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The problems of open-ended real estate funds might pave the way for the rapid success of Reits.

Javier Lazaro has joined Credit Suisse as head of global markets solutions covering Spain and Portugal from Goldman Sachs’s leveraged finance group. He will report to Paul Raphael, head of European equity capital markets, and Marisa Drew and Craig Klaasmeyer, co-heads of European leveraged finance origination.

The number of Middle East-based hedge funds is set to increase. In January, Abu Dhabi headquartered First Gulf Bank launched the first hedge fund of significance in the region. The fund, Al Saqer (“the Falcon”), is a macro-strategy hedge fund and has a capitalization of Dh3 billion ($817 million).

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has launched a snowfall index. From the end of February, investors were able to trade snowfall futures and options based on snowfall in New York and Boston. “From municipal snow removal budgets to holiday retail sales, snowfall, or lack thereof, can have a major impact on local and regional economies,” says Scott Mathews, president of CTA WeatherEX. “Our clients will be able to hedge the expense or revenue side of the snowfall equation.” It will be a little too late for those affected by the snowstorms in New York in February. A record 27 inches of snow fell in 24 hours, costing the city an estimated $20 million.

As KPMG wins a $5.4 billion advisory mandate, are consultants stealing big deals from investment banks?

This could be just the beginning of a battle between exchanges and their users.

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DrKW has embraced blogging in a big way. The fondness for internet opinion boards has spread from the bank’s IT staff to the rest of the bank, which now has about 300 internal web logs, used for sharing work ideas.

The Lehman Bond Show will now be available via podcast.

Latin American companies are shedding reputations for irresponsible management to become competitors, and even leaders, in the global markets. So much so that some don’t even want to be considered Latin any more. Lawrence White analyses the results of Euromoney’s first survey of the best-managed companies in the region.

The fortunes of Korea Exchange Bank, the Korean lender controlled by US private equity fund Lonestar, have been joined at the hip to those of its biggest debtor, Hynix Semiconductor, for years. Despite the successful restructuring of the company, it would appear that little has changed.

Inside Citigroup’s plans for emerging markets domination | Citigroup builds on diversity in CEEMEA | Citigroup still looking for more from Asia | Druskin aims to seize the initiative