Emerging Europe

The €489.2 billion take-up of the ECB’s inaugural three-year LTRO on Wednesday underscores the significance of this new facility to the bank funding market in Europe

Merkel and Sarkozy's relaxation on rules on the private sector taking losses on future eurozone bailouts are welcomed by the markets, but experts focus on the importance of the ECB's role

China’s reserves offset imbalance; HSBC and Standard Chartered benefit

Mercator talks extended; NLB seeks new capital

PM vows to retain economic sovereignty; Moody’s downgrades bonds to junk status

Polish media entrepreneur Zygmunt Solorz-Zak took control of mobile operator Polkomtel last month in a $5 billion buyout, the country’s largest ever. Companies controlled by the tycoon bought 100% of the mobile phone operator from four state-owned Polish firms and the UK’s Vodafone, which owned 24.4%.

Euromoney goes where other publications fear to tread. And at the end of a long day, there’s nothing like a quiet drink at a local bar to get a feel for what people in the city we’re visiting really think. On a recent trip to Moscow, one of the team was doing just that in a rather unassuming hostelry.

Capital requirements that adhere to regulatory demands for central counterparty clearing parties will “hurt but not kill” the entities, says the EuroCCP CEO exclusively to Euromoney.

The near-term dangers in emerging markets remain high, even assuming a breakthrough in the eurozone crisis – and emerging Europe is most at risk.

Eurozone-based lenders dominate banking in central and eastern Europe. They have faced writedowns and intransigence in parts of the region. But good profit growth means the CEE is still the central focus of their business.

Living wills, resolution schemes and stemming future lending to Austrian banks' Eastern subsidiaries is on the cards.

Poland, Hungary, Russia and Bulgaria receive worsening scores for economic risk

Air quality is a taxing problem for developing cities

New York City tops Euromoney’s inaugural survey as the world’s most competitive financial centre and the top city in which to do business. But will mounting regulation and anti-bank sentiment prompt the city’s financial institutions to leave? Helen Avery reports.

The world’s biggest cities are locked in a fight for the funds that will secure their future, whether it is to improve transport and infrastructure, create a greener economy or simply to cope with urbanization. Laurence Neville looks at the companies intent on helping them.

Poland’s elections threw up some colourful characters – notably Janusz Palikot, the former vodka tycoon famous for attending press conferences with a dildo in one hand and a pistol in the other. But the result reaffirmed confidence in Poland.

State support to banks increasing; Loan books still growing

€627 million Romania write-down; Recapitalization looms

Analysts hint at the possibility of a military coup, while economists agree with eurozone leaders that there is no other alternative to the deal agreed on the second Greece bailout package.

The Russian/CIS bank is the second within a month to bolster its investment banking division by making another senior hire.

The chances of a eurozone member withdrawing legally from the currency union are extremely low, and it is highly debatable as to whether it is the right course of action, say legal experts.

Share prices fell in the run-up to Slovakia’s rejection of expansion of the EFSF, but the aftermath shows a remarkably unconcerned market.

Markets trade lower over deadlock to expansion of EFSF – a delay which could cause ‘serious consequences’.

Halyk Finance to act on sale of electricity grid; State seeks more international banks for deals

Anti-monopoly regulator approves plan; New securities laws awaited

Medvedev and Putin’s next finance minister has a lot to live up to.

PM forces repayment discounts; 1 million borrowers eligible

Hedges unwound over summer; significant latitude to avoid trigger

Among those Kazakh companies that have received private equity funding, there is a recognition that the benefits extend far beyond the initial capital commitment they receive. Mikhail Lomtadze, chairman of Kaspi Bank, a leading player in the retail segment of the Kazakh banking market, says that its private equity backer, Russia/CIS specialist Baring Vostok Capital Partners, which acquired a 51% stake in the bank in 2006 (when it was known as Bank Caspian), has played a big role in its strategic development and been instrumental in helping it source management talent and additional funding to grow its business.

The country is proving a tough nut for private equity practitioners to crack. Guy Norton reports from Almaty on the challenges facing the alternative investment industry.