CHAMPAGNE CORKS WERE popping in Lisbon to herald the smooth passage of Portugal’s covered bond legislation. So Europe has yet another covered bond market, news that will have been greeted with a certain amount of resignation in Italy by both banks and regulators. It all looks so easy, but somehow Italy has made it look very, very difficult.

Yucho privatization is a big ask for Japan’s financial sector.

Created in 1961 to supplement the pensions of military personnel, Turkish pension fund Oyak has traditionally delivered returns by holding majority stakes in Turkish companies. Profiting from the economy’s strong growth rates, the addition of a fixed-income portfolio has enabled the fund to ride the volatility of the market. Florian Neuhof reports.

Electronic trading of Japanese government bonds will account for half of the inter-dealer market by the end of 2006, according to estimates in a report published by research firm Celent.

Chernukhin gobbles up Poultry property

Italy’s Sanpaolo IMI has won the race to acquire Bank of Alexandria. It will pay $2 billion for an 80% stake in the bank, Egypt’s fourth largest. It outbid a consortium of banks comprising Jordan-based Arab Bank Group and Saudi Arabia’s Arab National Bank. Other bidders had included Dubai’s Mashreqbank and Dubai Investment Group, Egypt’s Commercial International Bank and BNP Paribas.

SG aims to capitalize on the increasing demand for credit derivatives as a risk mitigation tool.

The market has coped well with debut deals from Sweden, the UK, Norway and Portugal; more are imminent.

Euronext.liffe makes an attempt to regain a foothold in derivative futures trading at the long end of the European bond curve this month when it launches a new range of bond futures based on the whole eurozone and the largest eurozone countries – Germany, France and Italy.

A huge influx of liquidity has made the collateralized loan obligation almost standard fare for Europe’s institutional investors. But as they snap up CLO equity and new credit opportunity funds, they need to choose carefully.

Freddie Mac withdraws liquidity from the euro market.

Washington Mutual has broken new ground in several areas during the past year. Not least as the first American issuer of a covered bond. However, it made a substantial impact with its hybrid issuance too. WaMu’s treasurer, Robert Williams, explains his bank’s financing strategy to Alex Chambers.

It’s somewhat ironic that Dresdner has an F1 car in the building. After all, motor racing is associated with glamour, sex appeal and life in the fast lane – all the things that Dresdner is not.

The wilder shores of technical analysis never want for proponents and followers. So are there perhaps truths to be found in all this numerology? Or is it just a load of bloody offal?

HSBC has transferred all of its UK mortgage assets into a single pool, which should cut costs for its new covered bond and RMBS programmes.

End investors and hedge fund managers are increasingly concerned about those funds of funds that take a hot money view, rapidly switching cash in and out of hedge funds. Some of the horror stories risk tainting the entire industry. Helen Avery reports.