February 2007
| Euromoney February 2007 US firms maintain their dominance of the global investment banking industry, according to a new table put together by Euromoney. But which CEOs have provided the best value to shareholders? Clive Horwood, Alex Chambers and Jethro Wookey report. - Which bank CEOs deliver the best returns for shareholders?
Any football supporter will tell you that the team is usually only as good as the person who runs it. The same applies to investment banking. The CEO sets the agenda for the entire firm. It is a highly pressurized role that will culminate in their removal if the team they manage fails to perform. And the performance that ultimately matters for bank CEOs is to deliver returns to shareholders. - Is the banking boom sustainable?
Investment banks continued to ride high in 2006 on good fundamentals and the added boost of strong hedge fund and private equity activity, proprietary trading and continuing globalization. Alex Chambers assesses whether they can sustain the good times in 2007.
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Euromoney February 2007
Demand for Islamic finance products is high. At last supply is starting to meet investors’ needs. The challenge for the industry is to ensure that the market’s infrastructure develops sufficiently quickly so that more companies and entities continue to embrace Shariah-compliant techniques. And on the following pages Euromoney profiles the winners of the latest Islamic finance awards.
Euromoney February 2007
Islamic finance is a natural home for structural innovation. Even the most basic Shariah-compliant products necessarily involve some degree of structuring: finding methods to mimic the economic benefits of conventional financial products while maintaining a religiously acceptable asset base. Now, though, banks are taking this structuring a step further. Chris Wright reports.
Euromoney February 2007
Gulf institutions maintain their dominance of Euromoney’s rankings as growth continues for third successive year. Morris Helal reports.
Euromoney February 2007
Activist shareholders have a bad name. Helen Avery brought together a group of hedge funds to uncover the positive role that such investors can play.
Euromoney February 2007
The battle to persuade clients that active currency management is a key tool has been so convincingly won that overlay is now being transformed by leverage and the search for alpha. But what are the risks?
Euromoney February 2007
At Euromoney’s Paris Forum held at the end of 2006, the chief executive of BNP Paribas, Baudouin Prot, outlined some of the challenges facing major financial institutions. Principal among these is the growth and globalization of the banking industry. The interview was conducted by Chris Garnett, Euromoney’s director of conferences. Read or listen to it here.
Euromoney February 2007
The takeover battle between Marfin and Piraeus pits two Greek banking heroes against each other. It also raises the question of domestic consolidation at a time when Greek banks are focused on expanding abroad. Peter Koh reports from Athens.
Euromoney February 2007
Which are the financings that defined the capital markets in 2006? This year, Euromoney recognizes half a dozen deals that will for ever be associated with the previous 12 months.
Euromoney February 2007
Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs comprise the new three-firm bulge bracket in the debt markets. That’s what respondents to our three key customer polls in 2006 tell us.
Euromoney February 2007
Japan still boasts the world’s second-largest economy but its investment banking markets remain immature compared with western peers. In two articles, Euromoney spoke to key bankers in Tokyo about the economic renaissance and what it means for investment banking in Japan. Chris Leahy reports.
Euromoney February 2007
Mergers and acquisitions are the hot topic in Tokyo as corporate Japan shifts into investment mode. And although Japan’s M&A market is flawed, structural changes are slowly under way and global bulge-bracket firms will be the ultimate winners. Chris Leahy reports.
Euromoney February 2007
The unbundling of research is gathering pace again, this time driven by customer demand. Clients with more discerning appetites would prefer to order individual bits and pieces from a menu where the prices are clearly written. However, both investment banks and smaller clients are addicted to the buffet approach. Peter Koh reports.
Euromoney February 2007
Benchmark multi-family CMBS deal refinanced after just over a year.
Euromoney February 2007
Babson-managed CDPC takes industry to the mainstream of structured credit.
Euromoney February 2007
Data on the US housing market spells bad news for ABS CDOs this year.
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Babson Capital has launched a credit opportunity fund designed to exploit sales of stressed and distressed leveraged loans that have been forced by CLO triggers.
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Only strong M&A-related capital-raising will allow hybrid debt volumes to remain firm in 2007.
Euromoney February 2007
Banks’ predictions for 2007 are remarkably similar to those of a year ago.
