Altamira Releases Updated Financial Statements, Plenty of ABCP.

Altamira has released its June 30 2007 financial statements. A quick search reveals some astonishing finds. For example, the Precision European RSP Index Fund had 37%.

The Precision U.S. RSP Index fund had 44.91% of its assets in commercial paper (including Comet, Planet, Aurora, Apsley, Silverstone, etc.). THe web site (today August 30) mentions the fund's objective as:

"The Fund is ideal for the investor who is looking to match the returns of the S&P 500 Index (in $US returns) with a hedge against currency fluctuations and who is willing to endure an above average degree of volatility."

The Precision European RSP Index fund's objectives were: "The Fund seeks long-term growth of capital by tracking the performance of the FTSE Eurotop 100 Index*." This fund had 38.05% of its assets in commercial paper, including Zeus, Planet Trust, Silverstone, Ironstone and others.

The Altamira Precision International RSP Index Fund had 44.91% of its holdings in commercial paper, see contents below.

Comet Trust 4.40%, due July 3, 2007 3,000,000 Skeena Trust 4.40%, due July 3, 2007 2,500,000 Symphony Trust 4.49%, due July 3, 2007 3,000,000 Zeus Receivable Trust 4.38%, due July 4, 2007 4,000,000 Planet Trust 4.37%, due July 5, 2007 700,000 4.50%, due July 6, 2007 3,000,000 Opus Trust 4.50%, due July 6, 2007 3,000,000 Structured Investment Trust 4.50%, due July 6, 2007 3,100,000 Sound Trust 4.37%, due July 9, 2007 5,000,000 Silverstone Trust 4.39%, due July 12, 2007 3,000,000 White Hall Trust 4.39%, due July 12, 2007 3,000,000 Apsley Trust 4.50%, due July 26, 2007 3,000,000 Encore Trust 4.67%, due September 19, 2007 3,000,000 Aurora Trust 4.68%, due September 19, 2007 3,600,000 Great North Trust 4.68%, due September 19, 2007 3,000,000 Ironstone Trust 4.68%, due September 19, 2007 3,000,000 Opus Trust 4.68%, due September 19, 2007 600,000 Comet Trust 4.72%, due September 24, 2007 2,000,000 Opus Trust 4.63%, due September 27, 2007 3,000,000 Depfa Bank 4.64%, due September 28, 2007 2,500,000

Source: http://altamira.com/resources/e_seminannuals.pdf

Inflation Rates Since 1929

Here are the annual inflation rates since 1929, measured from July to July. Also, the equivalent multiplication factor is shown. For example, something that cost $1 in 1929, would cost $12 today, inflation-adjusted.

Annual inflation in % (July base) Multiplication factor since 1929 Since 1929 using annual average rate 2007 2.36 12.0 11.829 2006 4.15 11.8 11.829 2005 3.17 11.3 11.457 2004 2.99 10.9 11.082 2003 2.11 10.6 10.792 2002 1.46 10.4 10.553 2001 2.72 10.3 10.388 2000 3.66 10.0 10.102 1999 2.14 9.6 9.772 1998 1.68 9.4 9.562 1997 2.23 9.3 9.416 1996 2.95 9.1 9.201 1995 2.76 8.8 8.939 1994 2.77 8.6 8.695 1993 2.78 8.3 8.473 1992 3.16 8.1 8.230 1991 4.45 7.9 7.988 1990 4.82 7.5 7.662 1989 4.98 7.2 7.270 1988 4.13 6.8 6.935 1987 3.93 6.6 6.663 1986 1.58 6.3 6.428 1985 3.55 6.2 6.308 1984 4.20 6.0 6.091 1983 2.46 5.8 5.840 1982 6.44 5.6 5.658 1981 10.76 5.3 5.330 1980 13.13 4.8 4.830 1979 11.26 4.2 4.252 1978 7.70 3.8 3.823 1977 6.83 3.5 3.553 1976 5.35 3.3 3.336 1975 9.72 3.1 3.155 1974 11.51 2.9 2.889 1973 5.73 2.6 2.602 1972 2.95 2.4 2.451 1971 4.36 2.4 2.373 1970 5.98 2.3 2.275 1969 5.44 2.1 2.150 1968 4.49 2.0 2.039 1967 2.77 1.9 1.955 1966 2.85 1.9 1.902 1965 1.61 1.8 1.847 1964 1.30 1.8 1.818 1963 1.32 1.8 1.795 1962 1.00 1.8 1.773 1961 1.35 1.7 1.752 1960 1.37 1.7 1.733 1959 0.69 1.7 1.708 1958 2.47 1.7 1.691 1957 3.28 1.6 1.646 1956 2.24 1.6 1.593 1955 -0.37 1.5 1.569 1954 0.37 1.6 1.574 1953 0.37 1.5 1.569 1952 3.09 1.5 1.556 1951 7.47 1.5 1.521 1950 1.69 1.4 1.410 1949 -2.87 1.4 1.395 1948 9.91 1.4 1.408 1947 12.12 1.3 1.307 1946 9.39 1.1 1.140 1945 2.26 1.0 1.051 1944 1.72 1.0 1.028 1943 6.10 1.0 1.011 1942 11.56 0.9 0.954 1941 5.00 0.8 0.860 1940 1.45 0.8 0.818 1939 -2.13 0.8 0.812 1938 -2.76 0.8 0.823 1937 4.32 0.8 0.840 1936 1.46 0.8 0.809 1935 2.24 0.8 0.801 1934 2.29 0.8 0.781 1933 -3.68 0.8 0.755 1932 -9.93 0.8 0.795 1931 -9.04 0.9 0.886 1930 -4.05 1.0 0.973 1929 1.17

