July 2009
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LATEST ARTICLES
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Of the few global banks to have survived without state assistance, HSBC is the best positioned in the most attractive emerging economies. Its global banking and markets business is thriving. Its rights issue confirmed it as a better credit than many governments, and deposits have flooded in. Regulators will force other banks to copy it. Best of all, it has admitted its mistakes. Peter Lee reports.
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Brady Dougan and Paul Calello stripped down Credit Suisse’s investment banking vehicle as the credit crisis hit. Now they’re showing off a streamlined, non-polluting, yet powerful firm that even their competitors admire. Is Credit Suisse the model of a new investment bank? Clive Horwood reports.
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HSBC and Credit Suisse win top honours in Euromoney Awards for Excellence; Ackermann receives Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to Financial Markets
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Selling BGI removes restrictions on Barclays Capital; The firm can now deal with US mutual and pension funds
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BofA president bullish on prospects; Firm maintains top three revenue slot
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Steady supply for three months shows market is back; Sub-investment-grade names welcomed
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Fortis acquisition gives unprecedented scale; Organic growth continues in France, Italy
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Officials from the Gulf Cooperation Council have set 2013 as the new deadline for the region’s common currency, according to Standard Chartered, quoting local media reports. The initial deadline for the project was 2010 but progress has been slow and complex, with both Oman and the UAE pulling out of the union. Despite this, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have decided to go ahead. But Standard Chartered says that even if the union is effected, excluding the UAE means the region’s second-largest and most diversified economy will be outside it.
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FX retail leader might look offshore; Regulators’ moves “may not help investors”
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There is a group of investors who don’t feel comfortable unless there’s a benchmark to use. So clearly there’s a need for indices that measure movements in FX.
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Saxo Bank has purchased stakes in two specialist asset managers, taking the entire share capital of Capital Four Management and 51% of Global Evolution.
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Time won’t solve problems; Transparency is paramount
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Emerging markets companies buying western assets must heed the lessons of Cemex and Tata Motors.
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The retiring chairman of Rabobank urges a new model of bank ownership; The view from a survivor is that the worst may be to come
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US bank consolidation is hanging fire; Will private equity firms jumpstart the market?
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$16 billion in Reit offerings have been made in Q2; Reits eye distressed debt opportunities
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IMF credit line brings into question robustness of country’s economy.
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Lenient treatment of property assets acquired in debt-for-equity swaps shows regulators are still worried by systemic vulnerabilities.
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Financial troubles are plaguing some of the Gulf’s most prominent families.
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Aedy begins to build team; Restructuring opportunities top of agenda
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Equity derivatives dealers responding to difficult trading environment; New products to cope with volatility and counterparty risk
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Firm’s role in AIA offering shows it is a player to reckon with in the region.
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The CDS market is hoping that the move to central clearing will silence its critics. It could be disappointed.
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Boutique investment bank expanding in fixed-income trading; Plans origination expansion and a push into Europe
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Corporate, not real estate, is key; White Tower teeters on the brink
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Roberto Isolani, co-head of global capital markets at UBS, is to leave the bank this summer. Isolani spent just over two years in London after he was recalled from Italy to run debt capital markets. He is a 17-year veteran of UBS who was elevated to co-head of capital markets alongside Matthew Koder just over a year ago when the troubled Swiss bank merged ECM and DCM.
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Hires key bankers from Merrill Lynch; Big task to stop league tables slide
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The financial crisis has prompted corporates to scrutinize more closely the risk presented by their bank counterparties. Laurence Neville reports.