Euromoney February 2007
“I think we need to improve even more on the customer front. Customers are listening to what you say in terms of capital structure, liability management as a whole and then you can focus on one specific topic, one particular product. But you need to have people fully aligned”
Euromoney February 2007
UBS has made its global head of debt capital markets, Suneel Kamlani, chief of staff of the investment bank.
Euromoney February 2007
Claire Bright, former head of asset and liability management of HBOS Treasury Services, has withdrawn her £11 million ($21.8 million) claim of sex discrimination and wrongful dismissal against the UK bank.
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Asset managers, pension funds and derivatives specialists across Europe need to be aware of the potential changes in Danish ALM activity. Several Danish pension funds and life insurers have written to the Danish Financial Services Authority suggesting that they be allowed to change their discount curve for liabilities from Danish government bonds. Christine Joseph-Haller looks at the implications for the euro and Danish krone fixed-income markets.
Euromoney February 2007
Dutch pension funds ABP and PGGM both recently reported their quarterly results. Cover ratios at both are rising nicely but ABP’s new strategic portfolio catches the eye. Mark Ramsden asks if it points to less demand for long-dated bonds and more for inflation-linked assets.
Euromoney February 2007
Given CMC Markets’ success story, it was hardly surprising that the company’s planned initial public offering in the summer of 2006 attracted so much press attention, especially in the UK.
Euromoney February 2007
Perceived as dead and buried three years ago, a $564 million purchase price stuns the market.
Euromoney February 2007
Citing evidence from what he admits is a limited study, TABB Group partner Robert Iati feels that the decision of many of the leading FX banks to invest heavily in their own trading portals has left the multi-bank aggregating platforms looking vulnerable.
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Institutional investors adopt the 130/30 rule.
Euromoney February 2007
The UK has been eagerly awaiting the introduction of tax-free real estate investment trusts for years, so when the legislation permitting them finally took effect at the start of 2007 nine of the UK’s largest property companies were ready to make the switch.
Euromoney February 2007
A smash in the US, but tax advantages are not available for Europe.
Euromoney February 2007
Proponents of the merger between the New York Stock Exchange and Euronext believe it will enhance Paris’s position as a financial centre as the $14 billion deal promises to maintain independence. One cheerleader has been Daniel Bouton, chairman and CEO of Société Générale. At the Euromoney Paris Forum, held at the close of 2006, he was interviewed by Mark Johnson, Euromoney’s editor of conferences.
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Russell Investment Group has launched a range of global indices that apply the same criteria to all companies regardless of size and the country in which they are listed.
Euromoney February 2007
Hedge fund managers are paying closer attention to returns on their cash balances, according to a survey of 800 managers by Horizon Cash Management.
Euromoney February 2007
Some investors are due to reduce holdings in favour of single-strategy peers.
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Two surveys of hedge fund managers’ portfolio valuation policies have revealed a lack of standardization, highlighting a need for stricter valuation procedures, particularly when dealing with hard-to-value assets.
Euromoney February 2007
Hedge fund Cabezon Capital focuses on the currency and liquidity strategies of emerging market governments pursuing export-led growth. Helen Avery speaks to Michael Dooley, the fund’s co-founder and head of research.
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
"Misguided hedge fund guy seeks $2,000 friend with benefits - 36
Euromoney February 2007
Japan is slow to adopt financial market innovations, and algorithmic trading is no exception.
Euromoney February 2007
Japan seems a strange place to start an independent research firm. Costs are high, and the market, although large, is dominated by domestic mega banks and the international bulge bracket. For Rupert Eastwood, CEO and co-founder of Japaninvest Group, that is precisely the point.
Euromoney February 2007
Asia... start your engines.
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Mexico’s exchange calls into question the point of recent liability management trades.
Euromoney February 2007
With emerging markets as an asset class hotter than ever, it might be expected that capital flows to them would also be hitting all-time highs. Latin America, however, seems to have been left out of the party somewhat.
Euromoney February 2007
Peru has set up the equivalent of Fannie Mae, reflecting the growing importance of mortgages in the country.
Euromoney February 2007
The “marriage made in heaven” (as it has been described in the financial press) between yield-hungry Asian investors and perpetual bond-issuing Latin American companies turned hellish in May 2006.
