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The hospitality and tourism industry is one of the biggest in the world, with fierce competition between hotels and airlines to persuade the much-prized business traveller to stay or fly with them. What differentiates the hotels and airlines that these much-sought-after business customers regard as the most desirable? Euromoney polled executives at 115 institutions from all over the world on their favourite hotels – city by city – and their favourite airlines.

The European market for collateralized debt obligations is set to grow significantly this year. This promises to be an area of intense interest for US and UK structured finance lawyers.

Merrill Lynch Investment Managers has been turned around from a poorly organized, underperforming, insular group overly focused on value investing and distribution to US retail. Now its performance looks strong, and it has a better balance of customers and investment styles. Even its acquisition of the troubled Mercury Asset Management seems finally to be paying dividends. Much of the credit goes to Jeff Peek, who took over in December 1997, bringing a breath of fresh air and a slew of judicious hires. He’s done so well that he’s in the running to head Merrill Lynch one day.

After the initial shock following the announcement in March that both Carol Galley and Stephen Zimmerman were to retire this year, it turns out that very little has changed.

Ever since the first sod was turned on the site, the $1.25 billion Chandra Asri petrochemicals plant has been trouble. For 10 years an icon of Indonesia's problems with corruption and cronies, the project was set up jointly by Bambang Trihatmodjo, second son of former President Suharto, and his close friend Prajogo Pangestu, an ethnic Chinese timber tycoon.

Despite having left their previous jobs under controversial circumstances and with no performance track record to call their own, Nicola Horlick, Keith Percy and John Richards have turned SocGen Asset Management into a force in UK fund management in just three years. The results to date are impressive, with nearly all targets reached and 71 mandates under management totalling nearly £7 billion of assets. However, despite their protestations to the contrary, marketing the business through the personalities of the individuals, particularly Horlick, has left many with the impression that it is a top-heavy star firm. Horlick and co are striving to shake off this image as they push towards their next target of £20 billion.

On March 20, the London financial futures and options exchange, Liffe, introduced a new product called Swapnote. This swap futures contract, the first of its kind, is referenced against the European interbank swap curve instead of the government bond curve. This means that it more accurately reflects the exposures that bondholders experience. It is available at two-, five- and 10-year maturities.

The rapidly evolving credit default swap market advanced a few steps this month when the International Swaps&Derivatives Association (Isda) reached a breakthrough agreement on restructuring. Its amendment states that when a default swap is triggered by a restructuring event the maximum maturity of the obligations the buyer of protection can deliver to the seller is 30 months.

With foreign investment in France burgeoning, corporate governance had to catch up with international standards, borrowing from Anglo-Saxon ideas and practice. Marc Viénot, former head of Socété Générale, has taken on the mission of converting French companies. His reports laid down key guidelines that many companies now accept. But there have been some laggards and, to Viénot’s regret, the government wants to impose legal obligations.

Minority investors in Russian companies have got their act together. Before the 1998 crisis foreigners were making enormous returns from a soaring stock market. The few that bought into problem companies, and saw their investments diluted, won the sympathy of the market but little else.

The senior Botswanan banker who told Euromoney last year that he didn't care what rating Botswana got, as long as it was better than South Africa's, has finally got his wish.