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Issuers opt for convertibles and opportunistic deals.

Vietnam is in a hurry. Rapid economic growth, recent accession to the World Trade Organization and a new seat on the UN Security Council are all encouraging a flood of foreign investment into the country. Yet the politicians remain wary of opening up the market to too much international integration too quickly. Julian Marshall reports from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

The proliferation of sovereign wealth funds is an opportunity and challenge for investment banks and asset managers.

Credit card ABS has so far escaped contamination by sub-prime. Some might worry that volumes are up, but key metrics are strong. If this market does well, it could be a template for others. Alex Chambers reports.

The sinking dollar – not ­the sub-prime fallout – is the big hurdle for India’s most buoyant sectors.

A glut of about 400,000 properties built in the frenzy of a construction boom now weighs on the Spanish housing market, putting downward pressure on house prices.

Watch out Standard Chartered: a potential competitor might have been born. London-based investment bank Medicap, 100% owned by BMCE, a Moroccan bank, launched in November, and intends to focus on one of Standard Chartered’s specialities: Africa.

Two of Kazakhstan’s leading companies are poised to fully test investor sentiment towards the central Asian state in the coming weeks, with big transactions in the debt and equity markets.

The sixth annual report on global investment management by KPMG has revealed that further convergence between hedge funds, private equity companies and long-only managers is to be expected.

A study by Integrity Research Associates shows a disparity between research conducted by traditional buy-side firms and their hedge fund counterparts that could explain the latter’s outperformance.

The once-unthinkable news that super-senior CDO risk could be vulnerable to downgrade has been very bad news for the monoline guarantors as well as the banks. Most vulnerable to write-downs as a result of wrapping these tranches is Ambac, with $29.2 billion exposure to US ABS CDOs. MBIA has $19.3 billion and XLCA $16.1 billion. However, Moody’s reckons that the likelihood of any of these firms facing a capital shortfall is unlikely (MBIA) or moderate (Ambac and XLCA). The rating agencies deem Natixis-owned CIFG to be at the greatest risk of facing a capital shortfall. The firm has a $4 billion exposure to the CDO market. Of the big four firms, FSA is the most comfortably positioned, with a mere $364 million exposure to US ABS CDOs.

Bank of New York Mellon is to acquire Brazilian asset management company ARX Capital Management. ARX has $2.6 billion in Brazilian multi-strategy, long/short and long-only investment strategies. Morgan Stanley has added to its growing slate of hedge fund investments, and has bought a minority stake in Traxis Partners, a hedge fund founded by former employee Barton Biggs. And RAB Capital has bought a 20% stake in Tokyo-headquartered hedge fund firm Prestige Asset Management. Last month it acquired Hong Kong-based hedge fund Pi Investment Management.