August 2001
| Euromoney August 2001 The arrival of John Mack as CEO of CSFB was preceded by an execution that would have done "the Knife" himself proud. Credit Suisse Group chief executive Lukas Mühlemann hired Mack before he despatched Allen Wheat and after telling his old CEO his job was safe. But with CSFB mired in regulatory problems, struggling to digest ill-advised acquisitions and riven with in-fighting generated by Wheat's distinctive approach to growing the business, he had little choice. Mack has a formidable reputation, but can he dismantle CSFB's byzantine cliques and create a single culture? |
Euromoney August 2001
David Komansky doesn’t step down as Merrill Lynch’s CEO until 2004 but he has recognized that his most important remaining task is to engineer a smooth succession. With the sector seemingly moving into a deep downturn this is all the more important. Antony Currie reports on the emergence of Stan O’Neal as Komansky’s anointed successor
Euromoney August 2001
Recent defaults on equipment vendor loans have prompted questions about the way corporates manage credit risk. Industrial companies have amassed many billions in credit exposure as a side product of their main business. Now, under growing pressure from equity investors and rating agencies, some companies are starting to quantify and reduce their mountains of trade debt.
Euromoney August 2001
Although many industrial companies remain stubbornly unwilling to measure, let alone hedge, their trade credit exposures, there is no shortage of people looking to help them trade away their credit risk.
Euromoney August 2001
When bankers involved in European credit issuance enthuse about the astonishing growth in the market they are only in part talking their own book. The euro revolution means demand is certainly there. Supply of the right mix of paper in the right amounts and with sufficient liquidity is another question. And beyond that there are growing suspicions that most buyers are not taking enough account of risk.
Euromoney August 2001
With its growing presence in investor portfolios, credit’s importance as an asset class increases daily. Euromoney gathered bankers and fund managers together to discuss the problems that popularity brings.
Euromoney August 2001
The European leveraged buy-out market appears to have found its feet again after a nervous first quarter. But banks remain cautious about lending to highly geared deals. Can institutional investors such as collateralized debt obligation funds fill the gap?
Euromoney August 2001
Secondary loan trading has traditionally been seen as rather a dirty business by European financial institutions.
Euromoney August 2001
The number of banks competing for LBO arranger mandates has increased significantly over the past six years. Almost every major continental European bank now has a leveraged loan team. BNP Paribas and HypoVereinsbank are both expanding their coverage as are - to a lesser extent - Crédit Agricole and HSBC.
Euromoney August 2001
The latest round of bank capital proposals from the Basel Committee offers few incentives to banks to introduce more sophisticated risk rating methods while rasing concerns over increases in regulatory capital.
Euromoney August 2001
InterSec Research, the international investment management consultant, has produced the first top-50 table of asset managers ranked by European-sourced business. InterSec's Tabitha Rendall reports on the survey's findings
Euromoney August 2001
Despite having the backing of six of Europe’s leading investment banks, BondClick has bitten the dust. Though its mission to create an electronic platform for trading European government bonds seemed straightforward enough, just three months after it launched its trading operation it was already in big trouble. The whole episode is an embarrassment for the banks that backed the new venture.
Euromoney August 2001
The growing use of the internet in financial services provides a new challenge to banks' already stretched in-house technology teams. They must build new systems quickly at a time of rapid and fundamental developments in software and financial operations. The risk is that banks may spend heavily to develop proprietary systems that are already out of date by the time they are up and running. Application service providers may offer the answer, if banks can bring themselves to trust them.
Euromoney August 2001
As the going gets tough for Europe’s online brokers, a new leader has emerged from Italy. Fineco’s success in attracting new business suggests that players in the European asset-gathering market must be wary of wedding themselves too strictly to a single business model. Fineco combines online broking with direct banking, branches and a network of financial planners. So far, it’s working well, but it takes two co-chief executives to run it.
Euromoney August 2001
This year’s ranking of the largest 250 emerging-market banks indicates that China’s banks are still way ahead of their rivals in terms of size. Citigroup’s acquisition of Banamex will give impetus to consolidation in Latin America where banks will need sheer size to survive. Few of the handful of east European banks in the tables are expected to be still there in 2002. By Andrew Newby, with data from Moody’s Investors Service.
Euromoney August 2001
What better way to start off an awards ceremony than with a quick reminder of one's place in the world? That's the tack comedian Stephen Fry took as he introduced Euromoney's second annual awards dinner at the Natural History Museum in London last month.
Euromoney August 2001
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Euromoney August 2001
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Euromoney August 2001
Euromoney August 2001
Euromoney August 2001
Euromoney August 2001
Euromoney August 2001
Technology companies have played a major
role in forcing the investment community to
start taking intellectual property seriously.
Telecoms and their equivalents in the
software and biotechnology sectors, for
example, are all dependent to a greater or
lesser extent on patents and other forms of
intellectual property.
Euromoney August 2001
Chief economist of Raiffeisenbank, Prague
Euromoney August 2001
Vice-chairman, Jefferies & Company
