The Asian bond markets have given investors an easy ride in the past two years. Now, with inflation and interest rate uncertainty, buyers need to be smarter.

Deutsche and Wharton announce Delta

Is Germany really ready for full-blooded capitalism? That was the theme of the first Euromoney German Capital Markets Forum, which saw a lively debate on how Germany will finance itself in the future.

Other banks' proprietary platforms need to pick up market share fast

Investor sentiment has soured dramatically over the past two months, with more fund managers now expecting growth to slacken and corporate profits to fall. A Merrill Lynch survey of 300 fund managers indicates that a net 32% are now negative about growth prospects and that a net 34% are negative about the corporate profit outlook, a significant turnround from March when investors were positive about growth and corporate profits by a net 11% and 4% respectively. Expectations have not been this low since 2001.

Auna set for LBO record Three consortia of private equity firms are expected to submit bids of around e12 billion for Spanish telecoms operator Auna. If one succeeds, the deal would be Europe's largest-ever leveraged buyout and the biggest globally since KKR bought RJR Nabisco in 1989.

UBS economist Jonathan Anderson describes its as "one of the most, nay, the most overly-hyped themes in the markets today". But the question of when and if the Chinese renminbi – currently pegged at 8.28 renminbi to one US dollar – will be revalued against the US currency continues to fascinate and obsess global foreign exchange markets. There appears to be a growing consensus among analysts that the Chinese government will make some adjustment to the peg in the near future, perhaps even in the present quarter.

Investors snapped up the bonds on rarity value, as Germany went for an early deal

UK junior market AIM could be hampered by tight interpretations of EU rules on what constitutes a public offer

Banks readjust after rare correction in asset-backed market Structured credit markets approach the June half-way mark with the spread cycle reversed. All but the most recent new issues are trading below par and the heady times of heavily oversubscribed deals are over for now.

Singapore: REITS get more sophisticated A series of recent transactions from Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in Singapore, the de facto non-Japan Asia centre for the specialist property investment vehicles, are proving not only the popularity of the asset class with investors but also their flexibility as funding vehicles for real estate assets.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association held a gala dinner in London in May to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Regulator makes new attempt to solve 'legal person' shares overhang

Management of emerging markets lender Standard Chartered Bank is putting its own advertising slogan, 'We go the distance so you go further', to good internal use in its efforts to integrate its largest acquisition, the US$3.4 billion deal with Korea First Bank (KFB).

It's not just General Electric which is getting all puffed up about green technology through its Egoimagination drive.

China's domestic stock markets are a mess, riddled with inefficient companies, gerrymandered by a meddling government and hamstrung by a vast share overhang. Despite these challenges, Invesco Great Wall Fund Management Company has found a way to make money from stock picking. Much of its success rests on simply understanding the realities of its market. Chris Leahy reports.

What was it that Donald Rumsfeld famously said? "There are known knowns, the things we know we know. There are known unknowns, things we know we don't know. And then there are the unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know."

The New York Stock Exchange's historic deal with electronic rival Archipelago and Nasdaq's acquisition of rival I-Net dramatically reshape US cash equities trading. But what do they mean for OTC and listed trading, regional exchanges, and users now that the SEC's controversial Reg NMS has been passed? Peter Koh reports.

The rapid pace of development in issuance and investment techniques means that the progression of real estate to become a global asset class in its own right is not far away. Clive Horwood reports.

As the huge US and global debt bubbles burst under the weight of the cost of servicing, the US is certainly not the place for investors to be this year. Look instead to Europe, Japan, cash and gold

Between sessions on liquidity, capital issues and the future of credit markets, the big issues of a conference near Malaga in Spain were played out around the poker table

Attention now turns to more complex Al Marai transaction

Delay could mean SEC is reconsidering terms

Regulation:

Despite a more uncertain rate and credit environment, new issuers and investors continue to enter the covered bond market. As the boundaries between traditional and structured products blur, Asia and the US are the targets.

Government hopes delay will not harm investment drive

Looming implementation of the EU Prospectus Directive is adding momentum

Options:

ECM syndicate merry-go-round BNP Paribas has hired Florence Sztuder from SG to replace Tom Kennedy, who left the bank in April, as head of equity syndicate.

Negative returns