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Mining company’s CEO hopes credit crunch won’t dent IPO and funding for expansion projects.

Following the retirement of John Fleming at Credit Suisse and ABN Amro’s Paul White, another longstanding debt syndicate head has left his role. Lorenzo Frontini, who ran European debt syndicate at Lehman Brothers for four years has moved to origination within the bank’s global finance division. Frontini is a Lehman veteran with 11 years experience, and now will run coverage for Italian financial institutions. He reports to European co-heads of global finance Philippe Dufournier and Richard Atterbury and geographically to Riccardo Banchettti, CEO of Italy.

It is now very difficult to purchase market share via this method. How important is a firm’s market share to winning business now compared to a year ago?

These are happy days for mezzanine lenders. Having been excluded from the LBO boom of recent years they are now the first port of call for sponsors in the brave new world of leveraged finance. But how long will the mini-boom last? Louise Bowman reports.

High-ticket foreign purchases by Tata Steel and Hindalco have grabbed the headlines but India’s SMEs are also increasingly acquisitive. Cash-rich, or funded by enthusiastic local banks or foreign investors, they are taking advantage of turmoil in the US. Elliot Wilson reports.

The billionaire investor is one of the world’s most successful buyers of distressed assets. He talks to Sudip Roy in New York about value destruction, a Middle East partnership and his strategy for the future.

"Go West", sang the Village People when encouraging listeners to seek utopia but bankers considering their career prospects might now be advised to go in the opposite direction. In what might be a sign of things to come, Credit Suisse has relocated two senior bankers to Asia, seeking to align top talent with areas of highest potential growth. First up is Vikram Gandhi, who has led CS to its position as the top M&A adviser to financial institutions (year-to-date) since he joined the firm in 2005. Gandhi, who moves from New York to Hong Kong, will continue in his role as head of the global financial institutions group. Before he joined Credit Suisse, Gandhi was head of FIG at Morgan Stanley.

The gas transporter establishes a Colombian corporate benchmark by maintaining a flexible approach.

It is not that long ago that Barclays Capital dismissed the possibility that it would cater directly for retail foreign exchange business.

Never mind volatility in the financial markets. Latin America’s investment banking community has rarely seen so many senior people moving around as in the past few months – with the likelihood of more changes to come. Many of the leading international banks are shaking up their businesses either through big hires or internal moves to better target the region’s opportunities.

Malayan Bank, Malaysia’s biggest lender, has acquired 15% of Pakistan’s MCB Bank, Pakistan’s fourth-largest bank by asset value. This is the Malaysian bank’s third acquisition in Asia in two months and the largest banking acquisition in Pakistan.