April 2007
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LATEST ARTICLES
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The financial supply chain is an important concept for CFOs and treasurers to understand. However, it is one that they might be unfamiliar with, and certainly it is unlikely to be at the top of their agenda.
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Appointment shows growing importance of Asia for business and for career growth.
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Goldman Sachs has been fined what some might call a rather lenient amount, $2 million, for selling short an IPO pre-sale.
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A wobble in China, a rapid sell-off in global equities, a flight to the safe haven of government bonds and the unwinding of carry trades were all evidence of a change in investors’ risk appetite starting in February and going through into March. The moves showed many things, including the interdependence not only of various currencies but also different asset classes. For a brief period, the path of global equity markets seemed to be dictated by what was going on in an intraday basis in spot sterling/yen.
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The launch of LCDX and release of Isda documentation in Europe could revolutionize risk transfer.
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Structured covered bond may be repeated by other German issuers.
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But move would boost liquidity when volumes are falling.
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According to Highland Capital, there are at least 13 new managers poised to bring their first CLO deals in Europe this year. Twenty-two new managers joined the market last year, doubling the size of the market in just 12 months. If the market keeps growing at this pace there will inevitably be some form of consolidation since competition for assets is already acute. Spanish savings bank Caja Madrid is currently marketing its first self-managed CLO, Neptuno. The US market continues to boom – 16 deals a month closed last year and so far in 2007 17 have been announced and 44 are ramping.
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Hysterical headlines and wild index swings have disguised what is really going on in the world of home equity loan securitization.
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Revenues at Instinet’s Asian business grew by an impressive 50% last year, double the growth in regional trading volumes. The electronic broker has ambitious plans to expand throughout the region this year, opening an office in Singapore, becoming the first remote member of the Australian Stock Exchange, and establishing a partnership in India to offer electronic direct market access. However, it is in its new adopted home of Japan that the broker is making its boldest moves.
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Investors worry about lack of outside experience, lack of star quality and the temporary prefix.
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"Japan’s companies had better make use of the advantage of being in the Asian region. The urgent task for them is to promote localization in Asia, in order to secure from European and US firms the fruits that this prospering economy brings forth"
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The regulatory framework of Europe’s single payments system is effectively in place. But the details of implementation by banks and corporates are still a matter of debate.
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The recent sell-off in global stock markets will not be a repeat of last May – a short correction leading to new highs. There is now more to worry about in the global economy and the liquidity cycle is at a turning point.
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The bizarre decision by Moody’s to grant Aaa status to a rag-tag assortment of obscure Nordic credits has put the raters in the spotlight. The relationship between the rating agencies and the big investment banks should also come under scrutiny.
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The good times might be back in Asia’s markets for foreign investment banks. Alas, though, the feel-good factor does not appear to have reached French bank BNP Paribas.
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The Euromoney investment banking champions league game table is taking shape, and after a bloody back and forth at the top, Citi has put daylight between itself and its nearest competitor, BNP Paribas.
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Relics of a troubled past are soon going to be put behind Mexican glass company Vitro, which has just completed a total debt refinancing. Chloe Hayward speaks to CFO Alvaro Rodríguez about his company’s rocky past and shiny future.
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"Actually, I just pitched one of those today," says a debt capital markets banker when asked whether he detected developing interest among emerging market clients in toggle notes.
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With growth surging ahead and inflation high, some analysts have voiced their concerns that the Egyptian economy is getting ahead of itself.
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ABN merger may give global scale, but at what cost to the businesses that have driven the UK bank forward?
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The equities business at leading investment banks is booming, according to a report from the Boston Consulting Group.
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Abu Dhabi investment vehicle builds global partnerships.
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The sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US will feed through to mortgage markets elsewhere as share prices plummet and borrowing costs soar.
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More real estate companies have come to the market in the past two months than in the past two years.
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Bankers’ growing interest in environment-friendly financial opportunities can only be a good thing – whatever their motivation.
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Long overdue fiscal prudence and a rising economic tide have presented the Philippines with its best chance in decades for sustainable economic growth. Chris Leahy reports.
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As the deal between US-based Lyondell Chemical and Saudi Arabia’s National Titanium Dioxide (Cristal) closes so Saudi Arabian merger and acquisition activity looks set to increase further, and to cover more types of business, in 2007.
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According to a survey by Tiger 21, a US group for high net-worth investors, the wealthy wouldn’t have been too hard hit by the sharp slide in public equity markets last month as they had already cashed out and moved money to alternative investments. Tiger 21’s 115 members, who have $7 billion in assets, reduced their public equity exposure in 2006 by 30% in anticipation of a correction. They doubled their exposure to alternative assets to 9.5% over the year.
