Bank of America is expanding its private banking business by targeting US families worth $50 mln+.

The second SVG Capital fund of funds securitization – SVG Diamond 2, again arranged by Nomura, has further developed the concept of private equity collateralized fund obligations. This is a managed deal where the assets are selected over time by SVG to deliver enhanced equity returns. Some €175 million of equity risk in the form of preference shares in the fund was sold to various external investors. This is drawable equity, meaning that this most expensive form of capital is not utilized until it is needed, thus enhancing the efficiency of the CFO. The rest of the financing comprises €328.5 million of rated paper (seven tranches ranging from triple A to triple B).

Eurex’s US woes are continuing. Last month the derivatives exchange’s chief executive, Rudolf Ferscha, stepped down. Ferscha had been behind the launch of Eurex US in Chicago in 2004 but sources say he was not given the support he needed to develop the US effort properly.

The name has changed but the business has not. Credit Suisse has demoted its First Boston heritage to a passing reference in its new logo, but it is far from jettisoning its US investment banking expertise. In January, it announced an expansion of its Asian leveraged finance team with three new hires in Australia, Hong Kong and Japan. Once this is complete, Credit Suisse will boast Asia’s largest leveraged finance team.

UK

UK breakfast cereal maker Weetabix will be one of the first companies this year to test the market for leveraged recapitalizations. The deal, expected to come to market in the next few weeks, will be lead arranged by JPMorgan. It takes out the £450 million ($803 million) leveraged loan backing the £642 million buyout of Weetabix in 2004 by private equity firm Hicks Muse Tate and Furst.

It seems that some banks will pull out all the stops to feature prominently in Euromoney’s influential FX poll. Word filters through of gifts being sent out and clients being lavished with entertainment. The managing director of one prominent bank was so eager to start the lobbying process that he emailed Euromoney asking: “Fri 5pm: should I unleash hell? Is the site ready? Let the games commence...” Just exactly which games he was about to unleash in hell is unclear, but one of his disgruntled clients has complained of being hassled, almost non-stop, to vote. “I told all the banks I’d fill it [the poll] in when I was ready, not before,” he moaned.

As gold has traded up to 25-year highs, the Canadian dollar has weakened, despite the products’ strong long-term correlation. Does this mean that the relationship has broken down?

Like so many other aspects of Japan’s financial system, its pensions schemes are paying for the sins of the past and struggling to pay for the future. Existing reforms do not go far enough, says Chris Leahy, and flirt dangerously with the country’s future prosperity.

Even after the stock market’s dramatic climb in 2005 and sudden sell-off in mid-January, a wall of money is heading into Japanese equities, reports Peter Lee. Securing greater retail investment is seen as crucial to the reconstruction of Japan’s entire financial system. Privatization, new-economy IPOs, J-Reits and private equity exits will keep the investment bankers busy until the big blue chips are ready to issue once more. In the meantime, can someone please fix the TSE’s problems?

Several emerging market countries have discovered that oil is a bane not a blessing, destroying domestic development. The current crop of oil champions may have stabilization funds, but Theodore Kim explains how things can still go wrong.

Japanese companies are now creditworthy and the banks are recapitalized but neither side seems keen to enter into loan transactions. But companies can see the long-term value of establishing access to capital markets. And lenders are keen to repackage and redistribute credit risk in new ways and define a new relationship with corporate customers. Peter Lee reports

Moody’s says that it intends to keep GMAC’s senior unsecured Ba1 rating under review for the time being, breaking its rule of resolving ratings within three months of announcing a review.

Peter Weinberg, former head of European investment banking at Goldman Sachs, will join former Morgan Stanley star banker Joseph Perella in his as yet unnamed investment banking boutique. Perella left Morgan Stanley last April during the battle over the leadership of the firm and soon after was sole adviser to MBNA on its $35.8 billion sale to Bank of America.

The only court-sanctioned committee representing shareholders in the Winn-Dixie Chapter 11 restructuring has been disbanded by a US Justice Department official at the request of a group of unsecured creditors. This leaves shareholders without any official representation in the reorganization plans of the chain-store group.

