Stowe and AIG??

I wonder what the government take-over (not sure if that is the proper word) of AIG will mean for Stowe, which is owned by AIG. Apparently, AIG is also a prominent player in ski area insurance.

Links to a discussion on TGR and a Vermont newspaper story. TGR Newspaper article.

Stowe is so established it's hard to believe it would ever stop operating. However, if the market/economy doesn't settle down the fate of Stowe could be the least of our worries

At the microeconomic level it's been nice to see gasoline prices go down lately at my local service station.

John from the article i'd say AIG is dominant, not prominent. Betcha part of their recovery plan includes a nice rate increase for ski areas.

One of the yunguns in the office commented about the 500pt one day drop in Dow this week; couldn't believe it could happen. Told him that the first day of trading after 9/11 i watched it drop 850pt while i was eating lunch, point being this isn't the end of the world as we know it. The Shakeout will be interesting that's for sure.

Assuming Stowe is owned by AIG corporate and not one of the regulated insurance subsidiaries, look for AIG to put Stowe up for sale. New management will be looking to sell any and every valuable asset not owned by their regulated subsidiaries to pay down all that new debt.

The real problem will be the international markets. With the economy being so global and when some one flushes in China it affects the water level in Roger's Kansas bathroom. I cashed out some stock a month ago which now looks like a good move.... I'm also glad that I didn't put it where my retirement fund is (AIG formerly VALIC). Sometimes one can't win for losing. Maybe I'll look closely at real estate. That market should rebound in the next five years just in time for my full retirement. Then again..... nano-tech, maybe? I know! Trash! Everybody makes it, it's gotta go somewhere and somebody's gotta move it. I have never see a poor trash business that's run correctly. Sorry for the ramble.

So THAT'S where it comes from!

I read that the 500 point drop the other day was only the 94th worst drop in market history (percentage-wise). To equal what happened on October 19th, 1987, the market would have had to fall ANOTHER 1,350 points on top of what it did. Imagine an eighteen hundred point drop in a single day. Could the Washington Post fit the headline on the front page???

The word from friends in VT

>Selling SMR nets AIG little. Keeping it provides a place of retreat
>for beleaguered company execs, as it has been since roughly 1946.

Bingo. Stowe and AIG will be together for a long time.

There was a good article on this in the Stowe Reporter recently. Here are a
couple paragraphs pertaining to the discussion (Wesley knows his stuff):

"Stowe Mountain Resort is so tiny in the AIG galaxy - a footnote that
doesn't even appear in the company's annual report - that Greenberg's
interest, let alone his call, hearken to Stowe's early days, when insurance
titan C.V. Starr ran the local ski company as a personal passion and hobby....."

"Stowe's status as the Ski Capital of the East was the vision of Cornelius
Vander Starr, who started and ran C.V. Starr & Co. Inc., a global investment
firm founded in China in 1919. Its roots were in the development of
insurance agencies and insurance companies. In 1970, C. V. Starr sold the
bulk of its assets (including Stowe Mountain Resort) to AIG, an even bigger
insurance company that operates worldwide. Hank Greenberg, Starr's
successor, built AIG into a huge powerhouse. But more importantly, like
Starr, Greenberg loved Stowe and made this his second home."

Whole article: http://tinyurl.com/55qj5l