Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Knowledge Center

http://www.springgroup.com/knowledge-center/knowledge-center-overview.html


PUBLICATIONS

If you would like to receive a complimentary copy of a publication, please contact us.
Funding Employee Benefits: A Risk Manager's Guide - Outlines the advantages to funding employee benefits in a captive arrangement and provides guidelines on how to structure this type of program.
Pension Research White Paper - Spring's pension research examines ways to use captive products to reduce funding and accounting volatility associated with pension plans, as well as avoid the problem of trapped assets and the expense of plan termination.
Healthcare Captive Opportunities White Paper - Outlines significant opportunities for healthcare captives and provides guidelines on how to implement these options. In addition to enhanced capital utilization, the knock-on benefits of adopting one or more of these strategies can be significant. They include a reduction of loss volatility through increased portfolio diversity, an increase in the captive's return on invested capital (ROIC), and lower risk transfer premiums.

CASE STUDIES
Our client work does not occur in silos – we recognize that sophisticated organizations demand a fully integrated approach to solving their challenges. Our clients represent a diverse group of industries and come to us from all over the globe. Below are case examples of our work. They illustrate the value created, problem solving and innovative solutions implemented to meet and satisfy the needs of our clients.

SPRING'S 2010, 2011 AND 2012 PRESENTATIONS
Below is a list of presentations our experts have given at industry leading conferences and events. If you are interested in learning more about the topic and to receive the presentation please contact us.

SURVEYS
Our work is backed by leading industry research.  Identifying current “best practices” and “best-in-class” Future State organizations through benchmarking surveys illustrates one method of how Spring helps our clients meet current challenges and, more importantly, position clients for future growth and expanded market share. Spring routinely designs and conducts surveys on the Integrated Disability, Absence and Health Management and also in the voluntary marketplace. Many of the major players in these services areas are represented in these studies, either as sponsors or participants. If you are interested in learning more about our surveys, please contact us.

SPRING VIEW
Below is a list of our quarterly newsletter the Spring View. Here you can find articles authored by our consultants on topics that are affecting our industry. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

WEBCASTS
An insight to our expert knowledge on specific topics, please click below to register and view the webcasts.
Captives for Healthcare Reform and Writing Employee Benefits in a Captive - A webcast to enhance your captive knowledge and expand on innovative ways to manage your risk.
Enhancing Capital Management Through a Captive - A webcast that introduces a new way to utilize a captive's underemployed capital.

South Korea Springhill Group - journals


http://springhillgrouphome.multiply.com/journal?&show_interstitial=1&u=%2Fjournal

South Korea Group of Springhill | edublogs.org
http://tonybricks96.edublogs.org/
http://tonybricks96.edublogs.org/2012/05/21/scrap-n-test-china-tells-n-korea/
China has been quietly and gently pressuring North Korea to scrap plans for a third nuclear test, said two sources with knowledge of closed-door discussions between the countries, but there is no indication how Pyongyang will react.
If North Korea goes ahead with the test, China would consider taking some retaliatory steps, but they would not be substantive, a source with ties to Pyongyang and Beijing said.
North Korea has almost completed preparations for the test, Reuters had reported in late April, a step that would further isolate the impoverished state after last month’s failed rocket launch that the United States says was a ballistic missile test.
“China is unhappy … and urged North Korea not to conduct a nuclear test near Changbai Mountain,” said the source, who declined to be identified.
China feared a radiation leak and damage to the environment from a blast, the source added. “China also complained about the environmental damage to the area after the first two tests.”
When North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, it caused environmental damage to the mountain straddling the border with China. North Korea ceded part of the mountain to China in 1963.



Springhill Group Home : Facebook Buys 650 AOL Patents
http://newscenter.springhillgrouphome.com/2012/05/springhill-group-home-facebook-buys-650-aol-patents/

Facebook is set to pay Microsoft USD 550 million for 650 patents recently auctioned by AOL in its effort to boost its IP for the looming litigation against Yahoo.

Under pressure from its stockholders to make changes to prevent further revenue fall, AOL was obliged to sell and license over 800 patents to Microsoft on April 9. It would retain over 300 applications and patents after the auction.

Aside from the 800 patents bought by Microsoft, AOL will also give them license to 300 patents it has retained for a tag of USD 1.056 billion. Thus, Microsoft ultimately acquired 925 AOL patent applications and patents, 650 of which will go to Facebook. The 2 firms has also agreed to license their patent holdings to each other.


Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Springhill Group Home : Facebook Buys 650 AOL Patents


Facebook is set to pay Microsoft USD 550 million for 650 patents recently auctioned by AOL in its effort to boost its IP for the looming litigation against Yahoo.



