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Japan’s recent M&A boom is set to accelerate, driven by aggressive upstart companies, foreign and domestic private equity buyers and hungry overseas corporations. Now they have restructured, healthy Japanese corporations have plenty of domestic consolidation to do. M&A is becoming an increasingly accepted management tool. A handful of leading Japanese companies will use it to cement global leadership. Peter Lee reports.

Japan has suffered 15 years of stagnation; a period in which an entire generation of financial innovation passed it by. Suddenly, investment bankers are licking their lips at the prospect of helping its financial markets play catch up. Some consider Japan a $500 trillion emerging market.

Japanese companies are now creditworthy and the banks are recapitalized but neither side seems keen to enter into loan transactions. But companies can see the long-term value of establishing access to capital markets. And lenders are keen to repackage and redistribute credit risk in new ways and define a new relationship with corporate customers. Peter Lee reports

In 2004, the Société Générale Group created a new division, Global Investment Management and Services (GIMS) to seek out synergies between asset management, private banking and securities services. Shahnaz Mahmud explores how successful the French bank has been at identifying these connections and the impact on SGAM.

It may not have been the most successful deal of 2005, but the French supermarket group kick started the hybrid market.

Rarely, if ever, has an issuer faced such a challenging environment for its debut bond issue.

Euromoney’s annual poll of polls shows that universal banks still dominate overall because of the breadth of their business. But firms such as Barclays Capital, Merrill Lynch and Société Générale are scoring notable successes in their chosen areas. Clive Horwood spoke to their heads of investment banking.

Bankers and investors question the slew of Latin American perp issues.

The Italian bank refined the blueprint for cross-border bank mergers in Europe.

The technology company’s buyout pushed back the limits of what is possible in LBOs.

Rumours had been swirling around about the fate of ECN Hotspot for weeks. Many commented that with legendary billionaire currency speculator Joe Lewis as one of its backers, Hotspot was unlikely to be experiencing a cash crunch. Nonetheless, its present owners have seen fit to accept an all-cash bid of about $77.5 million for the business from Knight Capital Group. The close of the transaction is subject to receipt of appropriate regulatory approval and is expected to be completed within 90 days of its announcement on January 24.

First-of-a-kind deal exploits strong interest in regional IPOs.