Some facts from the above:

• using July rates (July 1929 to July 2007) the inflation was 1,103%, or 12.03X (for an annual rate of 3.24%)
• using average annual rates from 1929 to 2007 the inflation was 1,082%, or 11.82X
• if the price of an ounce of gold was $28 in 1929, today it would be inflation-adjusted to approx. $336.
• gold's peak was $850 in 1980. Since 1980 the inflation rate was approx. 240% (2.5X), inflation corrected price would be $2,140
• from 1929 to today the price of gold has appreciated from $28 to $660, that is 2,157% (22.5X), for an annual rate of 4.07%.
  

Of course, these are nominal published rates, which are not considered by many to be real rates (they exclude energy and food) and who knows what the rates represented 50 years ago (different baskets).

If we add extra percentage points to each annual inflation rate, the inflation since 1929 would be:

• Extra 1%/y: 2,454% (25.5X) (gold at $714)
• Extra 2%/y: 5,281% (53.8X) (gold at $1,506)
• Extra 3%/y: 11,160% (112.6X) (gold at $3,152)

Updated List of Funds With Asset-Backed Commercial Papers (ABCP)

Coventree Apollo Aurora Comet Gemini Planet Rocket Slate SIT III SAT Metcalf and Mansfield Apsley Trust National Bank of Canada (agent) Ironstone Trust Other: Silverstone Trust Global DIGIT II MMAI-I Trust SLATE Trust Structured Investment Trust III Aria Trust Devonshire Trust Foundation Trust Opus Trust Selkirk Funding Trust Skeena Capital Trust Structured Asset Trust Symphony Trust Whitehall Trust Newshore Canadian Trust

The Troubles at Altamira

After the National Bank announced it was bailing out Altamira of its troubled papers, I asked Altamira to disclose which funds under its portfolio contained asset-backed commercial papers. Since I am a client, I am worried, and I also wish to know the names of the managers of those funds. This was Altamira's response:

"We cannot disclose to you which Altamira Funds held asset-backed commercial paper. We can only confirm for you that National Bank has acquired all of the asset-backed commercial paper in Altamira Funds. Unit holders of the funds will no longer have any exposure to the current ABCP market".

So, clients had to find this information out the hard way. You can find out which ones were these funds in an older post here.

Since I have withdrawn all my funds that are not CDIC (insured) with them and most likely many others have as well, you have to wonder when the layoffs at Altamira will begin.

I also wonder about the National Bank.

National Bank Ironstone Trust Fails to Pay ABPC to the Sun-Times

We shall soon see what happens when a newspaper does not get its money back. Sun-Times reports that the National Bank's of Canada's Ironstone Trust failed to honour $25M that were due August 21 plus $3M yesterday. Coventree's Capital Planer also failed to pay back $3M.

Yet More Companies Holding ABCP

And the number keeps growing. The number of companies that bought these funds is probably too high to keep track of, likely in the hundreds or thousands. My intention here is mainly to keep track of the miners and small cap energy companies. For this I have been contacting the companies in whcih I own shares. Many have responded, but some have not. This will be published next week, hopefully in a better format. Here are some new names:

Acceleware Corp.: approximately $1.45 million of its $7.2 million in cash and cash equivalents is invested in Coventree's SIT.
Air Canada: $37-million
Dundee Bank of Canada: up to $400-million
Nav Canada: $368-million (GTAA?)
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan board: $60-million
Petrolifera Petroleum Ltd.: $20-million of Series A notes issued by MMAI-I Trust and $11.4-million of Series A Notes issued by Apsley Trust, due and payable Aug. 15, but were not repaid.
Professionals' Fund Group: unspecified amount
Société générale de financement: $137-million
The Westaim Corp.: $19.7-million
Western Canadian Coal Corp.: $5-million issued through HSBC, with $3 million in Selkirk Trust ABCP and a $2 million Symphony Trust ABCP. The $3 million Selkirk Trust ABCP matured on August 21, 2007 and remains outstanding. The $2 million Symphony Trust ABCP matures in September 2007.

http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070824.wabcplist0824/BNStory/robNews/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20070824.wabcplist0824

Goldman Sachs Gold Activity

Goldman Sachs has added 3,265 long gold positions at the Tocom. In effect what they are doing is closing some of their short positions. I believe their short positions where in the mid 25,000 a few months ago, now the total is only about 11,000. I will keep tracking these figures daily.