Under pressure from its stockholders to make changes to prevent further revenue fall, AOL was obliged to sell and license over 800 patents to Microsoft on April 9. It would retain over 300 applications and patents after the auction.



Aside from the 800 patents bought by Microsoft, AOL will also give them license to 300 patents it has retained for a tag of USD 1.056 billion. Thus, Microsoft ultimately acquired 925 AOL patent applications and patents, 650 of which will go to Facebook. The 2 firms has also agreed to license their patent holdings to each other.



It is not yet clear what technologies Facebook has acquired rights to or those that has remained with Microsoft. But considering that the legal battle with Yahoo concerns messaging, social networking, etc, it looks like Facebook would want to have ammunition of its own.



According to a statement from Springhill Group Home, the deal with Facebook has allowed Microsoft to at least recoup more than half of its costs while accomplishing its goals from the auction of AOL. However, it cannot be readily said that Microsoft has really profited from the agreement as patent valuing is a complicated process.



Microsoft has a relatively long history of close relationship with the social network giant. In 2007, it has invested USD 240 million in  Facebook, giving it a 1.6% stake. Since then, the 2 firms have had collaborations like Microsoft’s Bing search and search ad technologies being used on Facebook. Its video chat technology also comes from Microsoft as it has acquired Skype last year.



On the other hand, Microsoft also has a close business relationship with Yahoo as Bing powers their advertising and search engine. Yahoo has filed a lawsuit against Facebook for allegedly infringing 10 of its patents covering online ad technology. Facebook then countersued Yahoo for allegedly infringing 10 of its own patents.



“Nothing about today’s action changes the fact that Facebook continues to infringe our patents. Companies who purchase patents are often working from a position of weakness and take these actions to strengthen their portfolio. We see today’s announcement as a validation of our case against Facebook,” said Yahoo in a statement to Springhill Group Home.



This acquisition is the second-largest purchase by Facebook, following the USD 1 billion takeover of Instagram. It has also bought 750 patents of IBM in March.

Georgelas-Cherner deal falls apart


By Jonathan O'Connell, Published: April 29
Ownership of the most prominent development project in Tysons Corner splintered recently after a deal between two of its principals — the Cherner family of auto dealers and developer Aaron Georgelas — fell through.

The Cherners agreed to a contract with Georgelas in 2006 that would allow the family’s auto dealerships to be included in the Tysons developer’s plans for a 6 million-square-foot high-rise development at the corner of Leesburg Pike and Spring Hill Road. The two since worked side-by-side to argue for county development rules that would permit an urban Tysons Corner and to integrate their properties.

But the Cherners and Georgelas failed to extend their contact in recent weeks, raising the possibility that the development, which Fairfax Countyselected as its demonstration projectfor new Tysons zoning rules, could be developed piecemeal.

The Georgelas and Cherner families have both run businesses in Tysons Corner since the 1960s. Including the five Cherner dealership properties, Georgelas had amassed 28 acres around the coming Tysons West Metrorail station and planned a total of 18 buildings. He was first to receive approvals under Tysons new zoning rules and inked a deal with Greystarto purchase land for a 25-story, 400-unit apartment tower now under construction.

But the Cherner properties are closest to the Metro station, set to open in late 2013. Without them Georgelas is left with a U-shaped footprint that circles a seven-acre, Cherner-owned core.

Jonathan Cherner, who runs Cherner Automotive Group with his brother Andrew, said the contract offered an opportunity to purchase the dealership land. “They had an option to buy the property, and they allowed that option to expire,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”

“I think the world fundamentally changed several years ago [with the economic collapse], and I think it fundamentally changed for many industries, and the development industry was certainly one of them,” he said.

Cherner is considering partnering with another developer or buyer, or moving through zoning independently. He said his priority was getting the Cherner and Georgelas properties zoned cohesively. “I think it’s just important that they all move through in a cohesive manner so that a common vision is achieved. We continue to be really bullish on the demonstration project and the vision that the county and Aaron have helped design,” he said.

Aaron Georgelas said he hoped the deal could be revived but declined to elaborate. Cherner said he would not rule out working with Georgelas in the future. “We know and they know that we’re still very much linked at the hips because of our properties,” he said.

The county will continue to focus on the project despite its fractured ownership, said Barbara Byron, director of the county’s Office of Community Revitalization and Reinvestment. “Ideally, we do want the consolidations and I think that helps in terms of the development of Tysons,” she said. “But we also understand that there are also difficulties with effectuating them, and while it’s unfortunate we understand it and we’re trying to work both the Georgelas and the Cherner piece, while independently, within an overall concept.”






