August 2008
| Euromoney August 2008 Alliance & Leicester is the latest rabbit that Emilio Botín has pulled out of his hat as Santander continues its inexorable rise. Botín has now cemented his reputation for being a dealmaker as well as one of the most talented retail bankers in history. What else does he have up his sleeve? Clive Horwood reports.
- How Botín got what he wanted out of ABN
In 2004 Santander had looked at ABN Amro as an entire business but decided it was not interested in a deal. Botín told his board at the time that the only parts of ABN that Santander might be interested in were its Brazil and Italy operations.
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Euromoney August 2008
Regulators have put huge pressure on the CDS market to address counterparty risk. And the collapse of Lehman Brothers shows why. But in doing so they might be creating a bandwagon that exacerbates rather than solves the problem. Louise Bowman reports.
Euromoney August 2008
It’s a year since the credit crunch began and still there is no end in sight to the bloodletting. Alex Chambers looks at the prospects for bankers facing this unprecedented downturn as traditional alternative employment avenues, such as hedge funds, struggle to pick up the slack.
Euromoney August 2008
It has always been a big contributor to investment banking profitability – and with credit derivatives in turmoil, the market’s importance is rising again. Total Derivatives, in association with Euromoney, polled the market to find out who is the best of breed in rates.
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
The effects of the credit crunch have spread across all areas of finance, affecting even the world’s most liquid market: swaps in euros. People still want to do business, but banks need to reorder their balance sheets and regain confidence. And that could take a long time.
Euromoney August 2008
The global equity bear market and credit crunch have slowed Latin American growth but the rise of the region’s wealthy is still spectacular. One effect of disruption in developed markets is a flight to perceived quality in wealth management – to domestic providers rather than those abroad. Jason Mitchell reports.
Euromoney August 2008
Car manufacturers and their captive finance units might think themselves removed from much of the world’s financial turmoil. But are rapidly expanding emerging markets enough to keep the gloom at bay? Jethro Wookey reports.
Euromoney August 2008
Dealers report that liquidity in the variance swaps market held up well amid recent equity market turbulence. Equity volatility might finally have matured to the point where it is an asset class in its own right. John Ferry reports.
Euromoney August 2008
Regional buoyancy and declining opportunities elsewhere are pulling banks into the Gulf region, bringing with them research capability. Local firms still lead Euromoney’s poll but foreign rivals are coming up fast. Rupert Wright reports.
Euromoney August 2008
Investors worry that proposed regulation will punish the European market for weaknesses in US sub-prime origination.
Euromoney August 2008
In the new world of covered bonds, it really does matter where you come from.
Euromoney August 2008
The last of the traditional monoline insurance companies to maintain their triple-A rating are facing a downgrade.
Euromoney August 2008
The bad news has been piling up at HBOS, but we shouldn’t call in the movers just yet.
Euromoney August 2008
New heads of fixed income, loans and equity appointed in Europe – Berman takes banking role.
Euromoney August 2008
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation recently issued a statement laying the foundations for the regulation of a US covered bond market, specifically concerning the preferred treatment of bondholders in the event of an issuer default.
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney’s annual structured credit poll reveals that JPMorgan is leading a much reduced pack.
Euromoney August 2008
Despite the far superior performance of CLOs to that of ABS CDOs, CLO managers on both sides of the Atlantic face a battle to survive in present and future market conditions.
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
BNP Paribas argues coordinated action to support the dollar can work.
Euromoney August 2008
It seems astonishing that misuse of models still takes place in the foreign exchange market. But there is no doubt it does, although the industry’s self-imposed code of Omertà means that even those cases that seemingly everyone knows about rarely get exposed.
Euromoney August 2008
The market, it is said, is always right, but the performance of Icap’s share price is seemingly at odds with the company’s financial growth. Of course, Icap’s shares have been caught up with the general malaise affecting global equity valuations in general and financial stocks in particular but as the company pointed out in an interim management statement issued in mid-July, it has continued to benefit as a result of the continuing volatility in financial markets.
Euromoney August 2008
FXCM posts strong second-quarter revenues.
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
New entrant aims for a big splash in dark pools but Nasdaq OMX and Bats are close behind, and Baikal promises intelligent order matching.
Euromoney August 2008
Structured product issuers have a new set of guidelines that they will be expected to informally adhere to after trade organizations, including the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, released non-binding principles for managing relationships with retail investors.
Euromoney August 2008
Just weeks after RBS’s shareholders took up 95% of the rights on offer in the UK bank’s £12 billion ($24 billion) rights issue, the largest ever, investors shunned similar cash calls from UK banks HBOS and Barclays.
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Investors say the Middle East is becoming an interesting new territory for hedge fund managers, as opportunities in the region increase.
Euromoney August 2008
As one Euromoney reader put it: “Macro has had more comebacks than Lazarus.” But is the strategy back to stay? – at least for three or so years, say managers.
Euromoney August 2008
When the US SEC announced in July that it would impose a 30-day ban on illegal naked shorting in 19 stocks, some hedge funds were up in arms.
Euromoney August 2008
The precise responsibility of parties such as accountants and administrators in the event of hedge fund portfolio valuation discrepancies has been of growing concern among service providers.
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
The current market is testing relations between managers and investors to the full, says Neil Wilson.
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
IPO ends long struggle for the gambling tycoon.
