There is rarely much middle ground between deluge and drought in Hong Kong's IPO market, which is powered by a powerful but fickle wall of retail money. The failure of several high-profile issues has started to claim victims. With mainland China's increasing reliance on Hong Kong to absorb issues from its frantic restructuring efforts, a market closure could have a serious impact.

M&A activity in Australia, which has the largest M&A market in the Asia Pacific ex-Japan region, is set to grow by 20% this year, according to JPMorgan.

Economic recovery in Japan is not expected to be accompanied by a rush of corporates to the bond markets. Many companies are still paying down debt and those that are borrowing can do so relatively cheaply through bank lending. Nevertheless, there are signs of growing activity from Japanese credits both domestically and in international markets.

ABN Amro last month made a curious choice of words to announce the arrival of some new staff in its commodity derivatives division.

Development bank AFD's issue offered government-style risk with enhanced yield. That was a winning formula with investors, whose interest rapidly took the e300 million deal's book to e1.2 billion.

www.breakingviews.com

Glittering skyscrapers, air-conditioned malls, manicured lawns, litter-free boulevards, and a law-abiding population... It is hard to believe that 200 years ago Singapore was a disease-ridden backwater populated by fisherman and pirates. And just 40 years ago the island state was racially divided, lacking in resources and reliant on unfriendly neighbours for food and water. Singapore?s transformation into a thriving global financial centre, however, is not a result of natural evolution. Rather, its leaders have approached it as a carefully thought-out project. What Singapore has lacked, it has simply created ? it?s ?a man-made miracle?.

Portuguese banks got through last year's recession remarkably smoothly. But despite their strength, there's still talk of further consolidation. Quite how this would be achieved is not clear, particularly as the government is likely to resist further foreign involvement.

Of all the global investment banks, UBS has perhaps the most unlikely provenance, rooted as it is in private-banking skills. After transformational acquisitions a new UBS has emerged that means business. Group CEO Peter Wuffli outlines its ambitions in Asia.

The family's toilet seat hangs on a nail in the shared bathroom. The man in the big room at the end of the corridor is always drunk. No-one cleans the kitchen properly. And the baby next door always cries in the middle of the night. Tens of thousands of Russians still live in communal apartments (komunalka) in buildings confiscated from the rich and given to the workers immediately after the revolution. Entire families are crushed into each room, with six or seven families to an apartment. The irony is that some have decent jobs but are unable to borrow from a bank, so moving remains beyond their reach.

Appointed and paid for by issuers but charged with protecting investors' interests, bond trustees are in an ambiguous position. And with bondholders expecting more activism, trustees are coming under closer scrutiny.

www.breakingviews.com

UK bankers depressed by the size of their last bonus should stop reading now. The news gets worse.

If you ask a trader to explain the emotional relationship he has with his positions, you will usually be met with a gruff rebuff.

When WestLB put the venerable but slightly dishevelled corporate broker Panmure Gordon up for sale in January 2004 it was probably rather surprised to find 35 bidders competing for the toy it had got bored with.

Of the 10 countries to join the EU last month, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic have been identified as offering the most opportunities for wealth managers. According to a report by Datamonitor, the relatively high national savings ratios in the three countries offer an encouraging sign to banks looking at entering the wealth management sector in central and eastern Europe. "In comparison to the UK, with a national saving ratio of 13.1%, individuals in all three countries save, on average, a far greater proportion of their disposable income," says the report.

Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS), the electronic settlement network for foreign exchange, is handling a growing proportion of transactions globally, according to a new report.

Six years of haggling came to an end last month when Russia and the EU finally signed off on a bilateral trade agreement that clears away a major obstacle in Russia?s efforts to join the World Trade Organization.

By Fiona Maharg Bravo

The publication of Turkey's first set of corporate governance guidelines and plans for a new index on the ISE measuring compliance are encouraging. But the high level of family ownership is an impediment to good practice.

It all looked propitious for FDI. The World Bank/IFC was touting it, reforms favouring foreign investment had been put in place and the opening of talks for EU accession seemed assured. Enter the element of destabilizing surprise that Turkey specializes in.

It seems Bank of England governor Mervyn King?s love of football is catching on at the UK?s central bank.

There was great potential for confusion at Deutsche Bank?s London office one day last month. Standing in the grand reception area was a large sign bearing the words ?Welcome to Marks and Spencer?.

Free money and a profligate fiscal policy in the US have achieved the near impossible - job creation. But don't count on a sustained upswing and meanwhile look to equities as the asset of last resort.

Investment banks are bulking up their presence in mortgage lending, once the exclusive domain of their commercial and retail brethren. For some, such as Merrill Lynch, the advantage lies in being able to offer yet another financial product to its wealthy private clients.

Private investors and institutions have both benefited from the flexibility of hedge fund products. But as the market matures, the products available have become more complex and the strategies employed more diverse. And with market growth comes a possible dilution of the hedge fund ideal. What should investors do now?

The panic selling that hit high-yield bonds, high-yield currencies, and emerging-country debt and equity markets last month has utterly destroyed market consensus.

Igor Yurgens, executive secretary of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, is a little wistful. “We used to have regular meetings with president Putin, roundtable discussions, normally in the presence of the prime minister and chief of staff,” he says. “We delivered a message, and usually he listened attentively, then we prepared a draft law if required. Then we’d work through bilateral committees and commissions.” But invitations from the Kremlin have got scarcer. “There has been a pause since the Khordorkovsky case,” Yurgens says. “We haven’t had any of these roundtable discussions since June last year. We had a chance to express some of our concerns to the president at our congress in October 2003, and that’s it. So now we’re waiting for a new meeting. It’s supposed to take place this month, and we’re hoping the dialogue will be resumed there. But at the moment, it’s pretty tense.”

Siemens Financial Services (SFS) has teamed up with UK securitization boutique SecDebt to try to bring SMEs and mid-cap companies to the capital markets. SFS and SecDebt reckon that between them they can cut the cost of issuing bonds backed by invoice debt in trade receivables-style deals.

There have been more rumours in the past two years that CSFB and Credit Suisse were about to be sold than there have been sightings of Elvis. And like the King of Rock 'n' Roll, these rumours just won't go away. The recent spate of commercial bank mergers in the US fuelled speculation, with Credit Suisse said to be hooking up with Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and, lately, HSBC.