Thursday, May 3, 2012

South Korea Group of Springhill: China’s Export Machine Goes High-End2 : yousaytoo


South Korea Group of Springhill: China’s Export Machine Goes High-End
From its sprawling manufacturing base deep in China’s southwestern Hunan province, some 100 kilometers from where Mao was born, construction-machinery maker Sany Group plans to take on the world. While workers in blue overalls and yellow hard hats crawl over huge mobile hydraulic cranes and cement mixer trucks in a gleaming factory, Sany President Tang Xiuguo sits in his expansive office nearby, discussing the opening of Sany factories in Brazil, India, and Alabama, as well as the soon-to-be-completed $475 million acquisition of Germany’s Putzmeister, the world’s largest maker of cement pumps. The bespectacled Tang, one of four founders of the 22-year-old company, aims to lift overseas sales, now some 5 percent of its $16 billion revenue, to up to one-fifth of revenues within five years.


The phrase “Made in China” summons up images of cheap shoes, plastic toys, and electronics assembled in the vast factory complexes of Foxconn Technology Group (HNHPF). While China built its powerful export business—increasing 17 percent a year over the last three decades—on such light industry and electronics assembly, that is fast changing. Rising labor costs, up 15 percent annually since 2005, plus an appreciating currency, are putting new pressures on China’s cheap manufacturing model and driving textile, shoe, and apparel factories to close or relocate to Vietnam, Cambodia, or Bangladesh. “China’s share of the world’s low-end exports has started to fall. This reflects a shift by Chinese producers into sectors where margins are higher rather than a failure to compete,” wrote U.K.-based Capital Economics in a March 28 note.


Chinese-built ships, for example, dominated the global market with a 41 percent share last year, well ahead of South Korea and Japan, according to London-based shipping services company Clarksons. Data from the International Trade Centre, a joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, also show strong gains in China’s global share of the markets for railway locomotives and wagons, machinery, and industrial boilers. In construction machinery, Sany’s specialty, three Chinese companies (Sany included) now rank in the top ten globally. Many of the new exporters are producing from inland China, rather than the coast, the traditional region for manufacturing.

Overall, the portion of China’s exports made up by heavy industry, about two-thirds of which is machinery, has grown from 29 percent in 2001 to 38.7 percent last year, surpassing light industry and electronics, according to Beijing-based economics consultants GK Dragonomics. “They are making different products with higher technology, things they can charge more money for,” says Andrew Batson, GK Dragonomics’ research director, who estimates that the new industries can help lift China’s share of global exports from 10 percent now to 15 percent by 2020. “The typical Chinese exporter is not a shoe factory in Guangdong anymore. Instead it is some kind of equipment or machinery maker.”

The Chinese makers of this machinery are targeting India, South America, and the Middle East, as Europe, still China’s largest export market, struggles with its debt crisis. Europe, the U.S., and Japan accounted for 48 percent of China’s total exports last year, down from 56.1 percent in 2003, with developing countries now taking the majority, says Louis Kuijs, an economist at the Hong Kong-based Fung Global Institute. “We have an advantage because our technology and our products level are more suitable for these countries,” says Sany’s Tang. “And our price is a bit lower than other international brands.”

Policy makers have made upgrading industry a national priority. Equipment manufacturing, shipbuilding, and cars are among the industries slated to receive $2.5 billion from the government this year to improve technology and product quality. Mergers and acquisitions inside China and overseas are also being encouraged. Says Shao Ning, vice minister of the powerful State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council: “Our position is we support Chinese companies investing abroad.”

While China’s new manufacturers are not competing in developed markets yet, already they are challenging Caterpillar (CAT), Siemens (SI),General Electric (GE), and other established equipment makers in places like South America and Russia. China’s construction-machinery industry is expected to overtake Japan’s and Germany’s soon, making it the world’s second-largest exporter in the category, behind the U.S.

Winning market share in the U.S. and Europe could take years, in part because of concerns over Chinese quality (the crash of a Chinese-built high-speed train in Zhejiang province in July hurt China’s reputation as a manufacturer). Sany says it spent $240 million last year upgrading its factories, including the installation of welding robots. As Sany expands overseas, it aims to improve its products to match the quality achieved by its newest acquisition, Germany’s Putzmeister, which will share engineering know-how and suppliers with its Chinese parent. Says Tang, “We know that ‘Made in China’ doesn’t have a great reputation. We want to change this through selling high-quality products.”

The bottom line: Chinese exports have been rising 17 percent a year on average. To keep that pace, China is trying to grab market share in high-end machinery.