The 2007 guide to Portugal: download PDF

Are you fully up to date with developments on Europe's exchange traded fund market? With experts predicting rapid growth in the next few years and demand for the product from both institutional and retail investors intensifying, it is essential for industry professionals to keep ahead of the game.

Published in conjunction with: Global Investment House • SAMBA Financial Group

Latin America is on the move, undergoing an investment and financing boom unprecedented in its history. Latin American companies are acquiring globally, expanding regionally, and investing heavily in productive capacity, and R&D. Infrastructure projects are proliferating throughout the region. These developments reflect the region’s positive economic backdrop and corporate confidence in the economic policies and political stability that have come to characterize most of the region for the past few years.

Published in conjunction with: ABN AMRO Private Banking • Banco Urquijo • Bank Delen • Bank Gutmann • Citi Global Wealth Management International • Eurobank EFG Private Banking • Marfi n Popular Bank • Sal Oppenheim • SG Private Banking • Yapi Kredi Private Banking

Do you know your Apportionment from your Binary Options? Your Collateralized Obligations from your Gross Redemption Yields? If not, you needn’t look any further as this exclusive downloadable guide brought to you by Euromoney has over 30 pages of terminology from the financial industry explained.

A degree of blurring and overlapping in the terminology of the banking, insurance and investment management industries has been inevitable. This guide aims to demystify many of those terms, bringing some of the more frequently used technical expressions in all three disciplines into a concise, single volume. We hope it will serve as a useful guide for market participants in all three areas of the financial services sector.

Repricing in the leveraged loan market means that some CLO managers have been having a field day.

Indonesian companies have chosen to fund their businesses in esoteric ways, and that may be at the expense of developing a mature equity market. Old habits will prove tough to change. Chris Leahy reports.

Africa is the last frontier. There is nowhere attracting more pioneers than Nigeria. With its large and innovative workforce, its attractions are obvious. But is it safe as an investment? Rupert Wright reports from Lagos.

NBG, Greece’s largest bank, is doing well out of a domestic growth surge but has recognized the need to find the fastest-growing, most profitable parts of the market. The same strategy is being applied to its ambitious expansion programme abroad. Laurence Neville reports.

Three years ago Khazanah, Malaysia’s state investment body, was instructed to become activist, holding on to most of the state’s corporate holdings rather than privatizing them, and setting tight performance targets. Chris Wright assesses the successful reconstructions, such as Malaysia Airlines, and those still under way, as at car maker Proton.

Bankers at Citi’s Asian headquarters in Hong Kong were stunned when Jeremy Amias, managing director and head of fixed income, currencies and commodities for the region, resigned late in August to join Noble Group, a Hong Kong-based supply chain manager of commodities and other resources products, as chief operating officer – finance.

Just when liquidity on Wall Street was starting to dry up in the summer, one US bank was taking it to a whole new dimension.

Against the background of falling oil revenues and an ambitious five-year plan, Syria is taking its first steps towards a more liberal economy. Mohammed Al-Hussein, minister of finance, spoke to Euromoney about overhauling public expenditure, issuing treasury bills and bank ownership.

"Actually, now’s not a good time"

Have policymakers sent the wrong signal to financial markets?

Al Gore, the former vice-president of the US, is the most high-profile figure in the fight to force action to combat global warming. He explains why a new approach to investment is needed, adopts an unusual position in the carbon tax versus cap-and-trade debate, and says banks are generally ahead of the game – but still have a lot more to do.

Bankers with emerging markets backgrounds are taking most of the senior positions in their firms.

Germany’s banking system is in dire straits, and the answer could be a radical one.

Several of the most important countries in the Caribbean are considering setting up a regional stock exchange, as capital markets in the region become more integrated. The stock exchanges of Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados already have compatible trading platforms, and their regulators are now exploring ways in which the bourses could become further linked. They are also considering a pan-Caribbean regulatory authority for capital markets, as a precursor to introducing a single currency.

Market-making commitment is under pressure.

A fundamental change to the terms of banks’ financing is likely.

The global economy may be strong, but that does not make it immune to cyclical liquidity contraction.

Lebanon’s banking sector is proving surprisingly resilient in spite of dire economic conditions, according to a recent report issued by one of the country’s largest banks.

Moody’s finally upgraded Brazil’s foreign and local currency debt last month to Ba1 from Ba2. The agency also raised the country ceiling to Baa3. This moves brings Moody’s in line with S&P and Fitch, which already have Brazil at BB+ and have positive and stable outlooks on their respective ratings.

Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela, announced that from this month the country will alter its time zone in order to boost the amount of daylight that residents receive. Chávez has already changed the country’s name, redesigned its flag and altered the coat of arms as he pushes his populist policies.

South African financial services group PSG Group says that it will seek a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange. The group, which is involved in private equity and corporate finance, financial advisory services, assurance operations and fund management, says it will issue up to 18 million shares to raise up to R400 million ($55.28 million) before the secondary listing on the LSE, if market conditions permit.

BNP Paribas, through its Cetelem subsidiary, bought Banco BGN, a leader in consigned credit in Brazil, at the end of July.

Austria’s Wiener Börse has added Ukraine to its stable of central and eastern European partners, signing a memorandum of understanding with the PFTS exchange, the largest of Ukraine’s six exchanges, with a market capitalization of €55 billion.