Private equity exits, privatizations, and spin-offs will reinvigorate the IPO market this year, helping IPOs to account for a greater share of equity capital markets business. Deals may appear to be done faster but investors remain wary. The same can't be said for bankers when it comes to block trades. Peter Koh reports.

Equity capital markets bankers agree that accelerated transactions and bought deals are here to stay. Such deals dominated ECM issuance for most of 2003, with fully bought deals accounting for 54% of all block trades. This, however, obscures the fact that many accelerated block trades that are not officially bought deals have aggressive backstop arrangements that make them little different to those officially classed as risk trades. Clients in need of cash like them because the discounts are tighter, sometimes substantially so. This is despite the fact that in every quarter last year they had substantially worse after-market performance.

Large US banks with ambitions to become national franchise players now see that dream become more possible as slipping earnings bring weaker banks within acquisition range. Mergers look like the only way to grow. But along with the announcement of high-profile deals investors are making it clear that they have not forgotten the mistakes of the merger-manic 1990s. Antony Currie reports.

Parmalat's collapse is leading regulators to question how a multi-billion dollar disaster was not foreseen and averted.

Using convertible unsecured loan stock (Culs) along with cash could help different types of deals break the impasse between existing shareholders and bidders.

The yield curve on European government bonds is set to flatten or even invert from March this year as new regulations force the region's second-largest group of pension funds to change the profile of their assets.

Gartmore's Japanese long/short equity AlphaGen fund was one of the firm's top performers last year despite market conditions that hampered the strategy. The US dollar and yen classes returned 17.1% and 15.9% for the full year 2003.

Australia's mutual fund industry is set for a bonanza over the next decade, with assets under management forecast to reach a total of US$1.32 trillion by 2015.

Investment bankers predict a healthy flow of equity capital markets business this year as stock markets continue the run-up that began last spring. If the secondary markets' tone remains strong, investors may be tempted to buy new issues. But they should remain suspicious over whose interests the investment banks are serving: theirs as investors, or those of issuers' of stock who grant mandates and fees to the banks.

What a coup it could have been for ABN Amro. The flying Dutchman oh so nearly snaffled the top spot on IFR's charity tombstone away from Deutsche Bank just as the Germans were sitting back to admire their victory.

Since 1974, political stability in Cyprus has been tarnished by continued struggles between Turkish and Greek interests. In turn, its progression as a financial centre has been halted by the perception of it as a tax haven for money of questionable origin. But in the past few years, Cyprus has had good reason to celebrate a marked departure from these images, particularly with its accession to the EU due in May.

On the first day of next year Turkey will stop being world champion for the number of zeros in its currency. In January the Assembly passed a law authorising the government to redenominate the lira by throwing away six zeros from the currency. The lira became bloated over decades of endemic inflation, which made every Turk a millionaire. The minimum wage is TL303 million ($230). Since 1980 the central bank has been obliged to issue new banknotes every two years.

Managing director, art and numismatics services, UBS

As November's US presidential election draws near, interest grows in how the Federal Reserve is going to balance managing the economy and managing candidate's demands.

Investors' enduring interest in hedge funds was apparent from record inflows last year. But outperformance of cash equities was already becoming difficult to achieve. This year things could get even tougher for hedge funds unless they can find ways to adapt to a bull market. Julie Dalla-Costa reports.

We enter the year to a deafening beat of bullishness. The long rally since the lows of March last year has brought US and European equity prices back to 70% of their peak in March 2000. Optimism rules and the consensus is for further upside in 2004.

With its standardized documents boosting efficiency and liquidity in European investment-grade lending, the Loan Market Association (LMA) now wants to repeat the trick in the burgeoning leveraged market.

The beleaguered telecoms industry has another item to add to the list of forces undermining its voice revenues. Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) has been identified as the next revenue killer to attack this sector. In the US, people are talking about how IP is about to hit the fan.

Moroccan negotiators tried to exclude wheat from the proposed free trade pact with the US – and failed – but one flourishing export from Morocco was not discussed at all, even though the country is the world's largest producer.

The European equity-linked market generated over e9 billion in convertible redemptions in January, which is almost a third of what is expected in maturities and puts through the whole of 2004.

Public shareholders have grown increasingly antagonistic to private-equity sponsors buying up companies on the cheap and refloating them at a premium in bull markets. Taking companies partially private could win public investors round and increase the potential size of such transactions. Peter Koh reports.

If there's one woman in the debt markets that bankers have to keep sweet, it's Cynthia Ranzilla, vice-president of US funding and global markets at GMAC. She is responsible for dishing out mandates to banks in every asset class and market where GMAC funds its $275 billion asset base and it's something she takes very seriously. "It's a continuing challenge to manage the relationships so that meaningful business can be provided to the banks while awarding that business based on each firm's attributes," she says.

Deutsche regains top spot in Euromoney's poll of polls, while UBS and JPMorgan close in on Citigroup as it falls to second place. Andrew Newby reports; research by Andrew Newby, Paul Pedzinski and David Skalinder.

Valuing private banks for M&A transactions is a complex process, and not one that is unanimously agreed upon. Sebastian Dovey, head of consulting for Scorpio Partnership, thinks it is not enough to look merely at assets under management when putting a price on private banks. "Looking at AUM and the level of wealth per client is not a telling sign of the company's value. You could end up with wealthy clients who are all very old, and want their money to stay static." In this case, the buyer may have overestimated the transaction-based fees that should be achieved from the acquisition.

Josef Ackermann (pictured) says his trial is an "image problem for Germany, for Deutsche Bank and for me – in that order". This is certainly true, but almost underplays its significance. The trial has become a flashpoint for those opposed to attempts to overhaul Germany's creaking economic model.

These days it's no fun being an analyst, what with all the sniping at your reputation. Imagine if, on top of that, you're struggling to find a date.

Big Bang is coming undone. The major investment banks are starting to unpick the full-service equity operations they have built up over the past two decades.

Investec's private bank is targeting a new client base in its domestic market ? it is going after schools.

It's bonus time ? and not everyone's going to be as lucky as Goldman Sachs trader Driss Ben-Brahim, who has just landed a reputed £30 million.

If a UK tabloid is to be believed, Coutts is about to offer Prince William (pictured, left) more than just a bank account. William ? second in line to the throne ? is considering a career with Coutts when he graduates from St Andrews University, according to the Sunday Mirror.