According to data from research company HFR, the number of hedge funds going bust is rising rapidly. In 2005 to the end of the third quarter an estimated 484 funds went into liquidation, 81.8% more than in the whole of 2004.

According to one fund of hedge funds manager, the new craze in strategies is buying life insurance policies. Managers are approaching elderly people and offering to buy their policies from them at a discount. “For example, managers would offer $500,000 to a 75-year-old for their $1 million life policy,” says the manager. “It seems a bit unsavoury, as managers are basically counting on a quick death so they don’t have to pay the annual premiums for a prolonged period of time. But as long as the discount isn’t too high, it seems there is little wrong with the strategy. The elderly person gets a lump sum of money, and the hedge fund manager has a tidy return,” he says. Managers are said to hold portfolios of numerous elderly people with varying life expectancies to spread risk. “The only problem with the strategy is that there is a finite number of people about to die who want to cash out of their life insurance policies.”

It might make sense for hedge funds to buy traditional asset managers. When Citigroup sold off its asset management arm to Legg Mason last year, leaving the focus on its separate alternatives business, it supported the belief of many in the market that traditional asset management was becoming something of a dinosaur.

Romania

Foreign hedge fund managers registering with the SEC might be caught out by a NASD ruling on IPOs, say lawyers. Foreign managers investing in US or non-US IPOs are subject to the US securities regulator’s ‘new issue’ ruling if those managers use a US broker/dealer.

Lebanon

Despite much hype and enthusiasm, the DIFX, Dubai’s new international stock exchange, has got off to rather a slow start.

In the first of a regular series of columns, John Arrowsmith casts light on what at first sight appears to have been a sudden volte-face on interest rates by the European Central Bank.

As Latin American economies look forward to another year of robust growth, remittance flows continue to outpace expectations. With payments by expatriates worth a record $45 billion last year and increasing at more than 10% a year, it is little surprise that banks now want a piece of the action. Latin American and US banks are not only eyeing services to rival traditional wire services to bring in extra revenues, but also see money flows as a way to develop portfolios aimed at the small-scale Latin American customer, offering loans and mortgages.

Bankers and investors question the slew of Latin American perp issues.

by John Ferry

CNOOC finally closed a significant Nigerian oil deal in January.

Japan’s corporate sector has spent the past few years selling businesses off to pay down debts and restructure but there is gathering evidence of the emergence of a more acquisitive bent.

Lotte Shopping, a stores-to-cinemas group and one of the biggest retailers in Korea, launched its IPO in January as a dual listing in Korea and London, with Goldman Sachs and Nomura Securities as joint global coordinators and Daewoo Securities handling the domestic IPO. Although pricing will not be fixed until the end of January, the valuation, believed to be up to $3.8 billion, means this will be comfortably Korea’s largest IPO. In addition to the domestic and international listings, Nomura Securities will undertake a public offer without listing in Tokyo.

Iraq has completed a ground-breaking debt exchange that will involve Iraqi risk being actively traded for the first time in emerging market indices. It's a $2.7 billion Eurobond to join emerging market indices, boosting liquidity.

SBI Capital Markets, the investment banking and project advisory arm of the State Bank of India , has agreed a strategic business alliance with Asian broker and investment bank CLSA to provide investment banking services in India . The two firms will work jointly on large equity capital market transactions, M&A and other advisory work as well as cooperate on research products. The alliance is for an initial period of two years but might be extended by mutual consent.

Asia Debt Management, a successful distressed debt fund manager based in Hong Kong, has teamed up with the Asian Development Bank to launch a $338 million closed-end fund targeting financially distressed companies that need rehabilitation. This is the second Maculus fund: the ADB also invested in Maculus I and this time has committed $45 million to the Maculus Fund II. The new fund will invest primarily in the capital structure (securities, loans, equity or other assets) of potentially viable, listed or unlisted companies, in financial distress due to excessive debt or unsustainable capital structures. The fund has a five-year life but might be extended for up to two consecutive one-year periods at Asia Debt Management’s option.