Euromoney August 2008
In India it’s simply called The Feud and, on July 18, after years of simmering, it finally boiled over. That day, Mumbai-based industrialist Anil Ambani was finally, unwillingly, forced to pull the plug on a planned telecommunications mega-merger between his flagship corporation Reliance Communications (RelCom) and MTN Group of South Africa.
Euromoney August 2008
Shinsei Bank has announced that it is to acquire General Electric’s Japanese consumer finance business for ¥580 billion ($5.4 billion). The deal comprises GE’s personal loans unit, Lake, as well as its mortgage loans and credit card arms, and will bring Shinsei more than 2 million new customers as it seeks to combine its consumer finance and retail operations.
Euromoney August 2008
It’s been a ropey year so far for Pakistan’s embattled stock markets but better news is on the horizon for global investors. Over the next 12 months, the government is expected to push ahead with aggressive plans to privatize a clutch of state-run firms, as the government seeks to cut into a current account deficit that widened to $14 billion in the fiscal year to end-June 2008, from less than half that a year earlier.
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Third regional development bank will have an initial $10 billion capital.
Euromoney August 2008
The financing for Peru’s biggest ever project is in the final stages after a $3.8 billion package was signed last month.
Euromoney August 2008
Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, has an important decision to make in the coming weeks: whether social spending should take precedence over debt repayments.
Euromoney August 2008
Banorte, the biggest locally owned bank in Mexico, plans to establish a new venture capital unit that will be spun off from its distressed assets business, Solida, according to the bank’s chief executive.
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Raiffeisen International, the central and eastern European banking arm of Austria’s RZB Group, has announced plans to establish a greenfield operation in Kazakhstan.
Euromoney August 2008
Moscow-headquartered investment bank Renaissance Capital has teamed up with France’s BNP Paribas to offer investors a diversified form of structured equity exposure to the Russian market.
Euromoney August 2008
After years of benefiting from the strong economic performance of the Baltic states, Sweden’s Swedbank is now seeing the downside of its exposure to the region in the wake of the recent sharp slowdown in growth.
Euromoney August 2008
Like other global investment banks that are rushing to send their best talent to the Gulf, UBS is seeking to take advantage of the opportunities there.
Euromoney August 2008
How will the baby boomers that will come onto the Middle East’s job market over the next 10 years be employed?
Euromoney August 2008
Cypriot finance minister Charilaos Stavrakis wants to cement his country’s role as a centre of capitalism.
Euromoney August 2008
Troika Dialog, Russia’s oldest investment bank, has announced appointments to strengthen its market position in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
The Merrill chief’s honeymoon is over. The question now is whether he’s guilty of misjudgment or mismanagement.
Euromoney August 2008
The strong performance of BBVA and Santander can’t mask the impact of a looming housing crash on domestic institutions.
Euromoney August 2008
HBOS is struggling. That’s why its stock price is depressed and its rights issue came close to disaster.
Euromoney August 2008
Governments should give investors what they need and issue inflation-linked bonds.
Euromoney August 2008
In-house hedge funds look to have been a costly mistake for investment banks. Far better, it seems, is to take stakes in independent ones.
Euromoney August 2008
Family disputes in Asian listed companies have an unfortunate propensity to boil over unresolved into the public arena, raising important corporate governance issues.
Euromoney August 2008
Panic over the state of Fannie and Freddie may have been overplayed, but more transparency over their role in US housing should be welcomed.
Euromoney August 2008
Markets have changed and so will the terms for Mexico’s next round of toll road financing.
Euromoney August 2008
I hate to be the ugly fairy at the wedding but I'm starting to wonder if John Thain will turn out ot be Merrill's messiah after all.
Euromoney August 2008
There will be more rallies but the equity market trend is downward, and there’s a worrying backdrop of rising inflation mixed with declining growth.
Euromoney August 2008
MTF (that’s multilateral trading facilities to you and me) is about to become the acronym of the autumn, with umpteen new systems launching in Europe. It might be bad news for the incumbent exchanges; is it good news for anyone?
Euromoney August 2008
The role of the European Central Bank as the saviour of the European securitization market over the last year is not even up for debate.
Euromoney August 2008
The audience fell silent as they listened to his advice: don’t buy things you don’t understand; if you wouldn’t buy something, don’t sell it to anyone else; and don’t lend money to customers you don’t know.
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Do you find aspects of the credit crunch confusing? Fear not, all will be explained by US law firm Patton Boggs. In a recent presentation in London hosted by the European Securitization Forum, US attorney Talcott J Franklin from the Washington DC-based law firm was charged with explaining the implications for European market participants of the explosion in US sub-prime litigation.
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
These tongue-in-cheek versions of common financial parlance are particularly insightful given recent market events.
Euromoney August 2008
As the woes in western banking continue, Euromoney thought it would offer its readers something to salve their wounds as they deal with the underperformance of their financial stocks.
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Professional cycling is a sport that has a long association with doping. In reality, it is probably no worse than any other and its fans will tell you it has done more to clean its tarnished image than those sports that are not regarded with such suspicion.
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
Euromoney August 2008
At a difficult time for the global asset management industry, the GCC countries are increasingly attractive markets. The region’s oil and gas fuelled wealth and increasing investment sophistication offer huge opportunities. Regional financial centres equipped with world-class regulation and facilities provide the right environments for international firms to establish local operations, while the Shariah-compliant investment market is growing in popularity and diversity. Stuart Pearce, CEO of Qatar Financial Centre Authority, introduces this report.