Open Interest: Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd. long: 11865, short: 507
Trading Volume:Goldman Sachs Japan Co. Ltd, short: 81, long: 3265

Numbers are for standard future contracts of 1Kg to buy or sell gold on a future date and for the specified price.

Ontario Grounded Due to ABCPs

The Ontario government announced today they have over 700M tied up in ABCPs, while the GTAA (Greater Toronto Airport Authority) has 249M of its free cash tied up.

Both the province and the airport claim no ill effects and are expected to keep operating though, at least in the short term :-)

More Companies Come Out Of The ABCP Closet

The list keeps growing:

Goldfarb Corp: announced Friday it has asset-backed commercial papers with a total value of more than $17 million that have matured but not been repaid.

West Energy Ltd.: has $29.97 million of its $31.20 million in cash and investments in asset-back commercial papers that have matured but not been repaid

Canaccord Capital Inc.: 32 million in exposure to the Canadian asset-backed commercial paper markets was $32 million out of its total cash position of about $345 million, or about nine per cent.

List of Companies That Invested in Funds With ABCPs

Here is the latest known list of miners and other companies that have funds tied up to asset-backed commercial papers. This information is obtained from public sources and is certainly very partial.

Baffinland Iron Mines Corp: in July and August invested a total of $43.8-million of its $45.9-million in cash with three separate trusts sponsored by Coventree.

Barrick Gold Corp. : US$65-million or less than 3% of US$2.6-billion in cash.

Cameco: of its $332-million investment portfolio about $120-million was invested in asset-backed commercial paper. In the Canadian market they have $13-million in asset-backed commercial paper including $7.5-million in the Apsley Trust, managed by Metcalf and Mansfield and $5.5-million in Planet Trust, managed under Coventree Capital.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd.: reported Monday investing $10.5-million (U.S.) in short-term notes with three trusts managed under Coventree Capital Group Inc.

Goldcorp Inc. : $14-million or less than 3% of its $600-million in cash.

Ivanhoe Mines: $66.5-million of holdings in Canadian asset-backed commercial paper, representing about 34% of its total cash position of about $200-million. Of that, $13.8-million is held with funds sponsored by Coventree Capital

Miramar Mining Corp.: about $37-million of its $135-million in cash was invested in Canadian asset-backed commercial paper including 14 notes administered by non-bank financial institutions. One of these notes with a principal amount of $2-million, sponsored by Nereus Financial Inc., was not paid on its Aug. 17 maturity date and remains outstanding.

Northern Orion Resources: about $14-million (U.S.), or 5.8 per cent, of its approximately $240-million in cash and cash equivalents is invested in a Canadian asset-backed commercial paper fund.

New Gold Inc. : holds about $152-million in notes with Coventree

RedCorp Ventures: $102.2 million entangled in the liquidity problems of Coventree Inc

Russel Metals Inc.: $11 million in Coventree asset-backed commercial paper, or short-term loans, came due Thursday.

Silver Standard Resources Inc.: has some $57-million of its $197-million in cash and silver bullion holdings is invested in the troubled paper. Of this, $43.8-million is in Coventree-sponsored funds, of which $14-million that came due August 22 and had not yet been repaid.

Southern Arc Minerals Inc.: invested about $1.4-million of its $2.25 million in cash is in Coventree-sponsored funds last month, and that repayment of these notes had been overdue since Aug. 17.

Superior Mining International Corp.: on July 20, it invested about $1-million of its total cash holdings of $1.15-million in notes issued by a Coventree-sponsored fund on HSBC's advice. The notes matured Aug. 17, but had not been paid off.


Non miners:

Canada Energy Partners Inc.: $1.7-million of its $2-million in cash into Coventree funds, and these, too, have been overdue since last Friday.

Dundee Bank of Canada: owns up to $400-million of now-unsaleable commercial paper.
The bank said it will get rid of all of its asset-backed commercial paper, except for that sponsored by major banks, by passing it up to its parent, DundeeWealth Inc., or to Dundee Corp., the public holding company through which Mr. Goodman controls his financial services and real estate empire.

Jura Energy Corp. : $14.9-million of its $31.5-million cash with Coventree.

