October 2006
| Euromoney October 2006 Corporates are under pressure from shareholders and private equity bidders to leverage up to boost returns. The danger is that they submit just as the economy slows. Some riskier companies are already overstretched. As the debate over the optimal corporate capital structure grows more rancorous, the good news is that most corporates are starting to pile up debt on very strong balance sheets. |
Euromoney October 2006
Hedge funds are the new financiers to the movie industry, attracted by the potential returns on diverse portfolios of movies especially from DVD sales. Hollywood has a bad reputation for parting star-struck investors from their cash. So the hedge fund managers will need to stay sharp and structure their investments carefully. Helen Avery reports.
Euromoney October 2006
A growing number of large leveraged acquisitions are being refinanced in the corporate securitization market. Sponsors are seizing on the competitive pricing compared to traditional leveraged loans to squeeze more leverage and higher values into their bids. It’s a growth market, but the technique only works for certain companies
Louise Bowman reports.
Euromoney October 2006
A management buyout, a large merger, an IPO, regional acquisitions and investment by Europe’s largest pharmaceuticals player – the past eight years have been anything but dull for the Czech Republic’s Zentiva. Company CFO Petr Sulc talks to Kathryn Wells about the challenges the company has faced and how it plans to finance further growth.
Euromoney October 2006
Leasing is one of the hidden jewels of European banking. Its use by balance-sheet-constrained large private companies, credit-constrained small and medium-size enterprises and indebted public sector entities, including municipalities and local authorities, is growing rapidly. Europe is fast surpassing the US as the largest market for leases as more and more borrowers see the advantages compared with traditional loans. Peter Koh finds that banks are delighted and selling the product busily through their branch networks.
Euromoney October 2006
Europe’s supranational and agency borrowers are becoming ever bigger issuers in the international capital markets even as their historical missions appear to have been met and the banking and financial market to have matured enough to finance at commercial rates most of the lending risks the agencies assume. The debate as to whether these subsidized institutions distort or complement the capital markets continues unabated, as private lenders submit to capital adequacy directives that do not extend to the agencies. Alex Chambers reports.
Euromoney October 2006
Enormous energy is going into the creation of new Shariah-compliant finance structures for eager Middle Eastern corporates to fund themselves by appealing to Islamic investors and their growing pool of money. Every market participant expects the surging Islamic finance sector to keep on growing fast. But a key element is missing. Secondary trading in these instruments is severely limited. Sudip Roy suggests that for the recent increase in primary market activity to be sustainable, more attention needs to be devoted to trading infrastructure.
Euromoney October 2006
The gap between the top two and their closest rivals continues to increase, according to results from our recent survey on international cash management.
Euromoney October 2006
There has been no relief from the pressures that last year’s annual cash management poll detected: globalization, declining margins and intensified competition. Smaller banks face a choice between expanding to compete or forming difficult-to-implement partnerships. Some might soon begin to question whether all the effort is worthwhile. Lawrence White reports.
Euromoney October 2006
While the current stage in the leverage cycle benefits corporate borrowers, concern has been raised about the protection that bondholders receive against declining ratings and event risk. Does good corporate governance have anything to offer this set of stakeholders, and should it have? Florian Neuhof reports.
Euromoney October 2006
Most investors want to invest in the best companies; Asia is no exception to this. The region’s best-managed companies are a diverse bunch but have some crucial characteristics in common. Chris Leahy reports.
Euromoney October 2006
Buzz over US continues, but Europe still getting its act together.
Euromoney October 2006
The possibility that the long end of the US yield curve might continue to invert has supported long-end issuance from international sovereign and supranational issuers.
Euromoney October 2006
Likelihood of “ratings shopping” by borrowers/dealers increases.
Euromoney October 2006
Over the years ABN Amro has suffered a series of setbacks. But Niall Cameron argues that internal noise over organization charts has died down and the focus is on the business.
Euromoney October 2006
RBS has astonished the securitization market this year with a remarkable pace of issuance. Shortly after the bank issued £11.25 billion-worth of RMBS paper in just three months, director of capital management and securitization Ron Huggett explained the bank’s new thinking to Louise Bowman.
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Taking the successful US CRE CDO model and simply applying it to the European CMBS market is unlikely to work.
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Investors get fat yields as rating agencies seek extra credit enhancement.
Euromoney October 2006
Higher underlying ratings will change the economics of the pub securitization market.
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Markets used to move at the hint of change in the political landscape. These days, surprise election results seem to have little or no impact.
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Appointment expected to renew exchange’s focus on stagnant volumes in options contracts.
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
From a research note entitled The largest OTC exchange
Euromoney October 2006
Australia is going ahead with a scaled-down sale of its Telstra holdings. But tension persists between the telecom operator and the government.
Euromoney October 2006
Graduation day might be approaching for some of the larger companies listed on London’s AIM (Alternative Investment Market) but the sheer volume of competitors means some might not make the cut.
Euromoney October 2006
Although benchmarking has a part to play in some areas, there is no single approach to best execution that suits all markets.
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Further regulation on delivery needed, says consultant.
Euromoney October 2006
Benefit of hedge fund ratings to investors is questionable.
