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The near-term outlook for the Shanghai and Shenzhen equity markets is certainly not helped by the fact that the best and brightest corporate issuers usually chose to head west and list directly in Hong Kong or New York. Davin Mackenzie, managing director of Peak Capital, a Beijing-based private-equity firm, says the best investment prospects in China – if they can be identified – have the same characteristics: transparent accounts that show a record of compliance with tax laws, constant improvements in their core businesses rather than over-diversifying, and management teams that include senior executives who have been educated abroad and spent significant time there. “These types of good investment targets are often already listed overseas, allowing them to ‘step outside of the inherent restraints of doing business in China,’” says Mackenzie.

Balkans – Equest Balkan Properties plans to list its shares on AIM, giving investors the opportunity to buy into property markets in south-eastern Europe. The fund will focus mainly on retail, office and industrial assets in Bulgaria and Romania. It will also look at assets in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the FYR of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and Turkey. The company expects a target yield of 7.5% once the proceeds of the placing are fully invested, rising to 10% over time.

The wounds from the region’s financial crisis may have healed on company balance sheets but the trauma remains

Thailand’s largest ever IPO, the $850 million partial privatization of Egat, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, was pulled at the last minute after a judge suspended the public offering in order to hear petitions relating to the legality of the privatization. Underwriters of the deal are said to be furious at the action that has effectively stalled the deal for the second time. Last year the planned IPO was shelved after union disputes. The court action is an embarrassing setback for the government of Thaksin Shinawatra and a disappointment for institutional investors who regarded Egat as an attractive and liquid play on the Thai economy. Local investors are also peeved: it was hoped the Egat IPO would provide a much-needed fillip for the Thai market, which is languishing close to 52-week lows.

Can wealth management truly thrive within the confines of an investment bank?

Originally established under the white minority regime to compulsorily house non-white labour outside the cities, South Africa’s townships are now obvious targets for a nascent low-income housing finance market.

Japanese equities are at the start of a sustained bull market that in the next two years will take the Nikkei well above 20,000 from its current 14,000 level.

SovRisc is capital markets disintermediation and may transform the $50 billion export loan guarantee business.

Hidden issuers are using swaps rather than bonds

Euromoney’s 10th Asian company ranking is based on a survey of market analysts at leading banks and research institutes in Asia. We received replies from 67 institutions. Respondents were asked to nominate the top three companies in each of the countries or sectors they covered, bearing in mind market strength, profitability, growth potential and quality of management and earnings. Points were awarded on the scale of 4:3:2.

But Singh’s government must hold steady on the road to reform.

Brazil’s biggest private sector bank is a retail powerhouse. But Bradesco’s president Márcio Cypriano tells Sudip Roy that the bank intends to beef up its capital markets business.