Which Foreign Banks Have Large Exposures to Dubai World?

According to WSJ, European Banks’ UAE Exposure Totals $83.7 Billion.

The breakdown is as follows:

UK banks = $49.5B
French banks = $11.3B
German banks = $10.2B
Dutch banks = $4.7B
Swiss banks = $4.3B
Italian and Belgian banks = $3.2B

The British banks that have large exposure to Dubai World are:  HSBC Holdings (HBC), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Barclays (BCS), Llyods Banking Group (LYG) and Standard Chartered. RBS has about $1B exposure and Barclays loaned about $200M.

From the Web:

The Japanese banks that lent funds to DW include Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (MTU), Sumitomo Mitsui and Mizuho. Mizuho is owed about $100M.

Taiwanese banks’  exposure to Dubai World amounts to $196M.

The Top 40 Swiss Brands

Some of the best brands in the world are owned by Swiss companies. According to the “Switzerland’s 40 Most Valuable Brands” report published by Interbrand earlier this year, the most valuable brand of Switzerland is Nescafe, the classic instant coffee. Nescafe is owned by the Swiss food company Nestle (OTC: NSRGY) which took the third rank. The second most valuable Swiss brand is the banking giant UBS (UBS). 

Omega, Swatch, Longines, Breguet, Tissot and Rado watch brands in the list belong to The Swatch Group.

The list below shows The 40 Most Valuable Brands of Switzerland:

Top-40-Swiss-Brands

Source: Interbrand

Ten Dividend Stocks Trading in NASDAQ

To select the 10 dividend stocks I used the The NASDAQ Dividend Achievers Index published by Mergent. This Index is weighted by market capitalization and tracks the
performance of top dividend stocks traded on the NASDAQ market.

Components of this index meet the following criteria:

  • Must trade on the NASDAQ
  • Company must be incorporated in the USA or its territories
  • Must have Increased dividends for the past 10 or more consecutive years
  • Meet a minimum daily trading requirement of at least $500K

The Top 10 Holdings of this Index as of September, 2009 are:

1. Automatic Data Processing Inc (ADP)
Current Dividend Yield: 3.09%

2. Northern Trust Corp (NTRS)
Current Dividend Yield: 2.32%

3. Price T Rowe Group Inc (TROW)
Current Dividend Yield: 2.04%

4. Paychex Inc (PAYX)
Current Dividend Yield: 3.91%

5. C H Robinson Worldwide Inc (CHRW)
Current Dividend Yield: 1.77%

6. Expeditors Intl Wash Inc (EXPD)
Current Dividend Yield: 1.17%

7. Sigma Aldrich Corp (SIAL)
Current Dividend Yield: 1.07%

8. Linear Technology Corp (LLTC)
Current Dividend Yield: 3.23%

9. Ross Stores Inc (ROST)
Current Dividend Yield: 0.98%

10.Fastenal Co (FAST)
Current Dividend Yield: 1.96%