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JPMorgan has overtaken Goldman Sachs as the largest manager of hedge fund assets globally.
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Recent setbacks will not hold back the world’s second-largest economy’s growing globalization.
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Capitalizing on the surge of private equity funds to list on stock markets, in March Standard & Poor’s launched its S&P Listed Private Equity Index.
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Richard Price is moving from UBS to Dresdner Kleinwort to take on the role of head of equity sales, based in London. He has spent 18 years at UBS in a variety of roles including head of institutional sales for Australasia, head of pan-European equity sales North America and, most recently, head of pan-European sales into the UK.
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Asia’s debt markets have soared and spreads over US and European markets have all but disappeared. Meanwhile, risk appetite continues to rise as new products become increasingly marginal. Asia’s debt bankers have much to ponder. Chris Leahy reports.
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Dubai’s Emaar Properties has announced that it has struck a shares-for-land agreement with Dubai Holding, a state-owned conglomerate.
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Stock markets keep on rising as the country celebrates the onset of the Year of the Pig. But market participants expect a correction soon and the regulators are eager to ensure that it is a controlled one that does not see off foreign capital. Elliot Wilson reports.
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BTA Ipoteka became the first Kazakh bank to issue a securitization of residential mortgage loans in the international public markets.
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"Chávez is the ideological leader of the guerrillas in Colombia"
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Citadel Investment Group is reportedly set to market its middle-office and back-office hedge fund expertise to its peers from May, and is aiming at becoming one of the top 10 administrators within five years. Citadel Solutions was set up as a subsidiary earlier this year. According to news website Chicago Business, the business has the capacity to execute two to three times the 20 million trades that Citadel handles each quarter.
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Press reports that hedge funds will be the hardest hit by the sub-prime mortgages free fall in the US have been proved wrong by Paulson and Co. According to sources, the $7 billion merger arbitrage and event-driven hedge fund has produced 100% net returns year to date, and 60% in February alone on the back of sub-prime bets.
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Ukraine is the latest emerging market in which asset-backed securities are being issued, with both international and domestic transactions appearing in recent weeks.
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Cynics might argue that the US and Russia are leading villains in the global warming piece. But financial Realpolitik suggests that the world’s biggest polluter and Europe’s most polluted country have key roles to play in the fight to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
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One man not joining the cult of Chávez is Latin America’s richest man, Carlos Slim.
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Armeconombank is looking to chart new territory for Armenian banks with an international equity offering.
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Focus should be on monetary and wage policy, says Redrado.
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Deutsche Bank, in conjunction with VTB Bank Austria and VTB Bank, has launched the first rated CDO of CIS corporates.
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Energy development and production have vast and growing capital needs that offer opportunities for investment banks. Add in commodity risk management as well as carbon trading and the prospects look even more glittering. Peter Koh reports, while a new survey shows which banks are leading the way.
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The fourth CLO designed to free up risk capital for reinvestment in the PFI market has been launched. Roger James reports.
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For the funds, there are lots of advantages: diversification of funding sources; the ability to invest in less-liquid opportunities; and the power to raise more AUM. But do investors understand what they are buying? Helen Avery reports.
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With gross public debt more than 170% of GDP and domestic investors increasingly diversifying overseas, the country is keen to attract foreign investors, even as it struggles to reduce government bond issuance and stave off roll-over risk. Hiroshi Watanabe, Japan’s vice-minister of finance for international affairs, speaks to Peter Lee about Japan’s funding policy and broader economic prospects.
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Industry-owned utility ponders fundamental change to business model.
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Eisuke Sakakibara is known as Mr Yen for the influence of his pronouncements on Japan’s currency and was Japan’s vice-minister for finance for international affairs from 1997 to 1999. An internationalist famed for making key policy speeches in English, he argues in this interview with Tetsuya Shibata that Japanese companies must become more outward-looking to prosper.
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Are present market conditions a threat or opportunity for permanent capital vehicles in structured finance?
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Asian private banks are continuing to visit the wilder shores of alternative investments. Chris Wright reports.
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Dubai’s investment agencies might not have the scale of their counterparts from other parts of the Middle East but they are becoming voracious buyers of assets. Who are they and what are their plans? Sudip Roy and Simon Brady profile the people and strategies behind Dubai International Capital and Istithmar as they join the ranks of the world’s most powerful investors.
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Goldman Sachs is pursuing innovative structures, including LBOs and other transactions not previously executed in Brazil as it seeks to become one of the top three banks in the country.