The Philippines’ capital markets have started 2006 positively. Capitalizing on the immediate strength of the peso, the Republic of the Philippines was Asia’s first sovereign to tap the market when it raised $2.1 billion from a $1.5 billion 25-year bond and a €500 million 10-year bond, one of the largest fund raisings from Asia for several years.

594,900,000,000 The global dollar value of equity capital raised in 2005. The figure is up 4% from 2004 and is the highest since 2000.

Happy New Year to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The exchange needs all the good wishes it can get after getting off to a bad start this year. On January 18 the market was forced to close early when trading exceeded its troubled computer system’s daily capacity.

Peru’s retail banking market is almost unrecognizable from a decade ago. In the mid-1990s, when less than 15% of economically active Peruvians had a bank account, 26 banks were jockeying for business in a depressed local market, some with highly inadvisable lending policies.

With hedge funds collapsing at record rates, funds of hedge funds will need to reassess their strategies. If you can’t beat them, join them.

Rumours of electronic broker EBS’s imminent takeover are rife, but a £1 billion price tag seems wide of the mark. Getting these to agree on whether tea or coffee is served at board meetings is probably difficult. Getting consensus on whether or not to sell EBS’s business, and then who to sell it to, must be a near impossibility.

High oil prices pushed Latin America’s equity markets to dangerous levels. In a new era where emotions about oil scarcity run high, Latin America is perceived as a big, endless supply of commodity wealth. But keep an eye on the volatility.

CMS growth is not expected to continue at its previous pace, but the momentum generated by the high first coupons, and the continuing leverage effort of MTN houses has kept demand for structured MTNs flowing.

The corporate hybrid sector shifted to retail with Porsche's 7.2% $1 billion perpetual non-call five (no coupon step-up). The transaction has several unusual aspects linked to the rating and structure, marketing and pricing.

Those banks distributing goodies in the hope of influencing the poll (against the rules, we hasten to add) might do well to remember that clients are often an ungrateful bunch. Apparently, one Japanese client of a UK clearing bank complained about the iPod Shuffles it received for Christmas. It was not the fact that iPods are made by one of its competitors that caused the problem. No, it was the fact that the Shuffle is at the bottom of the iPod range.

The growing number of FX transactions being settled through CLS Bank is strong evidence that the market is still expanding.

Residential mortgage-backed securities origination in Italy could be about to receive a boost with the entrance of international banks establishing prime residential platforms. SG and Macquarie are two names that are looking into the possibility. The attraction is the relatively attractive margin achievable on loans compared with France, Germany, the Netherlands and, of course, the UK. In the UK there are already several established players in both the prime and sub-prime space but there too Deutsche Bank is building a sub-prime platform.

Aegis – the ABS fund manager established by Richard Stow and Miguel Alcober two years ago – has sold its first CDO, Cavendish Square Funding, via BNP Paribas.

The biggest LBO club deals of 2005 will soon be surpassed.

SAB Miller, the world’s third-largest brewer, announced in January its intention to establish a brewery in Vietnam through a 50:50 joint venture with Vinamilk, Vietnam’s leading dairy products company. The $45 million venture will be based near Ho Chi Minh City and will make use of Vinamilk’s extensive distribution network. The aim is to develop a Vietnamese beer brand that will be supported by a premium SAB Miller brand.

Few financial issues in Asia are debated as hotly as the state of China’s banking system and the billions continually poured into mainland lenders by foreign financial institutions and lenders as the banking market is slowly opened up.

US carrier United Airlines has pledged the rights to some of its most valuable routes as collateral for a new loan that it hopes will take it out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As well as route rights between the US and London Heathrow and Japan, China, Hong Kong and Japan, it is also pledging $2.6 billion in aircraft and spare parts in a desperate bid to find collateral for the six-year $3 billion syndicated loan. United needs the new cash to pay off its debtor-in-possession financing. The company filed for bankruptcy in December 2002.

