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Iran's economic liberalization programme has shown impressive results. But the victory of conservative forces in the latest elections threatens further progress. Meanwhile the country's banks are incapable of funding its corporations, which are turning instead to the capital markets.

Hedge funds are suddenly receiving high allocations in IPOs even though their participation can sometimes reduce issuers' proceeds. Are they suitable buyers or are investment banks favouring the clients which pay them the most?

The relationship between the creditworthiness of the hundreds of names that might be referenced in a CDO creates a new risk category. Default correlation risk is the risk that one default makes another default more likely. In a simple example, a default by a major supplier might increase the likelihood of a default by one of its customers. High default correlation in the underlying reference portfolio doesn't just make investing in a CDO more risky overall. It alters its payment profile. Higher default correlation means closer risk profiles for both junior and senior investors. Low default correlation should mean greater pricing differences between junior and senior tranches.

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The new coalition government led by Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh will kick off privatization sales with a billion-dollar initial public offering in September.

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, Coca-Cola's second biggest bottler, had been buying back its outstanding debt on an ad hoc basis throughout 2003. ?We'd been mopping up bonds that came into the market with spare cash last year as we had been building up a lot of cash and had almost completely repaid commercial paper outstandings,? says John Fulton, group treasurer. But in 2004, the Athens-based company decided to do something bigger: to deal with liabilities that were soon to come due, extend its maturity profile and achieve a lower cost of funds.

It's late on a Thursday night and the party cognoscenti are headed for one of Asia's slickest nightspots. From the exterior, f.bar, a bunker-like building with an unpromising squat black façade is guarded by serious-looking security personnel clad head to toe in matching black.

Iraq and Argentina's debt problems will dominate this month's IMF/World Bank meetings, with the size of their liabilities casting doubt on the international financial system's ability to cope.

Unlike nearly every other former Warsaw Pact country making the journey from central planning to a market economy, Russia has decided to shun the overtures of foreign banks and build up home-grown financing institutions instead.

You're a populist left-wing politician in South America. Your country's elite doesn't like you, and Wall Street is scathing. Your reputation could do with a bit of help. What do you do? Why, take out an advertisement in the New York press, of course. The trend started in July, when an advert appeared in the New York Times. "Argentina," it blared: "A responsible country, a responsible proposal". A list of the great and the good followed, attesting to Argentina's "sincere and realistic proposal to creditors" (see Argentina's creditors brace for lowball offer). U2's Bono, Mikhail Gorbachev and actors Emma Thompson and Viggo Mortensen were prominent.

Emilio Botín knew that launching a frontal assault on the UK banking market was never going to be a bed of roses. But the 70-year-old chairman of Grupo Santander, Spain's largest bank, and his team were knocked for six by the furore that was unleashed in response to their £8 billion-plus bid for Abbey, the sick man of British banking.

Foreign investment sentiment was already being battered by the Yukos affair, the Kremlin's attack on what was Russia's biggest oil company. However, waning confidence was dealt a fresh blow in August when a Duma deputy officially called for an investigation into ?grey? schemes used by foreigners to hold billions of dollars-worth of Gazprom shares.