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.

Brazil's hedge funds break through

Regulators can congratulate themselves after continuous linked settlement worked, but mutterings of serious shortcomings carry on.

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

Wiphold (Women Investment Portfolio Holdings) is one of the best-known Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) companies. From its headquarters in the exclusive northern Johannesburg suburb of Houghton (Nelson Mandela has a house just up the road), Wiphold has spent more than a decade helping South Africa’s women share in the country’s wealth.

As the festive season approaches, speculation is rife about who will get the lion’s share of this year’s bonus pool. But that’s nothing compared to the build-up to the Morgan Stanley staff pantomime. As the bank is again generously sponsoring the season at London’s Old Vic Theatre, where Kevin Spacey is artistic director, its employees also get the chance to tread the theatre’s hallowed boards. After the Old Vic production of pantomime ‘Aladdin’, Morgan Stanley takes over the theatre for one night in January to put on its own show.

Resolution becomes a new type of insurance participant in the Tier 1 hybrid insurance capital sector.

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.

Mexico has long been one of the most innovative sovereign issuers when it comes to liability management. Now, the sovereign has become the first developing nation to sell warrants, allowing investors to exchange foreign debt with local.

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

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

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.

Brazil’s hedge fund industry is growing up. Two trends in particular stand out: foreign investors are seeking out local players through which to invest; and funds are evolving their strategies. Sudip Roy reports from São Paulo.

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.

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.

The decision of £118 billion ($202 billion) pan-European fund manager F&C to dissolve negotiations to outsource its operational functions to Mellon Financial Services strikes another blow to back-office operations providers. Earlier this year, Schroders and JPMorgan cancelled their outsourcing agreement, and consultants say it’s a sign that fund managers and service providers are realizing that outsourcing is not as easy to conduct as was once thought.

Banks get together to create industry utility.

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

UK Takeover Panel amends its rules on contracts for difference.

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.

Argentina is threatening to leave the IMF, according to reports in the local media, as relations take another turn for the worse. Basking in his success in October’s legislative elections, president Nestor Kirchner wants the IMF to soften its demands. The Fund wants Argentina to let the peso appreciate and to tighten monetary policy.

Lack of liquidity and diversification still restricts managers’ strategies.

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

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

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.

SovRisc is capital markets disintermediation and may transform the $50 billion export loan guarantee business.

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.

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

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.

Citigroup to take on $11 billion of risk in a single package.

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.

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.

Hidden issuers are using swaps rather than bonds

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.

Announcing its second annual report, Temasek Holdings, a Singapore-based private-equity group owned by the Singapore government, announced total shareholder returns in 2004 of 16% on its investment portfolio, down from the 46% returns earned during the previous year.

Deutsche survey finds CFOs think they are great at what they do.

“It’s nearly impossible to say which one you would choose when they go head to head in a pitch for passive mandates. They’re 10-ton gorillas that joust at the top.”

As bankers work feverishly to complete mandated China and Hong Kong IPOs before the final window shuts ahead of the Christmas break, there are hints of investor indigestion.

Wondering what to do with that well-earned bonus? Embarrassed by unsightly bulges when you’re working out at the gym?

Cash offer for O2 prompts concerns that telecoms sector might be about to embark on another debt binge.

According to Greenwich Associates, the average salary of a hedge fund manager last year was $280,000. The average annual bonus was $900,000.

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.

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.

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.

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

M&A activity is changing the Asian banking landscape and the relative positions of banks in Euromoney’s rankings.

Greater anonymity, leverage and lower trading costs are seen as incentives.

Banque du Liban et d’Outre Mer (Blom), Lebanon’s largest bank, with a paid-up capital of $128.3 million, is set to continue its regional expansion via its acquisition of Egyptian-Romanian bank, Misr Romanian Bank (MRB). Saad Azhari, general manager of Blom, said: “We expect the acquisition to be completed in the first two weeks of December [2005].” He expects Blom eventually to hold between 80% and 100% of MRB’s shares.

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.”

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?

Most of the key investments in China’s largest state-owned banks have been settled, but international investors are still eager to pour money into the sector. ICBC, NCCB and Hua Xia Bank are all on the receiving end.

Noriba exits some investments early after strong performance.

Banks are expanding their presence in energy trading – again. But with two established incumbents, is there enough profitable business for the newcomers? Kathryn Tully reports.

From an asset class perspective, the CDO sector dominates the pipeline and within that sector CLO issuance is at the vanguard.

Until recently only multilaterals with a regional mandate, such as the ADB and IFC, have shown much interest in issuing bonds in Asian currencies. But KfW is planning a three-pronged attack on local-currency issuance in 2006. So are local markets about to take off?

Bond returns have come closer to matching equity returns over the past 25 years, according to Deutsche Bank. European credit strategists Gary Jenkins and Jim Reid looked at more than a century’s worth of data from the US. They found that, over a 105-year sample, equities produced a real total annual return of 6.53%, compared with 1.42% for US Treasuries and 2.5% for corporate bonds. But since 1980, equities outperformed corporates by just 1.5 percentage points.

James Montier of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, investors’ favourite equity strategist as ranked by the Thomson Extel Survey, has identified seven common mistakes in the investment process of fund managers everywhere. His analysis challenges some of the most deeply held beliefs.