Euromoney February 2007
Mexican fixed-line operator Maxcom almost defaulted on its debt a few years ago. But in December the company successfully returned to the international capital markets, proving that the appetite for Latin American high-yield credits is as strong as ever. Chloe Hayward speaks to CFO José-Antonio Solbes about the company’s turnaround.
Euromoney February 2007
"Go to hell"
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
BBA writes to UK Treasury over ‘informal actions of US officials’.
Euromoney February 2007
OMX bids for Slovenian stock exchange.
Euromoney February 2007
Liability management can be a double-edged sword. Get it right and everyone showers you with plaudits about your relative sophistication as a borrower and how attentive you are to addressing investors’ wants and needs. Get it wrong, however, and your name is quickly mud and the world and his fund manager wife are soon griping about how naive you are and how difficult it will be for you to achieve your funding target for the year if you carry on in a such a cavalier, market-unfriendly manner.
Euromoney February 2007
Albania has something of an image problem abroad. What scant coverage the country has received in the international press in the past has almost universally been negative in tone, focusing on drugs-trafficking, Mafia shootings, banking scandals and political mismanagement. It’s hardly the ideal news recipe if you’re looking to attract much-needed investment to a country often dubbed the poor man of Europe.
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
RBC Capital Markets announced the completion of two of the first ever rouble-denominated bonds since the rouble became fully convertible.
Euromoney February 2007
Deutsche Bank’s European securitization research notes the market’s impressive growth rate in Russia in 2006.
Euromoney February 2007
Leading Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital has added yet another banker to its already impressive staff, which has extensive investment banking experience in emerging European capital markets.
Euromoney February 2007
Jochen Andritzky’s book demonstrates the importance of analysing CDS prices alongside bond prices in assessing the likelihood of sovereign default and expected recovery values. Felix Salmon examines the evidence.
Euromoney February 2007
The bank has changed. Now Green and Geoghegan’s challenge is to manage investors’ different expectations.
Euromoney February 2007
Much of the singsong about the advantages to Euronext of the merger with the NYSE sounds flat.
Euromoney February 2007
Regulatory arbitrage will to take a new form once bankers can get their heads around Basle II.
Euromoney February 2007
Recent research belies the image of hedge fund activists as short-termists that destroy corporate value rather than create it.
Euromoney February 2007
Currenex’s sale may force a re-rating of FX platforms and their owners.
Euromoney February 2007
The growing number of investors wanting to short the commercial property market is good news for property derivatives.
Euromoney February 2007
The region’s equity markets are beginning to outshine debt and M&A.
Euromoney February 2007
A revival of domestic investor interest in Japan’s equity and real estate markets is inevitable.
Euromoney February 2007
The imposition of policies to counter terrorist financing activities means that controversial decisions are inevitable. Even so, the US Treasury’s hard-line stance towards Iran’s financial institutions, two of which it publicly claims are funding the country’s nuclear weapons programme and Middle East terrorist organizations, raises important questions – not least whether its actions are interfering with international commerce.
Euromoney February 2007
Nothing is more likely to cause instability than a long period of stability. And excessive growth of credit and liquidity is a clear warning sign of crashes to come, probably within the next year.
Euromoney February 2007
There are sound reasons why volatility has fallen across asset classes. But a safe bet for 2007 is that it will rise again.
Euromoney February 2007
There are generally clear advance indications of ECB interest rate increases. However, the precise dimensions of change over the longer term are harder to predict, leaving market adjustments trailing.
Euromoney February 2007
This year more Americans will file for bankruptcy than graduate from college or file for divorce.
Euromoney February 2007
It’s good to see that the top men in the multilaterals are devoting time to looking after the interests of the man in the street and not just governments. Or so the Nigerian 419-style scamsters would like to have us believe.
Euromoney February 2007
This tongue-in-cheek reaction of one banker on hearing that Société Générale is the latest bank to create a fixed-income, currencies and commodities (FICC) division is understandable.
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
The Big Mac index is old hat. Who, in these health-conscious times, buys a Big Mac any more? Instead, please welcome a more pertinent yardstick for our time: the iPod index.
Euromoney February 2007
“Global credit spreads are tight and will likely stay tight as long as our forecast for a global soft landing proves true and global liquidity doesn’t suddenly evaporate.”
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
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Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007
Euromoney February 2007