Search results for

Privatization programme back on track; stock exchange chief targets EM status.

One of Europe’s oldest and most powerful banking dynasties is embroiled in a battle over succession plans at the top of Portugal’s Banco Espírito Santo, causing a rift in the bank’s boardroom that has forced the country’s central bank to intervene.

Author and former trader Nassim Taleb, who shook the financial world with his best-selling book on risk The Black Swan, recently spoke at an RBS Insight dinner for clients in Milan. Here, he shares his thoughts on handling the unpredictable.

Sterling hit its highest level since the 2008 financial crisis against the yen and a two-year high against the dollar, as the Bank of England (BoE) took a first step to normalize monetary policy in the face of a strong housing market – but it might power higher thanks to a seasonal boost.

Petrobras’s business plan to develop the pre-salt oil fields anticipates that the number of rigs and drillships with drilling capacity greater than 2,000 metres will increase to 65 by 2020 from 15 in 2010. Many of these deliveries will be financed by Petrobras suppliers through the capital markets. Since 2010, Moody’s has publicly rated around $5.4 billion in project bonds associated with the operational phase of offshore drilling and production equipment to be deployed off the coast of Brazil for Petrobras. These secured bonds use special purpose vehicles, but the main ratings component is Petrobras’s long-term operating contract for the rigs or drillships. These off-balance-sheet structures enable Petrobras to use its investment-grade rating to support these deliveries without an impact on its credit rating.

Five global coordinators named on deal; Investors look for detail on company activities

Investment banks have taken heart from more buoyant equity capital markets, but they are probably putting too much store by potential blockbuster deals such as an Alibaba IPO.

Published in conjunction with Bradesco and Banco Itaú

Recent large-scale Chinese acquisitions and consortium agreements in the LatAm financial and energy sectors indicate the People’s Republic’s continuing interest in the region’s resources.

Stresses are being felt closer to the core as investors pile into the recovery in the periphery of the eurozone.

With inflation continuing to fall and growth flatlining, pressure is mounting on the ECB as it edges closer to exhausting less contentious policy weapons to combat the threat of deflation.

Nasdaq CEO Bob Greifeld’s head must be spinning. Just as the exchange was mounting its fightback from losing the iconic Twitter listing, the key architect of its move away from equities markets has upped and left the firm for a rival. Will Nasdaq stay on its diversification course?