Latin America’s two biggest equity markets have agreed to integrate as part of a pilot scheme to bolster liquidity in the region. Brazilian and Mexican investors to gain access to each other’s markets.

Middle Eastern private investment and advisory firm Injazat Capital is launching a $100 million Islamic-compliant healthcare fund this month.

GSAM's boutique structure provides a potential model for other asset managers.

It is one of the great ironies of the European bond market that one of the largest market distortions occurs within the sovereign sector and are caused by the direct actions of Europe’s sovereign debt managers. The regulatory environment in Europe is tighter than ever, with the EU taking an aggressive and sometimes misguided stance in its aim of eliminating distortions in the capital markets, notably with its Market Abuse Directive and MiFID. And yet, despite all the EU’s talk of market efficiency, it ignores the market abuse happening right under its nose.

The procedure is an important step towards the cash settlement of the entire CDS market.

Thai and Malaysian companies performed strongly in this year’s annual survey of which companies leading financial analysts rate as the best in Asia. Paul Pedzinski reports.

Noriba exits some investments early after strong performance.

The world’s largest foreign exchange banks have made a mistake in streaming prices to scores of electronic platforms and inviting everyone to participate in them. Now, they want to take back control. As Lee Oliver finds out, a new bank-only system is being touted as the answer. Who is behind it, and will it succeed?

Investment banks need to think carefully about which institutions they market their services to.

Can wealth management truly thrive within the confines of an investment bank?

The wounds from the region’s financial crisis may have healed on company balance sheets but the trauma remains

Proposals in the French budget bill for 2006 and discussions in parliament last month could lead to significant changes in France’s public sector debt and risk management. Risk management role for AFT as Cades remains separate borrower.

Trichet’s statements have profound implications for some EU member states

As banks get ready to divide up their bonus pool in December or early January, some fixed income traders had better get ready to be disappointed.

Hidden issuers are using swaps rather than bonds

Report says lower risk weighting will encourage banks to look at MMFs.

Conditions attached to buy-out completion is more a sign of desperation than discernment.

First non-investment grade trade shows the spoils to come in distressed debt trading.

Wondering what to do with that well-earned bonus? Embarrassed by unsightly bulges when you’re working out at the gym?

JPMorgan Asset Management has won entrepreneur Sir Alan Sugar’s City of London contest to raise money for the Hackney Empire, an east London theatre. Eight firms competed in the challenge, based on TV programme The Apprentice, which started in the UK in October. The aim was to raise as much money as possible. JPMorgan raised almost £98,000 of the £195,000 total.

It may not be the sort of lead arranging mandate Deutsche Bank normally undertakes, but it’s for a very good cause.

But Singh’s government must hold steady on the road to reform.

As the festive season approaches, speculation is rife about who will get the lion’s share of this year’s bonus pool. But that’s nothing compared to the build-up to the Morgan Stanley staff pantomime. As the bank is again generously sponsoring the season at London’s Old Vic Theatre, where Kevin Spacey is artistic director, its employees also get the chance to tread the theatre’s hallowed boards. After the Old Vic production of pantomime ‘Aladdin’, Morgan Stanley takes over the theatre for one night in January to put on its own show.

Amir Hoveyda has become sole head of EMEA debt capital markets at Merrill Lynch. Appointed joint DCM head a year ago, he will pass responsibility for financial institutions to Siddharth Prasad. Under Hoveyda, Merrill has enjoyed a significant success in hybrid capital. His former co-head, Spencer Lake, will now focus on the public sector and corporate coverage effort. Jan Pethick remains chairman of EMEA DCM, which comprises all origination activities across the fixed income universe, including cash and derivatives.

Originally established under the white minority regime to compulsorily house non-white labour outside the cities, South Africa’s townships are now obvious targets for a nascent low-income housing finance market.

There’s little to choose between the world’s two heavyweight institutional fund managers as they square up to fight for profitability. BGI and SSgA both have commendable records and both are now testing out new strategies.