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Setubal wants to buy outside Brazil; Barbosa confident that Santander Real merger will be complete within a year
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Debt restructurings are untested process; Demand for new sovereign sukuk still strong
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Ajay Banga has left Citi to become president and COO of MasterCard after less than a year at the helm of the US bank’s Asia-Pacific business. The news is a blow to Citi, which was in the process of reorganizing its Asian businesses under Banga as detailed in a May story in Euromoney, ‘Banga demolishes Citi’s Asia-Pac silos’. Although Citi declined to comment officially on the move beyond a statement saying that a successor would be appointed soon, sources within the firm and outside it are already speculating on who that might be. The frontrunners are believed to be Shengman Zhang, the firm’s regional president, and Stephen Bird, head of the firm’s Asia consumer business and of the key north Asia region. Another candidate mentioned is Farhan Faruqui, a rapidly rising star within the firm who now heads the global banking business for Asia, although a source within the firm speculated that it might be "a little too soon for Farhan [to reach that level]".
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Goldman Sachs has always set itself apart. And that goes for its people as well as its business. Somehow Goldman bankers just look different and sound different to those at other shops and are clearly worth protecting.
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In Citi’s desperate attempt to win the coveted best bank in Honduras award it drew on all its staff’s experiences from the past 12 months. In the column entitled 2008 Recognition & Awards, the US bank was proud to announce its community service prize... all well and good. But it was also keen to bring to Euromoney’s attention its prowess on the sporting field: "First place in the Basketball Bank Association League, Male Category."
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Jobs are scarce and job interviews competitive but how far would you go to get noticed? From a recent survey by CareerBuilder.com, an online jobs site in the US, apparently candidates are willing to try any tricks. Here’s a selection of tactics that employers reported during the survey:
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Oh how the mighty are fallen. When one banker asked Euromoney whether we were attending the Global ABS conference in Kilburn he was using poetic licence – Kilburn is much further up Edgware Road. But we knew what he meant.
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Citi and Tata’s deal irks regulator; Further bank-backed bonds banned
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"Some of them had seen Barbarians at the gate so we were a little nervous as to how they would react to the news that KKR had won," says a banker advising Anheuser-Busch InBev on its sale of Korea’s Oriental Brewery to KKR.
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If you’re thinking recovery and green shoots, think again. Robert Gover, an economist-cum-astrologist, says the planetary alignments portend a decline in the US markets beginning in August, accelerating into a crash by October. A Grand Cross, whereby four planets form oppositions to each other in outer space that resemble a cross on a celestial chart is what is coming up, says Gover. Grand Crosses were present in all of the US’s severe depressions. It’s going to be lumpy for the stock markets from then until 2012, when it will get worse until 2015. So much for green shoots.
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The banking sector in emerging Europe is likely to experience an outright fall in total assets this year, according to a report issued last month.
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Bankers confident after record Visanet deal; Market volatility, though, means issuance will be selective
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At the annual Euromoney Borrowers and Investors Forum last month, the great and the good of the sovereign, supranational and agency issuer community gathered in London to meet market participants.
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A seven-day, six-stage, 250 kilometre race across the desert in China, the contest sounds gruelling enough but perhaps will have come as light relief after the last 18 months of hardship in the workplace.
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"It’s all very well looking at league tables this year, but you have to realize that one of those at the top was standing there with a gun to the clients’ heads. I think we all know who"
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Running a bank in Qatar appears to be getting easier all the time. The local government’s latest bailout plan for its financial sector will involve the state clearing up to $4.1 billion of troubled real estate loans and investment from lenders’ balance sheets.
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Cuba to roll over €200 million of bonds; Economy under strain from financial downturn and hurricanes
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Big overseas holders of US dollar assets, with China at the forefront, will not be sold another pup. Instead of supporting wayward US financial policies they will increasingly diversify to other currencies.
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Dramatic fall in growth; Bankruptcy looms without bailout funds
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Stronger investor appetite for emerging market risk since the start of the second quarter of the year combined with higher oil and gas prices is helping to reopen the international equity markets to energy companies operating in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
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Have we learnt anything from the unsettling events of the past nine months? I have learnt that bankers have short memories and exceptionally short recall regarding painful reminiscences. Maybe it’s part of the human condition. It certainly seems to be part of a banker’s DNA.
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The credit crunch and recession will reshape finance and markets in some surprising ways.
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Team inherited from ABN Amro leaves
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SC expands as cashless competitors retreat; Tough markets mean deals stuck on the books