The question of how the world's institutional investors will react to Emu and the changes in the European market over the next year is a much debated topic.
Stock market crashes in August seemed to spell the end of all higher-risk business for the foreseeable future, and as investors took refuge in government bonds the ambitions of Europe's corporate bond evangelists seemed to be crushed. But by the end of November Wall Street was again reaching record highs, high-yield deals such as British cable company NTL's $625 million issue in October began to emerge, and the European M&A frenzy resumed its hectic pace.
In response to these extraordinary swings of investor sentiment Deutsche Bank has commissioned a survey of its 200 largest institutional investor clients in Europe, North America and Asia. The results, "The euro survey", published at the beginning of November, provide an interesting insight into the mindsets and strategies of the major funds towards investing in euroland.
"We wanted to get a feel for the market and for people's investment strategy towards euroland after the crisis,'' explains Ifty Islam, a senior economist at Deutsche and author of the report.