Search results for

It seems to be Ugur Bayar's fate to be a civil servant. It's the third time in five years that the 33-year-old bachelor has quit his job in the private sector and moved back to his mother's house in Ankara to start working for the government. This is a rare phenomenon. There are droves of ex-bureaucrats in Istanbul who have left the privations of the civil service for fat salaries in the private sector; the reverse rarely happens. Ankara, a dull, characterless city whose only industry is politics, is easy to leave but notoriously difficult to return to.

When one of Scandinavia's major international companies wants to launch a bond or share issue it turns to a global player like Morgan Stanley - not to a local bank. Most Nordic banks concentrate on smaller companies and retail banking. But their ambitions are growing, and with privatization gathering pace and a single European capital market looming, the region's banking sector is consolidating rapidly. Robert Minto reports on the race to become Scandinavia's first truly regional bank.

Slovenia is the wealthiest country to have emerged from communist rule, but is it losing its way? Exports are flagging, industry is becoming politicized and the stock market is shaky. Even the country's successful banking reforms have ground to a halt. Gavin Gray reports on the dangers ahead.

When high-flying Hong Kong investment bank Peregrine decided to set up a joint venture in South Korea six years ago, its partner must have seemed an excellent choice. A medium-sized conglomerate, the Dongbang group was a reasonably well focused business, the leading maker of cooking oil, a producer of food materials and owner of a restaurant chain. Inexperienced in investment banking, it was not likely to interfere in the day-to-day running of the business.

In both roles, Shashenkov will be exploiting his talents as a western-educated Russian who can talk to foreign and Russian bankers and investors on their own terms. Such Russians are in big demand by the country's banks.

Market-watchers may detect just a hint of arrogance when a country not yet six months out of civil war starts eyeing the markets. Even more so when the country's new leaders have consistently directed their vitriol at powerful governments and organizations such as the US, the UN, the IMF and the World Bank. But Laurent Kabila, president of the new Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has been dropping some heavy hints of late.

No firm is better than Doughty Hanson at repackaging ropy European manufacturers and selling them off at a premium, or - to put it more kindly - transforming underperforming privately held businesses into dynamic public corporations. This secretive firm of venture capitalists is making money hand over fist and generating lucrative business for investment bankers. But can it find enough deals to keep up its impressive track record? Peter Lee reports.

MeesPierson never sat happily within ABN Amro, and nobody was surprised when the venerable Dutch merchant bank was put up for sale last year. Now new owner Fortis faces the challenge of accommodating the bank - and motivating its restless managers before the current trickle of departures turns into a flood. Antony Currie reports.

For all the talk of designing exotic derivatives for hedge funds, the most useful service a bank can provide is often good old-fashioned credit. Even so hedge funds are prompting banks to reorganize since their demands straddle many departments. The funds' importance as customers is starting to outstrip that of institutional investors, and the banks are dancing to their tune. Andy Webb reports.

Issuer: SBC Glacier Finance Series 1997-2

First former Wall Street banker Jim Rogers did it. Now a Danish fund manager based in Hong Kong is to repeat his motorbike odyssey around the world, the result of which was the book Investment Biker.

While other high-tech private trading firms such as O'Connor Associates and Chicago Research & Trading have sold out to large banks, Shaw has chosen a strategic alliance (in March) with Bank of America, with the aim of selling his firm's product capability - initially in equity derivatives - to Bank of America's 20,000 corporate customers.