Business news for Sun, 23 Dec 2007 & with words shares+stock. 5 news.

GOLDMAN Sachs Group Inc, the world's biggest securities firm, awarded Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein a record US$67.9 million bonus in 2007 as mortgage losses drove his counterparts at Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns Cos to forgo year-end payouts. Blankfein, 53, will receive US$26.8 million in cash, and US$41.1 million in restricted stock and options, the New York-based firm said in a regulatory filing. Co-Presidents Gary Cohn, 47, and Jon Winkelried, 48, will each receive restricted shares and options valued at about US$40.5 million, up from US$25.7 million last year. Cash payments weren't disclosed for anyone other than Blankfein, who reaped a record-setting US$53.4 million last year. Goldman shattered Wall Street profit records for the fourth consecutive year even as banks and securities firms, including Citigroup Inc and Merrill Lynch & Co, were forced to take at least US$96 billion of writedowns. Goldman set aside US$20.2 billion to pay employee salaries, benefits

MORGAN Stanley, the second-biggest United States securities firm, awarded Co-President Walid Chammah an US$8.9 million stock bonus for 2007, the highest among the firm's executives after Chief Executive Officer John Mack abstained from a year-end award. Chammah, 53, was granted 173,679 restricted shares on Thursday, when the stock closed at US$51.37, the New York-based company said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Co-President James Gorman, 49, was awarded 155,380 restricted shares valued at US$7.98 million. The company didn't disclose any cash payments in Friday's filings, Bloomberg News reported. Mack, who received US$40 million last year, is forgoing a 2007 bonus after the firm wrote down US$9.4 billion in debt securities during the fourth quarter and reported its first loss. Mack, 63, last month ousted Zoe Cruz, the co-president who oversaw the securities unit, and demoted trading chief Neal Shear. Cruz, 52, and Shear, 53, were the highest-paid

CHINA Investment Corp said on Saturday the reference price for its stake in US-based Morgan Stanley was fixed between US$48.07 and US$57.68 per share. The state-owned forex investment firm reached an agreement with Morgan Stanley on Wednesday to invest US$5 billion into the second largest investment bank in the US. The injection was used to purchase equity units that are mandatorily convertible into Morgan Stanley common shares. The two sides agreed CIC would be able to convert the equity units into Morgan Stanley common shares at a price no more than 1.2 times the reference price when the conversion was due. CIC said the share of common stock underlying the convertible securities would not be issued until the exercise of the stock purchase contracts on August 17, 2010. The equity units carried a fixed annual interest rate of nine percent before conversion. Shares held by CIC were agreed to reach no more than 9.9 percent of outstanding shares. Wednesday's agreement came as

AXA, France's largest insurer, has agreed to acquire a 36.7-percent stake in Reso-Garantia, Russia's second-largest insurance firm, for 810 million euros (US$1.16 billion). The investment is expected to add to Axa's earnings within three years, the Paris-based company said in a statement. The insurer will have the option to buy the rest of the company through calls exercisable in 2010 and 2011, according to Bloomberg News. Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service gave Dresdner Bank AG, the banking arm of insurer Allianz SA, regulatory approval to buy a controlling stake in Reso on August 14. The next day, news service Vedomosti reported that Dresdner had decided instead to hold onto its Reso shares as collateral for a loan to its holding company. On May 29, Reso-Garantia said it will sell a 20-percent stake in the first public offering of stock by a Russian insurer. The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development said earlier that it was buying a 10-percent stake in

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) - Movie Gallery Inc., the No. 2 North American video-rental chain, said late on Saturday that it filed a plan to reorganize under the bankruptcy laws, with a major creditor backing the deal and current common-stock holders seeing their shares canceled.