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More inflation-linked bonds from non-sovereign European issuers could be a feature of the debt capital markets in 2005 as the inflation derivatives market grows.

Two months after the rift between the two siblings who control the $22.6 billion Reliance group became public in mid-November, the estranged brothers have not reached a settlement, fuelling speculation about an ownership split of one of India's biggest business empires.

Richard Bressler, CFO of New York-based media group Viacom, is to leave the company when his contract expires in March 2006. Bressler said he had decided that his professional future lay elsewhere. Bressler said in a statement that it had become clear that Tom Freston and Leslie Moonves, who were appointed co-president and co-chief operating officers in June 2004, needed a senior management team of their own.

With private banking contributing anything up to 20% of global bank profits, capturing market share through mergers and acquisitions is a preoccupation of wealth managers.

According to the latest research from Lehman Brothers “the life insurance industry appears to be vying with the Pentagon to see who can turn out more acronyms”.

Foreign companies are concerned about a requirement that they register with the SEC if they have more than 300 individual US shareholders. Buying back shares might not be the answer.

Ever since George W Bush was first elected president in 2000, one of Washington's favourite guessing games has been who will be the next president of the World Bank. For the past five years, the correct answer has been ?James Wolfensohn?, the man now in his tenth year at the helm who would dearly have loved to see a fifteenth there as well.

With the help of law firm and corporate specialist Slaughter and May, UK construction company Jarvis has escaped the clutches of its creditors by offloading all private finance initiative (PFI) obligations and selling its stake in the Tube Lines project.

Best Equity deal

Islamic finance has made striking advances in the past year in its prime market of Muslim individuals, sovereigns and institutions, and among non-Muslim issuers and consumers attracted to Shariah-compliant products.

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Peter Currie is to become CFO at US communications provider Nortel Networks for the second time. He was CFO of the company between 1994 and 1997. Currie replaces William Kerr who was CFO for the last 11 months and oversaw the restatement of its financial results from 2001 to 2003. The company has been subject over the last year to an accounting probe. At Furniture Brands International, the US furniture manufacturer has named Denise Ramos as its new CFO and treasurer after the resignation of David Howard. Ramos was most recently CFO of the KFC division of Yum Brands, the US restaurant operator.