Transat: $154.5-million of its cash is invested in 10 different ABCP trusts, “certain of which” are managed by troubled Coventree Capital Group Inc. ,

The Goldfarb Corp. : $17.1-million or about 55% of $31-million in cash

Nav Canada: has $368-million. About three-quarters of its cash is in non-bank ABCP.

References:

http://ctv2.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070821.wcamecoabcp0821/business/Business/businessBN/ctv-business

http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070822.wdundee0822/GIStory/

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070823/business/abcp_russel_metals

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=d644e260-febd-42eb-bc49-3430c8116500&k=22735

http://www.recorder.ca/cp/Business/070817/b0817119A.html

Altamira Exposure To Asset-Backed Trusts

As per the December 2006 financial statements, available at http://tinyurl.com/ywgr82, the following Altamira funds contain one or more of the infamous Coventree or Metcalf and Mansfield's Aspley trusts, percentages and $ amounts shown as well:


Altamira Short Term Canadian Income Fund:

Commercial Paper (4.66%)
Storm King Funding Canada
4.36%, due January 23, 2007 200,000 199,214 199,214
Gemini Trust
4.47%, due March 7, 2007 1,000,000

Altamira Precision European RSP Index Fund:

Commercial Paper (38.55%)
S.A.T Trust
4.50%, due January 8, 2007 200,000
Storm King Funding Canada
4.36%, due January 23, 2007 700,000
Symphony Trust
4.47%, due February 6, 2007 1,000,000
Aurora Trust
4.47%, due February 8, 2007 800,000
S.I.T
4.47%, due February 22, 2007 1,000,000
Encore Trust
4.47%, due March 12, 2007 1,000,000


Altamira Precision International RSP Index Fund:

This one contains both Coventree and Metcalf and Mansfield funds.

Commercial Paper (57.99%)
Great North Trust
4.48%, due January 8, 2007 3,000,000
Aurora Trust
4.46%, due January 19, 2007 3,000,000
Devonshire Trust
4.46%, due January 19, 2007 5,300,000
Apsley Trust
4.46 %,due January 22,2007 3,000,000
Opus Trust
4.46%, due January 22, 2007 3,000,000
Storm King Funding Canada
4.36%, due January 23, 2007 900,000
Aria Trust
4.49%, due January 31, 2007 5,000,000
Encore Trust
4.47%, due February 6, 2007 3,000,000
Rocket Trust
4.47%, due February 6, 2007 3,000,000
S.I.T
4.47%, due February 6, 2007 3,000,000
Sitka Trust
4.47%, due February 6, 2007 2,500,000
Symphony Trust
4.47%, due February 6, 2007 3,000,000
Gemini Trust
4.47%, due February 7, 2007 3,000,000
Symphony Trust
4.47%, due February 7, 2007 3,000,000
Aurora Trust
4.47%, due February 8, 2007 3,200,000
Macro Trust
4.36%, due February 14, 2007 3,800,000
Smart Trust
4.36%, due February 14, 2007 3,000,000
Aria Trust
4.47%, due February 21, 2007 3,000,000
S.I.T
4.47%, due February 22, 2007 3,000,000
Encore Trust
4.47%, due March 12, 2007 2,000,000


Altamira Precision U.S. RSP Index Fund:

This one also contains both Coventree and Metcalf and Mansfield funds.

Commercial Paper (52.06%)
Great Nor
4.48%, due January 8, 2007 5,000,000
Aurora Trust
4.46%, due January 19, 2007 3,000,000
Apsley Trust
4.46%, due January 22, 2007 3,000,000
Opus Trust
4.46%, due January 22, 2007 3,000,000
Storm King Funding Canada
4.36%, due January 23, 2007 2,000,000
Encore Trust
4.47%, due February 6, 2007 3,000,000
Rocket Trust
4.47%, due February 6, 2007 3,000,000
S.I.T.
4.47%, due February 6, 2007 2,300,000
Sitka Trust
4.47%, due February 6, 2007 2,500,000
Symphony Trust
4.47%, due February 6, 2007 2,500,000
Gemini Trust
4.47%, due February 7, 2007 3,000,000
Symphony Trust
4.47%, due February 7, 2007 2,000,000
Aurora Trust
4.47%, due February 8, 2007 3,000,000
Macro Trust
4.36%, due February 14, 2007 3,200,000
Smart Trust
4.36%, due February 14, 2007 3,000,000
Aria Trust
4.47%, due February 21, 2007 3,000,000
S.I.T
4.47%, due February 22, 2007 3,000,000
Encore Trust
4.47%, due March 12, 2007 2,300,000

List of Coventree's Asset-Backed Trusts

These are the Coventree funds or trusts that contain asset-backed securities:

Apollo
Aurora
Comet
Gemini
Planet
Rocket
Slate
SIT III
SAT