing in the Tap Milwaukee studios last month. Watson talked to Tap about landing his first big at the famed Roxy in Los Angeles. Photo by Bill Schulz. »Read Full Blog Post


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Gnanasundaram Kuhanathan, editor of the Tamil-language daily Uthayan, was on Friday evening beaten by unidentified men with iron bars in the northern Sri Lankan city of Jaffna. Having been rushed to hospital with critical head injuries, he remains unconscious. Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) says that while physical attacks against journalists have largely
Syrian forces stormed the opposition stronghold of Hama on Sunday, in a bid to crush demonstrations before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. By this morning (1 August), the death toll had been reported to have reached 84. The head of the political department of the Syrian
Translated screenshots from journalist Lu Chaoguo's Tencent microblog account reveal his detention and mistreatment by police after reporting on recent riots in Anshun, Guizhou province. The riots were sparked by a "city management" official beating to death a handicapped fruit seller.
Guinea's state-controlled media regulatory agency this week imposed a "temporary" ban on media coverage of the 19 July attack on the private residence of President Alpha Condé, silencing private radio and television debate programmes in which questions were being raised over the event. Radio France Internationale (RFI), a popular international
Kyrgyzstan's Central Elections Committee (CEC) has decided to bar web-based news media from participating in the campaign ahead of the 30th October presidential election. Eleven news sites have been denied accreditation to inform voters on pre-election developments. While some NGOs have claimed the move restricts citizens' access to information, a CEC
Reporters Without Borders has revealed several journalists covering Malawi's recent protests have been beaten and detained, while the government has banned radio stations from covering the demonstrations. The protests were in place to express anger against fuel shortages, price hikes and a general decline in the economy, as well as to


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Police begin patrolling for teenage drinking
King County Police will soon be performing teenage drinking emphasis patrols as the end of school nears. Beginning May 30, 12 to 16 officers will be patrolling Friday and Saturday nights, looking for underage drinking and parties.
According to
a letter from King County Sheriff Dave Reichert
, sent to local high schools and parents, the plan of action is to "arrest and take into custody every under-age minor that we have probable cause to believe is consuming or possessing alcohol or other illegal substances. These minors will be transported to the [high school gyms] via the police jail bus then fingerprinted and photographed."
Captain Dave Maehren of King County Precinct 2 in Kenmore said that the police would be on emphasis patrol through June and actively looking for juvenile drinking. "We are also asking the public if they know of any parties to call the police so we can act in a timely manner," Maehren said.
The goal is to deter students who might be considering going to parties and drinking and to prevent teenage drunk driving. "Every year, we lose a couple graduating seniors to alcohol-related events," Maehren said.
Graduating seniors at Inglemoor High School recently witnessed
a reenactment of a drunk driving accident
in which one of their classmates was killed and six others injured. Woodinville High School seniors will be attending a similar event June 3.
"Minors convicted of possessing alcohol face penalties of up to 90 days incarceration, a $1,000 fine, and loss of [drivers'] license until the age of 18," according to Reichert's letter. "Those convicted of drinking and driving face additional penalties of up to one year in jail, a $5,000 fine, and suspension of driving privileges."


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Dress in "Purple Day" will be held at Westfield High School on Friday, April 25, to raise awareness for COTA (Children's Organ Transplant Association) in honor of 15-year-old Elle Haley who had a liver transplant in 2012. A ninth grader at Westfield High School, Elle was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis the first week of June 2012.
While waiting for an organ donor, Elle became critically ill with sepsis and was hospitalized at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital in NYC in July, where they determined that she needed a transplant as soon as possible. On Aug. 7, Elle received 35% of her dad, Drew's liver. Elle is doing quite well though she continues to struggle with rejection issues and the consequences of the immunosuppressant drugs.
The "Purple Day" fundraiser will encourage every child to donate a dollar to COTA in honor of Elle. They will each receive a yellow "Making Miracles" circle that will be displayed on a bulletin board with their name on it.
COTA is giving hope and making miracles for Elle and kids like Elle all over the U.S. that need organ, tissue, or stem cell transplants. So…everyone dress in purple on "Purple Day" and honor Elle and all transplant recipients.
Join our "Family Fun Run " to raise awareness about COTA (Children's Organ Transplant Assoc.) in honor of Elle Haley at Oak Ridge Park in Clark, on Sunday, May 17, at 8:30 a.m.
For more information email Barbara Callahan at email@example.com. Register for Run, Pay for registration, or donate online at: cotaforelleh.com


