US financier Carl Icahn’s audacious move on Korean tobacco and ginseng company KT&G has made great headlines and triggered apoplexy among Korea’s more xenophobic elements. Having amassed a combined stake of 6.72% with fellow investor Steel Partners, and pressed for a spin-off of KT&G’s ginseng division to return more capital to shareholders, Icahn has even mooted a takeover of the company. In March the Icahn camp finally won a board seat in a shareholder vote, the first time a foreign investor has been voted onto a Korean board against management wishes.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is one of the world’s biggest institutional investors. It is also one of the most guarded. It publishes no numbers. It seldom makes any public statements. In a rare interview, two of its most senior officials lift the lid on the organization, revealing the reasons for its success. Sudip Roy reports from Abu Dhabi.

The future for UniCredit and HVB’s merged operations in central and eastern Europe has been determined, with HVB’s subsidiary, Bank Austria Creditanstalt, set to become the sub-holding company for CEE operations within the UniCredit group.

More opco/propco deals are likely given rising real estate values and investor interest in secured debt.

First the bad news: the securities valuation office of the US National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has ruled that the very first Lehman Brothers ECAP is equity. Insurers would be required to hold greater amounts of capital against ECAP structures that are regarded as equity rather than preferred securities.

Raising capital adequacy requirements from N2 billion to N25 billion has freed Nigerian banks from reliance on public sector funds and better equipped them to finance bigger projects within the oil, gas and telecommunication sectors.

What does Merrill Lynch’s $9.8 billion BlackRock deal mean for the European asset management industry?

Introducing a light-hearted look at the financial markets players as well as the issues that keep bankers up at night. In this piece Abigail brings us commentary on Deutsche Bank, HSBC, M&S tomatoes, and Sandy Weill's sweater.