December 2007
| Euromoney December 2007 State-owned, cash-rich and increasingly influential, sovereign wealth funds have emerged as the most controversial players in the financial markets. All the constituents – banks, private equity, corporates, hedge funds – want a slice of their action. Just how powerful will the funds become? Sudip Roy reports.
- Sovereign wealth funds: Getting the basics right
It is one thing to want a sovereign wealth fund but to actually set one up is a long and challenging process, as countries such as Brazil are discovering. Key issues such as infrastructure, hiring people and asset allocation need to be addressed before the investing process can even be considered. - Financial institutions weigh up business opportunities
The proliferation of sovereign wealth funds is an opportunity and challenge for investment banks and asset managers. - Future Fund: Fight on for Aussie’s future prizes
The Future Fund, created last year to cover long-term pension liabilities for the Australian federal public sector, is very much in its infancy but is finally managing money. - Temasek: A fund apart?
In a world of increasingly powerful and mistrusted sovereign wealth funds, Temasek, the investment arm of the Singapore state, stands apart in terms of governance, openness and performance, claims Simon Israel, its executive director. Chris Wright reports.
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Euromoney December 2007
Many investors had been positioning themselves for an inevitable downturn in the leveraged finance market long before this summer’s dislocation. But, ironically, the underwriting abuses of the past few years mean that they could still face a long wait before any meaningful opportunities arise. Louise Bowman reports.
Euromoney December 2007
The rapid uptake of exchange-traded structured notes in the US has got the country’s mutual fund industry on the offensive. Its trade association is lobbying Congress to change the tax laws to make the notes less attractive. But the structured products industry is fighting back. John Ferry reports.
Euromoney December 2007
Jackson Tai brought a determined pan-Asian strategy to Singapore’s DBS Bank. With Tai on the point of retiring as CEO, Chris Wright looks at the successes and failures of his approach.
Euromoney December 2007
Vietnam is in a hurry. Rapid economic growth, recent accession to the World Trade Organization and a new seat on the UN Security Council are all encouraging a flood of foreign investment into the country. Yet the politicians remain wary of opening up the market to too much international integration too quickly. Julian Marshall reports from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Euromoney December 2007
Without foreign institutional investors, Saudi Arabia’s equities market still has a long way to go before it can match the strength and sophistication of the Kingdom’s leading companies. But a more active foreign presence is expected. Dominic O’Neill reports from Riyadh and Jeddah.
Euromoney December 2007
Credit card ABS has so far escaped contamination by sub-prime. Some might worry that volumes are up, but key metrics are strong. If this market does well, it could be a template for others. Alex Chambers reports.
Euromoney December 2007
The Spanish savings bank sector’s days of annual loan growth of more than 20% are over as construction wobbles and cédulas are tarnished by the international credit crunch. Cajas need to re-examine their funding strategies and business plans, writes Peter Koh.
Euromoney December 2007
Infrastructure investment is not without risk. Even the US has found this; the collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis in August led to the realization that much of the country’s ageing infrastructure needs refurbishment. But flows of new money bring their own problems. Investment skills and experience remain the pre-eminent qualities required to succeed.
Euromoney December 2007
Market remains open but substantial new-issue premiums return.
Euromoney December 2007
Markit purchase of IIC could herald creation of a global credit derivatives index.
Euromoney December 2007
The problem is with time rather than the legislation or its implementation, say analysts.
Euromoney December 2007
Citi has merged its equity capital markets and fixed-income capital markets divisions.
Euromoney December 2007
‘Riskless’ exposure comes back to haunt banks
Euromoney December 2007
A stream of new CLOs is hitting the market – but it is far from business as usual.
Euromoney December 2007
Citi, Bank of America and JPMorgan will fail to persuade several banks to participate in the initial idea of a master-liquidity enhancement conduit.
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Foreign exchange history is littered with the corpses of institutions that have looked at the industry and then decided to enter the market and become significant players. Now the perceived wisdom is that it is harder than ever for someone new to break into even the top 20, let alone the top five.
Euromoney December 2007
With the dollar in seeming free fall, the Gulf Cooperation Council is set to discuss the wisdom of keeping its member states’ currencies pegged to the ailing currency.
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
After months of silence and little sign of progress, Project Turquoise, an initiative started by a consortium of seven leading investment banks to create a pan-European multilateral trading facility, has started to take some concrete steps and gain credibility.
Euromoney December 2007
New regulations are always unpopular with bankers struggling to keep on top of increasing numbers of oversight and compliance rules. The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid) is proving particularly unpopular with those working in the equity-linked structured note market, who say it is simplistic in its approach to derivatives-based investments.
Euromoney December 2007
Issuers opt for convertibles and opportunistic deals.
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
The success of Trade Ideas, a platform developed by a consortium of investment banks for distributing trading ideas to their clients, shows that trading ideas are becoming an increasingly important element of the brokerage service that buy-side clients are willing to pay for.