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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- After pumpkin picking at the Decker Farm, M. Bennett Cafe is a likely stop. This sweet little restaurant on the grounds of Historic Richmond Town is a surprisingly successful venture considering its limited hours of operation. Charm and reliable food aside, there's another interesting matter about the place: M. Bennett's kitchen and servers are all volunteers. Proceeds from the food sales fund maintenance of the historic properties.
M. Bennett has the look and feel of a Main Street-type of operation in, say, Hurley, N.Y. With brick floors underfoot and neatly gathered valances over windows, the small, rather clean dining area is decorated with restraint. Chintz lines the glass-topped tables. Solid, cushioned chairs are comfortable.
There's a rural, easy-going spirit here. The ladies pleasantly chit-chat while shuttling coffee or bottled water to a table. Diners might hear European visitors chatting a few seats away or hear the chief cook knocking around the kitchen just past a Dutch door.
M. Bennett's menu is very simple. We are not talking about gourmet meals here but more along the lines of items your grandmother might have mastered.
Lunch options include grilled cheese, a tuna melt on an English muffin and chicken or tuna salad with an additional smear of Hellmann's mayo on one side of the bread. Soups are made from scratch — perhaps chicken with rice or stewed beef cubes with celery and carrots — and served by the bowl or cup.
Breakfast includes eggs on a roll, a cheese or mushroom omelet served with crisp bacon, home fries and toast. Hot syrup accompanies steamy pancakes.
My only quibble is this: There is an ugly florescent fixture hung in the dining room that tinkers with the mellow lighting. Such is life.
On another note, The Parsonage, a well-regarded, now-defunct restaurant at Richmond Town, served its last meal Nov. 23, 2006. Since then, food services at Historic Richmond Town have been limited to M. Bennett Cafe. For the record, the Historic Society decided to cease a la carte and catering operations at The Parsonage to curb wear on the structure. In the meantime, the society is considering a full-service restaurant elsewhere on the property.


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Thanks in advance and have a nice weekend.
Maybe a better way to ask is if it will drop or rise further away from 17.5 to 1 which is derived by abundance on the earth. and why.
Dont know for sure but I heard the ratio is 1/10 now..It could return to its historic price ratio when all the paper silver traders at JPM and elsewhere are hanged by their crooked necks until dead.


