Search results for

The amorphous sector challenge

Keeping faith from bust to boom

When the president gets tied down

Keeping faith from bust to boom

Keeping faith from bust to boom

Keeping faith from bust to boom

European equity brokers have been struggling with the challenge of shifting to sector research from country research. The big firms are going even further, with cross-sector analysis of rapidly changing industries. Luciano Mondellini reports.

There are a record number of equity offerings in the pipeline for the rest of 1999. That may seem like good news for equity capital markets bankers. But with Y2K likely to close the market early this year those deals will have to squeeze through a narrow window. Even more worrying, this year has seen a surprising number of deals turn sour. Which of the deals in the pipeline is likely to turn rotten? And which firms will be left celebrating the successes? Michael Peterson reports.

Global legal practice is on the point of going the same way as accounting - with a small number of dominant players. By Christopher Stoakes

Thais won't practise safe banking

Doubling shareholder value every three years is an objective set in stone for UK bank Lloyds TSB. The trouble is, the more money it makes ­ it's phenomenally profitable for a mature-market bank ­ the harder it is to put it to work. But there's no sign that it's run out of ideas. Jules Stewart reports.

During the 1990s central European countries were taught that patience, self-discipline and the narrow road to convergence was the only way to qualify for Emu membership. It was a sign of progress when increased confidence in local currencies drove dollars and Deutschmarks off the streets of Prague, Budapest and Warsaw. That's what the European Central Bank wants them to believe. But the Czechs and Croatians now suspect that by dumping their own currencies for the euro straightaway, they can take a short cut into Emu. The ECB is desperately looking for a way to stop them. Laura Covill reports.