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by John Ferry

CNOOC finally closed a significant Nigerian oil deal in January.

Japan’s corporate sector has spent the past few years selling businesses off to pay down debts and restructure but there is gathering evidence of the emergence of a more acquisitive bent.

Lotte Shopping, a stores-to-cinemas group and one of the biggest retailers in Korea, launched its IPO in January as a dual listing in Korea and London, with Goldman Sachs and Nomura Securities as joint global coordinators and Daewoo Securities handling the domestic IPO. Although pricing will not be fixed until the end of January, the valuation, believed to be up to $3.8 billion, means this will be comfortably Korea’s largest IPO. In addition to the domestic and international listings, Nomura Securities will undertake a public offer without listing in Tokyo.

SBI Capital Markets, the investment banking and project advisory arm of the State Bank of India , has agreed a strategic business alliance with Asian broker and investment bank CLSA to provide investment banking services in India . The two firms will work jointly on large equity capital market transactions, M&A and other advisory work as well as cooperate on research products. The alliance is for an initial period of two years but might be extended by mutual consent.

Asia Debt Management, a successful distressed debt fund manager based in Hong Kong, has teamed up with the Asian Development Bank to launch a $338 million closed-end fund targeting financially distressed companies that need rehabilitation. This is the second Maculus fund: the ADB also invested in Maculus I and this time has committed $45 million to the Maculus Fund II. The new fund will invest primarily in the capital structure (securities, loans, equity or other assets) of potentially viable, listed or unlisted companies, in financial distress due to excessive debt or unsustainable capital structures. The fund has a five-year life but might be extended for up to two consecutive one-year periods at Asia Debt Management’s option.

The Philippines’ capital markets have started 2006 positively. Capitalizing on the immediate strength of the peso, the Republic of the Philippines was Asia’s first sovereign to tap the market when it raised $2.1 billion from a $1.5 billion 25-year bond and a €500 million 10-year bond, one of the largest fund raisings from Asia for several years.

594,900,000,000 The global dollar value of equity capital raised in 2005. The figure is up 4% from 2004 and is the highest since 2000.

Happy New Year to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The exchange needs all the good wishes it can get after getting off to a bad start this year. On January 18 the market was forced to close early when trading exceeded its troubled computer system’s daily capacity.

Peru’s retail banking market is almost unrecognizable from a decade ago. In the mid-1990s, when less than 15% of economically active Peruvians had a bank account, 26 banks were jockeying for business in a depressed local market, some with highly inadvisable lending policies.

With hedge funds collapsing at record rates, funds of hedge funds will need to reassess their strategies. If you can’t beat them, join them.

Rumours of electronic broker EBS’s imminent takeover are rife, but a £1 billion price tag seems wide of the mark. Getting these to agree on whether tea or coffee is served at board meetings is probably difficult. Getting consensus on whether or not to sell EBS’s business, and then who to sell it to, must be a near impossibility.