Euromoney October 2006
Investigations into the backdating of stock options has caused around half of the more than 100 companies under scrutiny by the SEC and/or the Department of Justice to miss deadlines for filing earnings. More are likely to follow, says Todd Fernandez, senior analyst at independent institutional research firm Glass Lewis & Co.
Euromoney October 2006
Michael Walsh of hedge fund Kilkenny Capital Management talks to Helen Avery about the fund’s melding of information about medical innovators’ development and sales processes with finance theory to assess biotechs’ future value.
Euromoney October 2006
The man behind Man Group is to step down from his role of CEO.
Euromoney October 2006
RAB's recent acquisition is second in two years.
Euromoney October 2006
More than 8,000 hedge funds are now registered in the Cayman Islands.
Euromoney October 2006
The index begins trading under a cloud after a data management firm said it intended to sue FTSE/Xinhua Index for breach of contract.
Euromoney October 2006
Losses from trader error in December should have been reversible, securities house claims.
Euromoney October 2006
Leading US private equity firm Darby Overseas Investments is poised to begin pre-marketing on a global emerging markets fund that will have a heavy focus on Asian investments.
Euromoney October 2006
More evidence of the chronic staff shortages still faced by Asia’s private banks came in September with news that UBS, the largest private bank in the region, has resorted to constructing its own purpose-built training facility for new recruits and existing staff to cater for the demands of its burgeoning Asia wealth management business.
Euromoney October 2006
Vallimarescu eyes opportunities in local markets.
Euromoney October 2006
Government’s attempt to develop venture capital industry lack clarity.
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
A liberalization of the mortgage market in Argentina could lead to a rise in securitizations and the creation of the country’s equivalent of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Euromoney October 2006
Grupo TMM, a Mexican transport and logistics company, is launching a $200 million securitization that will replace bonds that are relics of its troubled past. Juan Fernández, TMM’s CFO, tells Lawrence White how the firm stayed afloat and what he plans for the future.
Euromoney October 2006
“Nobody should be scared of socialism, it’s about equality”
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Qatari bank aims to become world’s largest Islamic player after IPO.
Euromoney October 2006
More than two years after the enlargement of the European Union, many large equity investors remain convinced that the combined equity markets of central and eastern Europe are too small for them to invest in, despite a combined equity market capitalization of €211 billion at the end of 2005.
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Central bank governor emphasizes the resilience of the financial system at a time of crisis.
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
"The bosses of Europe’s big three stock exchanges, the LSE, Deutsche Börse and Euronext, deserve to have their heads knocked together. They appear to have let their egos get in the way of getting together and forming a genuine European powerhouse."
Euromoney October 2006
One hedge fund blew up and lost a reported $400 million after getting caught short. The other lost $4.5 billion after finding itself long and wrong. At first glance, the only connection the two companies have is that both were hedge funds, and both were punting in the highly volatile natural gas market.
Euromoney October 2006
Hedge fund rating is a noble goal but Moody’s and S&P’s approaches fail to fill the bill.
Euromoney October 2006
As credit research is increasingly geared towards short-term trading ideas rather than fundamentals, there could be a dangerous dearth of information when defaults begin to rise.
Euromoney October 2006
The landscape of the Italian banking market has been completely redrawn over the past 12 months but consolidation remains work in progress.
Euromoney October 2006
The return of hard underwriting on recent bond deals underscores how mundane and risk-free the business had become.
Euromoney October 2006
As summer draws to a close, bankers and investors are gearing up for the rush of new bond issues that traditionally hits the market in the last quarter. In the emerging markets it’s little different. The pipeline of deals out of Russia is strong, Asia is witnessing one of its busiest times of the year and Latin American issuance should pick up now that Brazil’s election is out of the way. Even in the Middle East, corporates are beginning to appreciate the benefits of the capital markets.
Euromoney October 2006
Eurozone countries are continuing to boost productivity vis-à-vis that in the US; consequently European equities are outperforming American ones.
Euromoney October 2006
For 11 months the European Central Bank has been engaged in a gradual tightening of monetary policy or, to use the more nuanced language of ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet, a “progressive withdrawal of monetary accommodation”. The financial markets and commentators have learnt to read quite accurately the code words – such as “strong vigilance”, “vigilance”, “continuing to monitor closely” – used by the ECB to signal what its next move is likely to be.
Euromoney October 2006
The debt burden is a growing worry, not least because many of those that invest in the debt market’s increasingly ingeniously packaged instruments are themselves heavily leveraged.
Euromoney October 2006
There have been plenty of compelling reasons to go short credit as an asset class this year. Investment-grade corporates are under threat from leveraged takeover by huge private equity funds; at the lower end of the credit spectrum, the easy availability of cheap credit even to risky B-rated borrowers has stretched leverage ratios to unsustainable levels.
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006
Bavarian structured finance banker's national dress accidently arrives in suitcase packed for glittering awards do
Euromoney October 2006
The postponement because of rain of the annual charity hedge fund polo tournament in Darien, Connecticut, meant a few key players were unable to make it, but it didn’t stop play altogether.
Euromoney October 2006
First Fiji, now the Seychelles. Suddenly, all those long hours that originators spend on planes en route to visit potential clients seem less tedious.
Euromoney October 2006
Do superheroes need financial advice, and if so, how do you go about giving it?
Euromoney October 2006
Euromoney October 2006