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
The sixth annual report on global investment management by KPMG has revealed that further convergence between hedge funds, private equity companies and long-only managers is to be expected.
Euromoney December 2007
AUM may be still in its infancy but the quality of managers is appealing.
Euromoney December 2007
Concerns about lack of transparency force regulator to make participants register directly.
Euromoney December 2007
A study by Integrity Research Associates shows a disparity between research conducted by traditional buy-side firms and their hedge fund counterparts that could explain the latter’s outperformance.
Euromoney December 2007
The withdrawal of liquidity that started in July has posed a challenge for the financial markets, not least credit investors. Solent Capital, a $7.4 billion credit asset manager, has experienced first hand what happens when markets dry up. Helen Avery reports.
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
While India and China look the best long-term bets, short-term gains could be easier to find elsewhere in the region.
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Asset-backed securities not troubled by US sub-prime problems.
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Hong Kong investors have become happily addicted to China’s flip-flop attitude to the so-called "through train" programme, under which mainland investors will in theory be allowed to buy stocks listed in the former UK colony.
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Latin American banks are well positioned to endure the credit crunch and a potential global economic slowdown, according to regional specialists. So far, the banking system has weathered the storm and analysts expect it to continue to do so.
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Next year a handful of top international banks might expand operations into Guatemala, according to analysts and bankers.
Euromoney December 2007
Primary debt issuance out of Latin America is expected to pick up at the beginning of next year, according to bankers who work in the region.
Euromoney December 2007
Argentina’s capital markets could be about to take off, as more than 20 companies line up to list on the Buenos Aires stock exchange.
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
After a pause prompted by US-inspired volatility in the global equity markets, Russian companies have resumed new-issue activity, helped by the belief that the strong economic environment in the country will help insulate it from the effects of the fallout from the US.
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
The world’s most profitable chemicals company, and possibly soon to be its biggest, has ploughed ahead with big expansion plans despite the credit crisis, making more use of Islamic and local capital markets. Dominic O’Neill talks to Sabic’s CFO, Mutlaq Al Morished.
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Mid Europa Partners, the leading independent private equity firm focused on central and eastern Europe, has established a notable benchmark for the industry in the region, raising €1.5 billion in commitments for its latest fund, Mid Europa Fund III.
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
Alfa Bank has become the first privately owned Russian bank to raise overseas funding in the post-credit crunch era.
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007
The US bank recovered from a similar crisis in the early 1990s. But this time around it lacks strong leadership.
Euromoney December 2007
The monolines should survive this crisis, but only because the prospect of them being downgraded is an outcome too far for the battered credit market.
Euromoney December 2007
The strong run of emerging markets equities looks set to continue.
Euromoney December 2007
With little to choose between the capabilities of covered bond departments, issuers are granting mandates for different reasons.
Euromoney December 2007
Global problems require global answers.
Euromoney December 2007
Spain’s thriving cajas show the rest of Europe the way forward.
Euromoney December 2007
The sinking dollar – not the sub-prime fallout – is the big hurdle for India’s most buoyant sectors.
Euromoney December 2007
There’s a lot to be said for a monetary union for north America.
Euromoney December 2007
Africa’s banking and capital markets are showing encouraging signs of maturity.
Euromoney December 2007
Despite all the jawboning over the past few years about succession planning, banks seem woefully unprepared if they are forced to jettison a flailing chief executive because of cauldron-like shareholder pressure.
Euromoney December 2007
The big banks’ Mlec fund might well unblock the present credit log jam. But there’s no escaping the fact that global liquidity has contracted and capital is being repriced upwards.
Euromoney December 2007
Rumours are rife that quant funds stumbled again in November. If they are to thrive in the future, they need to learn from these mistakes.
Euromoney December 2007
The hoarding of cash by banks is understandable but dangerous.
Euromoney December 2007
Spotted in India: Goldman Sachs’s chairman and CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, enjoying the festivities at a party in New Delhi hosted by Azim Premji, the silver-haired chief of one of the subcontinent’s biggest IT firms, Wipro.
Euromoney December 2007
There have been few signs of summer loving in the boardrooms of the bulge-bracket banks, with more and more senior executives being told by angered shareholders and directors "You’re the one that I (don’t) want" as post-sub-prime gloom spreads.
Euromoney December 2007
Those looking to harm Ms Whitney may want to think twice.
Euromoney December 2007
HSBC’s global headquarters in Canary Wharf hosted an entirely different type of journalist last month at the press conference announcing the British bank’s sponsorship of the British and Irish Lions for their 2009 tour of South Africa.
Euromoney December 2007
Whether it’s Louis Hagen donning pom-poms and leading a Pfandbrief cheer or a University Challenge-style quiz during the lunch break, every conference needs its memorable moments.
Euromoney December 2007
Euromoney December 2007