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There have been more rumours in the past two years that CSFB and Credit Suisse were about to be sold than there have been sightings of Elvis. And like the King of Rock 'n' Roll, these rumours just won't go away. The recent spate of commercial bank mergers in the US fuelled speculation, with Credit Suisse said to be hooking up with Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and, lately, HSBC.

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Merrill Lynch is the corporate broking success story that everyone wants to replicate. This can clearly be seen from the fact that Morgan Stanley was not the first to decide to go shopping at Merrill for its corporate broking team.

BNP Paribas has long been a staunch supporter of tennis and is firmly connected with the French Open championships at Roland Garros in Paris. But the surprising success of Tim Henman this year will surely have raised Gallic eyebrows.

It was a case of save the whales but lose the CEO on the island of Sakhalin off the far-east coast of Russia last month. Sakhalin Energy, a multi-billion dollar oil and gas project whose majority shareholder is Shell, is rethinking plans to build an offshore pipeline in the Piltun-Astokhskoye field ?to ensure minimal disturbance to the western grey whale?.

The timing couldn?t have been worse. The Yukos saga moved into its endgame as charges against both the oil company and its biggest shareholders went to court at the end of May. The bankruptcy of what was once Russia?s most valuable company now looks like a real possibility. Investors would have been unnerved anyway, but the start of the trials coincided with a string of bad news and Russia?s leading RTS index slipped, wiping out all of this year?s gains in a week.

This Asian entrepreneur, between 40 and 50 years old, has developed his company across Asia and wants to enjoy double digit growth from his investments with a 3 to 5 years investment horizon. He already has a well diversified portfolio and is looking for a more focused approach for this investment with measured risk. He is performance oriented. Following the good economic figures coming out of many countries around the world, we expect a continued economic rebound in the US with a positive impact in Europe, while Emerging Markets and Japan remain our preferred investment areas. Equities remain our favoured asset class, even though we do expect further consolidation over the next few weeks, following the stellar performances of last year. We will therefore focus on actively managed funds that offer both performance and capital protection.

Global

Central America's republics share the problem of heavy fiscal deficits, which incoming administrations hope to cure. Much is also expected of the implementation of a free trade agreement with the US.

As Euromoney's annual awards show, best borrowers come in all shapes and sizes, winning acclaim because of their investor appeal, tight pricing, good timing, or structural ingenuity. But, as Kathryn Tully reports, activists on the buy side are developing a more formal view of the basics of an investor-friendly issuer.

The promised crisis never came and instead last year turned out to be a good one for most banks. This year is set to be even better as banking becomes structurally ever safer, though it will never be entirely risk free.

Global