The borrower's perspective; LBO financing: a changing landscape; Prudent expansion is the key; LTM European Holco PIK's – the next stage of the bull market

Brazil’s market-leading ethanol producer, Cosan, recently made a U-turn on strategy that says a lot about the overheated market for the chemical. The firm rushed out announcements that it would shift from an acquisitive strategy to one that emphasized organic growth, including upgrades of existing facilities and mechanization of the sugar harvest, as well as expansion in less-competitive geographical areas. It blamed prices that it said were "in the clouds" for the rethink. At a hastily convened press conference, managers said that the price of acquisitions in the sector had risen by 147% between April 2005 and January to April of this year, according to the firm’s own calculations.

In the second part of our debate on FX, we examine the buy side as it develops its interest in new instruments such as exotic options, and examine key areas of innovation such as prime brokerage and e-commerce.

Imminent competition between execution ventures is likely to mean more trading and therefore more money for everyone.

Challenges of running prop and client money prove too much for Dillon Read Capital Management.

Hedge funds have massively outperformed global equities over the past decade, as shown by HFI’s regional indices for the US, Europe and Asia. They have had a bright start in 2007 too.

Interest-rate-related MTN supply has fallen.

The Colombian government’s decision to impose further capital controls in order to hinder the peso’s rapid appreciation amounts to "bad policy-making", according to Walter Molano of BCP Securities. In a research note on May 25 Molano said: "Colombia is one of the few emerging market countries that is not taking advantage of the commodity boom. Instead of focusing on its vast natural resource base, Colombia is exploiting the special relationship it enjoys with the US to secure quotas and preferential tariffs for light manufacturers – particularly textiles and clothing." The new regulations extend yet further the compulsory deposit requirements for investors.

Lehman Brothers has made Roger Nagioff global head of fixed income. He replaces Michael Gelbank, who has left the firm. The move came as a surprise not just because Nagioff has an equities background but also because the role will be based in London.

The Unifund conduit mirrors the Artesian structure that the UK bank created for water companies back in 2002.

UBS has hired loans syndication specialist Monica Macia from Citi to work as an executive director on the loans capital markets group. A spokesman for UBS said that the firm had no comment to make on speculation that the move suggests a change in emphasis for the bank.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association and a group of financial lawyers sponsored by the Federal Reserve (the Financial Markets Lawyers Group) have backed a Bear Stearns’ court appeal. In February this year, Bear Stearns was deemed liable for $125 million that fraudulent hedge fund the Manhattan Investment Fund, had deposited in the prime brokerage account it held at the investment bank before it filed for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy court concluded that Bear Stearns was liable for the deposits as their "initial transferee".

180 – the percentage rise in the value of US real estate ECM deals in the year to date over the same period in 2006. The total raised so far this year is $19.5 billion, up from just $7 billion in the 2006 period. The proportion of money raised by real estate companies through convertibles has increased 20 times, and currently accounts for 58% of US real estate ECM volume, $11.3 billion, compared with just 8% in the same period in 2006.

Yemen is the Arabian peninsula’s anomaly. With one of the world’s poorest and quickest-growing populations, it sits uneasily next to booming petrodollar earners such as nearby Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates.

The hybrid sector’s focus might be turning to Asian retail but as Euromoney went to press Munich Re announced an interesting €1 billion benchmark hybrid transaction – rated A3 (Moody’s)/ A (S&P)/A+ (Fitch) – with Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and UBS as bookrunners.

LCDX success gives the green light for the growth of loan derivative products.

TAM, Brazil’s leading low-cost airline, is seeking to maintain and improve its position with funding such as its recent 10-year bond. CFO Libano Mirando Barroso talks to Chloe Hayward about the bond and the airline’s business strategy.

Manuel Villas-Boas tells Laurence Neville how Espírito Santo Financial Group has coped with rapidly changing fortunes and what the family-owned group plans for the future.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has responded with scorn to criticisms that his refusal to renew the licence of opposition TV channel RCTV amounts to a direct assault on freedom of speech. The popular channel, which Chávez accuses of having supported an attempted coup in 2002, stopped broadcasting on May 27, leaving the country bereft of many of its favourite soap operas and comedy shows, and also of any mainstream anti-Chávez television. Chávez described as "laughable" the passing of condemnatory motions by both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington and the European Parliament. The president clearly fancies himself as something of a media mogul: Venezuela is to give Danny "Lethal Weapon" Glover $18 million for a film about the Haitian slave uprising.

In Euromoney’s February 2007 Islamic finance awards section, we incorrectly stated that the PCFC or Dubai Ports $3.5 billion pre-IPO convertible "was structured by Deutsche Bank". The transaction, Best Islamic finance deal of the year, was structured, arranged, underwritten and distributed by Barclays Capital and Dubai Islamic Bank only, while Deutsche Bank was advising PCFC on the acquisition of P&O. We regret any inconvenience that may have been caused.

It is often the informal parts of conferences that are the most revealing.

Russia’s Agency for Housing and Mortgage Lending priced the first domestic public MBS transaction last month via Citi. The financial institution placed Rb2.9 billion ($112 million) of class A bonds on Micex, the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange. The transaction will act as a benchmark for future Russian domestic MBS issuance. About 20 investors were attracted to the bonds.

The recent disruption in the US sub-prime mortgage market served as a warning to the CDO market of what happens when deals are backed by increasingly risky underlying assets. So why aren’t CLO managers – who are now buying single-B rated, covenant-lite loans in their droves – paying more attention? Louise Bowman reports.

Taking the proprietary traders out of a securities business en masse is a bizarre thing to do. It’s a good example of how not to build a hedge fund business.

VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank, made a strong debut with its initial public offering in mid-May and helped to restore faith in the entire Russian IPO market in the process. In contrast to the ham-fisted domestic share offering by market leader Sberbank in February, VTB’s transaction, which involved Russian and London listings, was widely considered to have been much better marketed, with the result that both listings attracted widespread investor support.

Euromoney’s borrower awards capture the most important names and trends seen across the globe during the past 12 months.

Merrill Lynch’s real estate team is looking decidedly thinner on the ground after a series of recent departures. CMBS head Nassar Hussain has left the bank along with John Bigley and Pascal Richard. They are understood to be heading off to different ventures: Hussain is rumoured to be setting up a Middle East-based property fund.

Gary Cottle has left Morgan Stanley less than a year after joining the US investment bank. He joins Royal Bank of Scotland as head of corporate risk solutions for the UK and Europe.

UK venture capital firm Oxford Capital Partners and Qatar National Bank and its private banking subsidiary Ansbacher Group have teamed up to form Qatar Capital Partners (QCP), a venture capital business in the Gulf state.

"Algorithmic trading can be shit sometimes"