Heavily endowed during the Great Depression it was able to amass a world-class collection at fire sale prices.
Meanwhile, international private equity groups have been picking up distressed Irish loans and properties at fire sale prices.
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Just two years ago, the private equity business was reeling from massive redemptions by university endowments and pension funds purging their illiquid investments at fire sale prices.
Of the five, none is particularly cheap, though Buffett has a reputation for buying great companies at reasonable prices, not for picking up distressed properties at fire sale prices.
Like other insiders of his day, he made another fortune playing shorts on the way down, then spent the Great Depression buying up underpriced assets at fire sale prices, using his cash hoard to quickly enter new businesses like liquor distribution the moment Prohibition was lifted.
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If all or many investors redeem at the same time, the fund will be forced to sell securities at fire sale prices, causing the fund to break a dollar, but also depressing prevailing market prices and thereby placing pressure on the ability of other funds to maintain a stable net asset value.
Slim bought up a stable of companies at fire-sale prices big operations were going for 5 percent of their value.
This meant that the Treasury and the Fed bought stakes at fire-sale prices.
After the second world war the great violins gravitated towards rich Americans who bought up what was left at fire-sale prices.
It concerns the proposed transfer of a true national asset (at fire-sale prices, no less): the last American-built and -owned global fiber-optic network.
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Bear Stearns was eventually absorbed into JPMorgan Chase at fire-sale prices.
What better way than through acquisitions, especially at fire-sale prices?
This would avoid xenophobic backlashes in which the U.S. is accused of helping to foment the crisis so that American firms can buy these financial institutions at fire-sale prices.
Some cash will be used for purely private gain, for example by vulture real-estate investors in southern Florida, buying up those unused, unwanted and unsold condos at fire-sale prices.
The Nahmads amassed so much cash selling to the Japanese during the 1980s that when the art crash hit in 1989, they kept on buying, at fire-sale prices, boosting their inventory.
As companies like El Paso are able to unload assets to pay debt, banks are more confident extending credit, which Conrad says averts the potential disaster of companies forced to liquidate power plants at fire-sale prices.
Three-quarters of the top 100 made their money in property or at the head of sprawling conglomerates, reflecting the fact that the first generation of Chinese entrepreneurs used their government connections to grab state-owned assets at fire-sale prices.
And if things do not work out and Chrysler slides into bankruptcy, Fiat has no liability exposure but would be in pole position to pick up the assets it needs to implement its North American strategy at fire-sale prices.
Some of the soured assets Beal purchased at fire-sale prices were residential mortgage-backed securities that were sold in deals in which banks made representations and warranties about loan quality and promised to repurchase those loans if the representations were no good.
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Most recently, the Emir of Dubai's purchase at fire-sale prices of 4.9 percent of the largest U.S. bank, Citigroup, has caused a level of unease not seen since he tried to buy his way into a large number of this country's port facilities.
In order to meet the margin calls, a suddenly cash-strapped Harvard has been unloading most of its stock portfolio at fire-sale prices--effectively throwing good money after bad--and selling IOUs bearing interest rates of up to 6.5%, meaning that hefty debt service now makes up a growing percentage of Harvard's budget.
Another story that could have far-reaching and possibly very adverse implications for Indo-American relations went nearly unremarked, however - apart from attention from CNN's Lou Dobbs and his intrepid investigative staff: The impending transfer, at fire-sale prices, of a strategically vital, American-owned global fiber-optic network to an Indian concern with close ties to its government and military.
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