The cost of retaining commodities traders is rising faster than comparable costs in any other area on the street, according to a new financial markets compensation report published by executive search and strategic consulting firm Options Group. “Energy has been a very neglected business for a long time, especially the area of energy derivatives,” says the group’s co-founder, Michael Karp. “Now lots of banks are trying to recruit in this area and commodities traders’ compensation packages should be up 30% from last year. It’s been difficult to find skilled energy traders for a couple of years but now the market’s getting tougher on a daily basis.”

Until recently only multilaterals with a regional mandate, such as the ADB and IFC, have shown much interest in issuing bonds in Asian currencies. But KfW is planning a three-pronged attack on local-currency issuance in 2006. So are local markets about to take off?

Chinese bonds have no relative value. Its equity market is convoluted and stagnant. So why all the hype and hysteria? Theodore J Kim reports.

M&A activity is changing the Asian banking landscape and the relative positions of banks in Euromoney’s rankings.

According to a new compensation survey by executive search and consulting firm Options Group, M&A bankers will enjoy the biggest increase in overall compensation (salary and bonuses) in 2005, up 20% to 25% on average compared with 2004. Those M&A bankers in Europe are set to get the biggest increases.

With “no comment” seemingly the stock response to any question that is not about the latest all-singing, all-dancing enhancement to their internet trading platform, senior level appointment or record day, being a press officer or PR for an FX player is probably the easiest job in the market. To encourage more openness, it might be time for Euromoney to launch new categories in its highly regarded and prestigious polls – “most and least helpful press officers of the month”. Polling has already started.

According to Greenwich Associates, the average salary of a hedge fund manager last year was $280,000. The average annual bonus was $900,000.

Bond returns have come closer to matching equity returns over the past 25 years, according to Deutsche Bank. European credit strategists Gary Jenkins and Jim Reid looked at more than a century’s worth of data from the US. They found that, over a 105-year sample, equities produced a real total annual return of 6.53%, compared with 1.42% for US Treasuries and 2.5% for corporate bonds. But since 1980, equities outperformed corporates by just 1.5 percentage points.

Could the southern hemisphere provide a solution to the problem of how to settle derivatives trades cleanly and quickly?

Tensions between Venezuela and Mexico are escalating following a war of words that began at last month’s Summit of the Americas trade meeting. Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez called Mexico “an ally of the empire” and “a puppy of the United States” for backing George W Bush’s plan to create a region-wide free trade zone.

Balkans – Equest Balkan Properties plans to list its shares on AIM, giving investors the opportunity to buy into property markets in south-eastern Europe. The fund will focus mainly on retail, office and industrial assets in Bulgaria and Romania. It will also look at assets in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the FYR of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and Turkey. The company expects a target yield of 7.5% once the proceeds of the placing are fully invested, rising to 10% over time.

There has been no let-up in the spread war, highlighted in last month’s issue. Deutsche Bank has tightened up its spot FX prices even further to selected customers in response to Barclays’ introduction of precision pricing. Sources say that the bank is currently evaluating the impact, before deciding whether to roll it out further. A bank official says: “Deutsche Bank has recently introduced laddered and dynamic pricing to clients. This allows us to price liquidity to our clients more accurately.”

Markit has launched its independent pricing service for European asset-backed securities (ABS). It seeks to cast some light on the rather opaque ABS secondary market. About 3,500 European ABS will be covered with pricing provided by the leading market makers in Europe. All the major asset classes are covered, including RMBS, CMBS, ABS and cash CDOs. Dealers will provide mark-to-market data to Markit, which it will validate before dissemination.

Fast food chain McDonald’s has come under pressure from an activist hedge fund to restructure. Pershing Square Capital Management wants the company to spin off two-thirds of its restaurants and borrow $14.7 billion against its real estate to buy back shares. McDonald’s dismissed the idea as a “financial engineering exercise”.

Further proof that FX has gone mainstream comes with news that Rydex Investments has filed a registration statement with the SEC to launch a currency exchange-traded fund (ETF). When approved, the new ETF, which is based on the level of the euro against the dollar, will trade as a stock on the New York Stock Exchange.