With India’s aviation sector already hopelessly overcrowded, consolidation started in January when Jet Airways India and Sahara Airlines announced an agreement for Jet to acquire Sahara. Although the deal is subject to a confidentiality agreement, the companies announced that the acquisition would be for cash based on an enterprise value of approximately $500 million for Sahara. Pending regulatory approval, both airlines will continue to operate independently. Despite the deal, overcapacity continues to plague the industry and more deals are likely.

The country’s stock indices are rising as the prospect of a coherent market looms into view.

IPOs in the Gulf are so popular that one investment bank has found a novel way to avoid crushes as investors scramble to register for shares. Qatar National Bank, which is arranging the $1.1 billion IPO for Al Rayyan Bank, hired a stadium in Doha for a two-week period in January.

Euromoney’s annual poll of polls shows that universal banks still dominate overall because of the breadth of their business. But firms such as Barclays Capital, Merrill Lynch and Société Générale are scoring notable successes in their chosen areas. Clive Horwood spoke to their heads of investment banking.

Funding from Abbott Laboratories for Boston Scientific’s bid for Guidant could set an important precedent.

The US commercial real estate CDO market is the one to watch in 2006 for volumes and new opportunities.

Venezuelans woke up on Christmas Day to find that Santa Claus had given them a brand-new toy: a Hugo Chávez action doll. In fact the doll was Venezuela’s best-selling toy this Christmas.

At the end of December, a consortium of international investors led by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia purchased a 14.3% stake in Anhui Conch Cement Company Limited (ACCC) from its parent company for an undisclosed sum. ACCC, which is listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai, is the largest cement manufacturer in China and fifth in the world. Fuelled by China’s construction frenzy, ACCC’s cement sales in the first three quarters of 2005 increased 56% over the equivalent period in 2004. The Morgan Stanley investment consortium included the International Finance Corporation.

An IPO is one way to head off fallout from the region’s gas dispute.

With negotiations for Turkey’s entry to the EU under way – albeit with a long lead-in time – completed privatizations, foreign direct investment and domestic deal-making are growing apace despite continuing bureaucratic hold-ups. David Judson reports.

Claire Bright is suing HBOS for sex discrimination and wrongful dismissal. Cliff Pattenden, head of treasury at the UK bank, is cited in the suit in which Bright is claiming a whopping £11million ($19.6 million) compensation [see Hybrid capital: It all ends in tiers, November issue for background on Bright’s departure).

Although brokers, fund managers and regulators are still unable to concur on an exact definition of best execution, they all agree that any definition should take into account both speed and price.

“Some of the other banks closed their internet offerings at 9pm. Just think about that for a minute. ‘The internet is closed.’”

In 2005, the Nikkei equity index shot ahead by 40% while 10-year Japanese government bond yields inched higher by just 15bp.

Investment banks take their branding very, very seriously. The agonizing over choice of name, fonts and colour schemes can be endless – and extremely costly.

The UK’s Financial Services Authority is working on rules for UK covered bonds. Bankers hope that the regulator will announce at the February 7 Zurich meeting of the European Covered Bond Council plans for a framework for UK financial institutions. Abbey, HBOS, Northern Rock, Nationwide and Bradford & Bingley have all issued covered bonds using UK contract law. But because the UK has not introduced a special public supervision, UK covered bonds attract a 20% risk weighting for BIS restricted investors as opposed to the 10% enjoyed by investors for bonds issued where there is such supervision or specific covered bond law. This puts the UK issuers at a disadvantage as their bonds price wider. This development is a volte-face by the regulator. It initially had a conservative stance on the structure, placing an unofficial limit on the proportion of their overall balance sheets UK issuers could sell as covered bonds.

KfW inaugurated its 2006 euro benchmark programme with a blowout €5 billion 15-year deal, the first time the German agency has issued in this maturity. The deal is able to take full advantage of demand from pension funds and insurers for long-dated assets. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch had a €10 billion order book after just one day. Pricing was 2 basis points through the 15-year swaps rate or 11bp over the April 2021 OAT.

Emerging market sovereigns that issue heavily in debt markets should prepare for higher borrowing costs.

Second-tier triple-A issuers have an opportunity to close the funding gap on KfW and EIB.

