Companies take advantage of the growing popularity of the Fundo de Investimento em Direitos Creditórios, or the FIDC market. The Brazilian ABS fund, (FIDC) is growing in popularity as it enables companies to improve their debt situation by reducing the cost of funding and lengthening tenors.

The Japanese bank no longer appears to be targeting the frequent issuers business.

First non-investment grade trade shows the spoils to come in distressed debt trading.

Amir Hoveyda has become sole head of EMEA debt capital markets at Merrill Lynch. Appointed joint DCM head a year ago, he will pass responsibility for financial institutions to Siddharth Prasad. Under Hoveyda, Merrill has enjoyed a significant success in hybrid capital. His former co-head, Spencer Lake, will now focus on the public sector and corporate coverage effort. Jan Pethick remains chairman of EMEA DCM, which comprises all origination activities across the fixed income universe, including cash and derivatives.

No one saw BoA’s move for “Mimmo” coming – it was an audacious raid.

JPMorgan Asset Management has won entrepreneur Sir Alan Sugar’s City of London contest to raise money for the Hackney Empire, an east London theatre. Eight firms competed in the challenge, based on TV programme The Apprentice, which started in the UK in October. The aim was to raise as much money as possible. JPMorgan raised almost £98,000 of the £195,000 total.

US private equity group Elevation Partners, which has U2 front man Bono as a partner, announced its first investment in two video game companies, Pandemic Studios and BioWare. The deal will bring the two companies together and, as a result of a $300 million investment, Elevation Partners will become the majority shareholder of the combined group. Elevation Partners closed a $1.9 billion fund in August.

According to Morgan Stanley’s chief economist, Stephen Roach: “India is on the cusp of something big.” Roach professes to be as excited about India as he was about China in the late 1990s. The source of this excitement is the country’s burgeoning consumer sector, which, as a share of GDP, is already higher than that of Europe, Japan and China.

There has been no let-up in the spread war, highlighted in last month’s issue. Deutsche Bank has tightened up its spot FX prices even further to selected customers in response to Barclays’ introduction of precision pricing. Sources say that the bank is currently evaluating the impact, before deciding whether to roll it out further. A bank official says: “Deutsche Bank has recently introduced laddered and dynamic pricing to clients. This allows us to price liquidity to our clients more accurately.”

Morgan Stanley took the most M&A advisory mandates worldwide in the first half of the year, but Goldman Sachs had edged ahead again by November.

But UK regulator will not ask for position data.

The world’s largest foreign exchange banks have made a mistake in streaming prices to scores of electronic platforms and inviting everyone to participate in them. Now, they want to take back control. As Lee Oliver finds out, a new bank-only system is being touted as the answer. Who is behind it, and will it succeed?

The massive shift of equity ownership needed in post-apartheid South Africa was always going to be a tough task. There will never be a template for deals, but a range of structuring and financing strategies are taking shape. Mark Brown reports from Johannesburg.

London-based Nikolaus Hohenberg has become UBS’s new head of debt capital markets financial institutions group Germany. He replaces Martin Keutner, who has moved from London to Zurich to work at UBS Wealth Management. Alongside Hohenberg will be Joerg Mueller, who is working more closely on enhancing the covered bond effort. In the summer, UBS also hired Mariano Aldema and Miguel Pinto to its Iberian FIG team with the aim of boosting its Cedulas business.

Could the southern hemisphere provide a solution to the problem of how to settle derivatives trades cleanly and quickly?

Report says lower risk weighting will encourage banks to look at MMFs.

Proposals in the French budget bill for 2006 and discussions in parliament last month could lead to significant changes in France’s public sector debt and risk management. Risk management role for AFT as Cades remains separate borrower.

Thailand’s largest ever IPO, the $850 million partial privatization of Egat, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, was pulled at the last minute after a judge suspended the public offering in order to hear petitions relating to the legality of the privatization. Underwriters of the deal are said to be furious at the action that has effectively stalled the deal for the second time. Last year the planned IPO was shelved after union disputes. The court action is an embarrassing setback for the government of Thaksin Shinawatra and a disappointment for institutional investors who regarded Egat as an attractive and liquid play on the Thai economy. Local investors are also peeved: it was hoped the Egat IPO would provide a much-needed fillip for the Thai market, which is languishing close to 52-week lows.

Japanese equities are at the start of a sustained bull market that in the next two years will take the Nikkei well above 20,000 from its current 14,000 level.

According to a new compensation survey by executive search and consulting firm Options Group, M&A bankers will enjoy the biggest increase in overall compensation (salary and bonuses) in 2005, up 20% to 25% on average compared with 2004. Those M&A bankers in Europe are set to get the biggest increases.

America might still run the internet, but even the biggest bank in the world has to take its time when it comes to cyber-squatting.

Originally established under the white minority regime to compulsorily house non-white labour outside the cities, South Africa’s townships are now obvious targets for a nascent low-income housing finance market.

Markit has launched its independent pricing service for European asset-backed securities (ABS). It seeks to cast some light on the rather opaque ABS secondary market. About 3,500 European ABS will be covered with pricing provided by the leading market makers in Europe. All the major asset classes are covered, including RMBS, CMBS, ABS and cash CDOs. Dealers will provide mark-to-market data to Markit, which it will validate before dissemination.

But Singh’s government must hold steady on the road to reform.

The wounds from the region’s financial crisis may have healed on company balance sheets but the trauma remains

Trichet’s statements have profound implications for some EU member states

Balkans – Equest Balkan Properties plans to list its shares on AIM, giving investors the opportunity to buy into property markets in south-eastern Europe. The fund will focus mainly on retail, office and industrial assets in Bulgaria and Romania. It will also look at assets in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the FYR of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and Turkey. The company expects a target yield of 7.5% once the proceeds of the placing are fully invested, rising to 10% over time.

Can wealth management truly thrive within the confines of an investment bank?

Brazil’s biggest private sector bank is a retail powerhouse. But Bradesco’s president Márcio Cypriano tells Sudip Roy that the bank intends to beef up its capital markets business.

Latin America’s two biggest equity markets have agreed to integrate as part of a pilot scheme to bolster liquidity in the region. Brazilian and Mexican investors to gain access to each other’s markets.