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We have seen, and not rarely at that, that the sensitive question of the presence of god has been openly debated by physicists. And, unlike it may appear at first, not all have debated against it. Indeed we have had a good number of them who have been firm believers in a God.
From Newton, who was an ardent believer in a supreme deity (in fact this belief in the unseen was what made Newton fall so easily for an unseen force in nature he called gravity,) to Einstein, who often referred to God as the old man in his writings, some of the greatest minds in physics have been ardent believers in the existence of God.
Perhaps we have not seen them speak very often or be carried away by His existence, but this is not the only reason why people often picture physicists almost as atheists. The actual reason, as physicist Michio Kaku points out, is a slight misunderstanding. It is because, when physicists speak of a God, they speak of a God of a kind dramatically different from that which the common man refers to.
"Because the hyperspace theory has opened up new, profound links between physics and abstract mathematics, some people have accused scientists of creating a new theology based on mathematics."
–Michio Kaku, in his book, Hyperspace
I find it rather surprising that I only recently read Hyperspace. But, in my defense, I was perhaps a little over one-year of age when the book was first written.
What particularly struck me about the book was its intense examination of science, society and religion towards the concluding end of the book.
'We have rejected the mythology of religion,' Kaku says, masterfully putting what I, myself, often tell many people, 'only to embrace an even stranger religion based on curved space-time, particle symmetries and cosmic expansions.'
This is indeed true for it is not the first, and certainly will not be the last, time that any student of physics viewed his subject as his religion. While it may appear interesting to some to point out, at this juncture, at figures like Newton, we must understand that, while these physics giants did have extremely strong religious views and beliefs, they also studied physics with equal intensity.
I have brushed upon the question of physics replacing a Godly figure once before, in my earlier weblog, when I had commented on Stephen Hawking's and Leonard Mlodinow's book The Grand Design (you can still read the article here.)
When I wrote that post there was a verbal cold war raging between Hawking and various factions siding with what I thought were extremist views of religion. The misquote (or perhaps misunderstanding, for that is one of the subtler talents of our media) of Hawking's statement that the need for a supreme being has been replaced by physics, to mean physics has disproved the existence of God, kept fanatics of religion occupied for a good thirty days.
By the time the debate subsided (I would not say ended for nobody really knows which side won) Hawking's book had shot to fame, I had read it, recommended it and reviewed it enough to know that what these two physicists had spoken of was really the unanimously approved idea among physics circles.
I had struggled with a good explanation for the concept because it was the kind that, while really being clear to us, was not something we could explain. But my struggle (not a literal one!) ended in rather a shock when I realised that the book that held a remarkable means of explanation of this idea had actually been written years ago. (This, in fact, reminded me of Veneziano's and Suzuki's stumbling upon mathematics that was decades old to explain a very modern problem–the string theory.)
Physicist Kaku's idea, as he explains in his book, Hyperspace, is to create a distinction between the picture of God that scientists have in mind and the common man has in mind when debating this issue. He believes we can fork the word God as (i.e. to mean) either a God of Miracles or a God of Order.
The common man's idea of a God is of the God of Miracles. But, as is well-known, miracles being hardly periodic, or even repetitive for that matter, are out-of-bounds of the explanation of science. In science we only explain things that are periodic, or at least repetitive, simply because only such phenomena really aid our technique of questioning, observation, theorising, prediction and experimentation.
The God of Miracles is what is supposed to correct unfavourable situations out of the blue, is supposed to take care of things you have disregarded yourself and is supposed to help you get rid of reaping the rotten harvest you sowed. I trust I have made my point.
Now the God of Order is the God most scientists refer to when debating such matters and it is the God they believe the common man has in mind too.
Let me explain this with an example: Einstein was a firm believer, unto death, that there was a certain divine order in the universe; that there was a subtle principle governing the universe. He likened the universe, therefore, to marble. He said that what we ought to do is clear out what is existent on the surface and uncover this underlying order.
This strikes me to be somewhat along the same lines as the freemasonry belief of ordo ab chao, meaning order from chaos.
The God of Order, thus, is that divine being (if such a being does, indeed, exist) who is responsible for the order in the universe.
The pivotal aspect here is not in the type or the classification of a God, which might even seem blasphemous to some, but is in the fact that, while the God of Miracles cannot be explained by science–and indeed we do not even attempt to do so–the God of Order is what we have been trying to understand in all the thousands of years of studying physics.
The God of Order is synonymous to order in the universe, the laws, the concepts and the ideologies that exist in physics; and this is our attempt at understanding how this being (if, I repeat, indeed there is such a being) works–and it is possible merely because, within our known, visible universe, this God of Order has a remarkably constant manner of functioning.
Our exploits, be it classical physics, relativistic physics or string theory, all are attempts (I daresay they are quite successful ones) at understanding how things work.
Some have asked me why we even need to do that; why can we not just let things work as they do? Why bother taking the trouble to understand them?
This question, it turns out, is not a new one. In fact the astronomer Johannes Kepler had answered this question finely back in the 16th century.
He likened the human mind to birds. His words, as best as I recall them, are these:
"We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens."
–Johannes Kepler
Returning to our present day (still ensuing) debate, I expect that this distinction (while some may detest it) will no doubt help reduce our misunderstandings; and also our problems with regard to blasphemous physicists trying to oust God from his omnipotent seat in some place as unknown to us as the underlying principles that the universe operates on.


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Mind Reading and Magic in Max Major's Think
* Additional fees apply. No coupon or promo codes necessary to enjoy the displayed discount price.
The last date listed for THINK: An Evening of Mind Reading and Magic was Saturday February 22, 2014 / 8:00pm.
Venue Details
Reviews & Ratings
Featured review from gvranich1
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Sit up close to really enjoy the show. If you are close to the front, you might get a chance to participate. Max was quite amazing.
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Went with a professional magician friend who agreed Max did an excellent job with audience participation and performing the tricks. Really young kids would not understand it. More for adults or older kids.
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Had me talking about the show days later.
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Max Major was intruiging and spectacular. I would recommend his show to all!
Quotes & Highlights
"Best Bet" — The Washington Post
"An enchanting evening …" —DC Modern Luxury
Check out Major's majorly entertaining promo reel here.
This show is not recommended for children under age 13.


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By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new study gives a boost to fixing a bad aortic valve, the heart's main gate, without open-heart surgery. Survival rates were better one year later for people who had a new valve placed through a tube into an artery instead.
Bad aortic valves can stiffen and narrow with age and not let blood through as they should. The only solution used to be open-heart surgery to replace one.
The study tested an artificial valve from Medtronic Inc. that can be placed through a catheter instead. After one year, 19 percent of the surgery patients but only 14 percent of those given the catheter valve had died.
The results were reported Saturday at an American College of Cardiology conference in Washington.