The borrower makes disappointing start to wave of telco financing.

Ask any of London’s famous black-cab drivers which investment bank they think is best and chances are they will vote for Deutsche Bank.

Mixed message in mix-up?

If anything symbolizes how far emerging markets have come over the past five years, it’s the growth of their domestic capital markets. Few would dispute that emerging markets local-currency debt is now an established asset class, despite its relative youth. Local-currency debt is the way of the future, but further reforms are necessary.

Raising money in global financial markets in 2005 was not always easy. But equity returns were strong and global credit survived a volatile year; it was also a notably profitable year for investment banks as M&A boomed again and the fees came rolling in.

Emerging market companies still lag behind in corporate governance but, says Karina Litvack, their success in developing businesses outside their home countries and their need to tap global capital markets is forcing them to devote more attention to the rules

The country’s president-elect knows little of economics, but is set to appoint a market-friendly finance minister.

Debt exchange plans hobbled by bad timing, repeat performance and a fully tapped shelf.

Rumours had been swirling around about the fate of ECN Hotspot for weeks. Many commented that with legendary billionaire currency speculator Joe Lewis as one of its backers, Hotspot was unlikely to be experiencing a cash crunch. Nonetheless, its present owners have seen fit to accept an all-cash bid of about $77.5 million for the business from Knight Capital Group. The close of the transaction is subject to receipt of appropriate regulatory approval and is expected to be completed within 90 days of its announcement on January 24.

Foreign banks are lining up to follow RZB and BNP Paribas’ lead by acquiring Ukrainian banks. The next to be sold looks set to be Ukrsotsbank, which oligarch Viktor Pinchuk has been looking to sell since the Orange Revolution of December 2004. Erste Bank, OTP, Société Générale and Intesa are all looking to buy the bank, which is Ukraine’s fourth biggest by assets. Ukrsotsbank has attracted foreign banks’ attention thanks to its strong growth in retail lending, with its gross consumer loan portfolio growing by 58% last year.

Japan might finally be on the road to recovery from its economic downturn but recent events have revealed a crisis of a different sort. After a human input error to a trade by Mizuho Securities in December that the Tokyo Stock Exchange trading system refused to cancel, despite requests from the broker, the TSE was rocked by another crisis in January when panic selling forced the exchange to shut early since the trading system was unable to cope with the flood of orders.

The Russian real estate market is one of the best performing in the world. Foreign capital is lining up billions of dollars to invest in it. But there’s a problem – it has to compete with the billions in local capital generated by oil sales. Julian Evans reports.

A repricing of capital is coming soon. But advances in risk management suggest it will be a prolonged process, not a quick flip into deflation.

Japan’s recent M&A boom is set to accelerate, driven by aggressive upstart companies, foreign and domestic private equity buyers and hungry overseas corporations. Now they have restructured, healthy Japanese corporations have plenty of domestic consolidation to do. M&A is becoming an increasingly accepted management tool. A handful of leading Japanese companies will use it to cement global leadership. Peter Lee reports.

Equine expectations

Exchange looking to build on the success of its established dollar index.

“I was meant to buy a new house today. All the financing was in place. Everything was agreed. Then a Russian turned up with a bag of cash and gazumped me. My wife’s not very happy.”

Behind Japan’s headline economic restructuring, a gradual but fundamental shift in Japan’s corporate ownership is taking place. A growing band of fund managers is encouraging companies to change; in some cases forcing them to do so. In the process the managers are making a tidy sum. Chris Leahy reports.

Larry Trotter and the Bonus of Doom

In the first of a regular new column featuring heads of funding at leading financial institutions, Barclays’ new treasurer talks to Alex Chambers about the early days of his new role and how its demands differs from his experience as an investment banker.

Citigroup wants to pioneer a new type of private banking for active wealth creators. Helen Avery speaks to the man who aims to drive the firm forward.

René Karsenti has left the European Investment Bank, where he was director-general for just under 10 years, to become the CEO of the International Capital Markets Association, the product of the recently merged International Primary Markets Association and International Securities Market Association.