[OPE] The money in the Netherlands

According to the Dutch Credit Registration Bureau
http://www.bkr.nl/Default.aspx (as cited in Volkskrant, 7 april 2011, p.
22), out of 7.1 million Dutch households at the end of 2010,

*1.9 million households (27%) are behind with their payments;
*711,000 households (10%) have problematic debts (unpaid bills for tax,
utilities, mortgage/rent, insurance, telephone, consumer credit, alimony
etc.);
*125,000 (1.8%) have defaulted on debt repayment.

At the same time, NRC Handelsblad (19 feb 2011, p. 16) reports a finding by
Bain & Company
http://www.bain.nl/bainweb/localoffices/home.asp?office_id=151&language=1
that 16 top Dutch corporations (Shell, Philips, Akzo Nobel, Ahold, Unilever,
ASML, DSM, KPN, BAM, TNT, Heineken, Boskalis, Wolters Kluwer, Randstad,
TomTom, and SBM offshore) hold almost 32 billion euro's (=$46 billion) in
cash, 11% more than in 2008. Nine of big 16 corporations (including
Randstad, Philips and Heineken) increased their quarterly profit volume by
10% or more in 2009/2010. The total profit volume of the 16 corporations
together increased in 2009/2010 by 30+%. On this basis, the paper argues
these corporations could borrow 180 billion euro (=$260 billion) for
takeovers, and if you add their cash funds to this, they could command 210
billion euro (=$303 billion) for takeovers. In other words, with the
financial position they have, the corporations could borrow a total amount
of capital about six times larger than their combined cash assets.

Jurriaan

_______________________________________________
ope mailing list
ope@lists.csuchico.edu
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
Received on Sun Apr 10 17:18:11 2011