Australia’s new-issue market heated up this month with the announcement of three large IPOs. Goodman Fielder, a leading Australian foods business, controlled by New Zealand entrepreneur Graeme Hart, intends to raise about A$2 billion ($1.48 billion) from a listing in Australia and New Zealand. Singapore Power’s holding company for its Australian electricity assets, SP AusNet, has also filed a prospectus for a simultaneous IPO in Australia and Singapore that is expected to raise approximately A$1.6 billion. Another electricity asset, Spark Infrastructure, filed in November for an IPO that aims to raise A$1.8 billion to fund the acquisition of minority interests in Australian power assets held by Hong Kong’s Cheung Kong Infrastructure.

According to Morgan Stanley’s chief economist, Stephen Roach: “India is on the cusp of something big.” Roach professes to be as excited about India as he was about China in the late 1990s. The source of this excitement is the country’s burgeoning consumer sector, which, as a share of GDP, is already higher than that of Europe, Japan and China.

General Electric’s consumer finance division is entering agent banking, hoping to get business from retail banks seeking to outsource their credit card businesses. Industry commentators believe the move could bring GE $250 million of additional profit over the next five years.

US private equity group Elevation Partners, which has U2 front man Bono as a partner, announced its first investment in two video game companies, Pandemic Studios and BioWare. The deal will bring the two companies together and, as a result of a $300 million investment, Elevation Partners will become the majority shareholder of the combined group. Elevation Partners closed a $1.9 billion fund in August.

Argentina is threatening to leave the IMF, according to reports in the local media, as relations take another turn for the worse. Basking in his success in October’s legislative elections, president Nestor Kirchner wants the IMF to soften its demands. The Fund wants Argentina to let the peso appreciate and to tighten monetary policy.

Brazilian and Mexican derivatives markets gain sophistication.

Japanese equities are at the start of a sustained bull market that in the next two years will take the Nikkei well above 20,000 from its current 14,000 level.

Lack of liquidity and diversification still restricts managers’ strategies.

CLSA and Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA) published their annual corporate governance rankings this year entitled “The Holy Grail”. The research, pored over by zealous regulators eager to pat themselves on the back, scores Asian markets on various issues affecting corporate governance, including regulation, enforcement and even “culture” (see table). Most notable this year is Taiwan’s jump up the table and Korea’s slide down it.

As bankers work feverishly to complete mandated China and Hong Kong IPOs before the final window shuts ahead of the Christmas break, there are hints of investor indigestion.

Thailand’s largest ever IPO, the $850 million partial privatization of Egat, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, was pulled at the last minute after a judge suspended the public offering in order to hear petitions relating to the legality of the privatization. Underwriters of the deal are said to be furious at the action that has effectively stalled the deal for the second time. Last year the planned IPO was shelved after union disputes. The court action is an embarrassing setback for the government of Thaksin Shinawatra and a disappointment for institutional investors who regarded Egat as an attractive and liquid play on the Thai economy. Local investors are also peeved: it was hoped the Egat IPO would provide a much-needed fillip for the Thai market, which is languishing close to 52-week lows.

Announcing its second annual report, Temasek Holdings, a Singapore-based private-equity group owned by the Singapore government, announced total shareholder returns in 2004 of 16% on its investment portfolio, down from the 46% returns earned during the previous year.

Most of the key investments in China’s largest state-owned banks have been settled, but international investors are still eager to pour money into the sector. ICBC, NCCB and Hua Xia Bank are all on the receiving end.

Latin America's debt markets are proving their worth in financing big projects.

Analysts expect the Province of Buenos Aires to achieve a 90% participation rate for its $3 billion debt restructuring, when it closes on December 16. If it succeeds, it will be a stunning result, given that those investors who accept the restructuring own debt worth about 40 cents on the original dollar.

Mexico has long been one of the most innovative sovereign issuers when it comes to liability management. Now, the sovereign has become the first developing nation to sell warrants, allowing investors to exchange foreign debt with local.

Brazil's hedge funds break through

“It’s nearly impossible to say which one you would choose when they go head to head in a pitch for passive mandates. They’re 10-ton gorillas that joust at the top.”

America might still run the internet, but even the biggest bank in the world has to take its time when it comes to cyber-squatting.