Asia’s property market is growing fast as it moves onto global investors’ horizons. Reits are in the vanguard of that development and are evolving rapidly. Those changes might yet pose challenges for investors. Chris Leahy reports.

Ben Shoval and his partners have found a lucrative real estate niche: early stage, short-term funding for sound, non-speculative developers. Helen Avery reports.

Italy’s Sanpaolo IMI has won the race to acquire Bank of Alexandria. It will pay $2 billion for an 80% stake in the bank, Egypt’s fourth largest. It outbid a consortium of banks comprising Jordan-based Arab Bank Group and Saudi Arabia’s Arab National Bank. Other bidders had included Dubai’s Mashreqbank and Dubai Investment Group, Egypt’s Commercial International Bank and BNP Paribas.

Chávez says that he might try to seize four companies operating in Venezuela owned in part by Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Total and Statoil.

Investment banks in Japan are preparing to compete for a share of the lucrative market for corporate hybrid capital issuance that they hope will develop following retailer Aeon’s pioneering 50-year security.

London-based buyout firm Doughty Hanson’s decision to pull its planned €1 billion IPO on Euronext in October suggests there’s not much retail or high-net-worth demand for private equity when some commentators are already calling the top of the market. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts managed to raise $5 billion through its Euronext IPO earlier this year but Apollo subsequently struggled to raise $2 billion and both firms’ shares have been underwater since. At the beginning of October, KKR was trading at a 16% discount.

Euromoney’s inaugural debt trading poll gives unprecedented insights into the increasingly complex derivatives-led world of debt trading.

As governments across the continent are engaging in economic reforms and building their country’s infrastructure, new types of investors are starting to see Africa as a safe bet when searching for higher returns.

There is anecdotal evidence that hedge funds have been increasingly important players in emerging markets for some time now. But a new report from Greenwich Associates has quantified the trend to a startling extent.

There are signs that liquidity-generated inflation is spreading from financial bubbles into the output economy.

But are the banks really supporting the programme?

91% the increase in real estate/property sector IPOs year to date over the same period last year. Global IPOs in the sector have raised $21 billion so far, already the highest ever yearly volume, according to Dealogic.

Bolivia signed a deal last month worth $17 billion that is set to triple its sale of natural gas to Argentina. Under a new contract, Bolivia will increase exports to Argentina from the current maximum of 7.7 million cubic metres a day to 27.7 million cubic metres a day over a 20-year period beginning in 2010.

A survey by the Bank of New York and Casey, Quirk and Associates shows that, while hedge funds may be receiving criticism from some governmental bodies, institutional investors are quite content with them. Only 3% of the 101 institutional investors surveyed said that their hedge fund programme had underperformed their expectations. Seventy-two percent said that their hedge fund had performed within 1% of their target expectations, and 25% claimed it had exceeded their return target by 1% or more.

MDM deal heralds new swap technology.

At a meeting on global real estate last month, the speakers concluded that Latin America was the next investment opportunity, with Mexico at the forefront. Speakers also named Chile, Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina as countries to watch. Real estate in Mexico, which has traditionally been driven by Americans, is now starting to see local and other foreign investment.

Evolution Securities China to bring China Medstar to London’s junior market in latest deal.

The central banks of Argentina and Brazil are putting together a proposal that will ease trade payments between importers and exporters in the two countries.

Project looks great on paper. But will it succeed?

An inaugural Asia Pacific wealth management survey from Merrill Lynch and Capgemini highlights the growing concentration of the region’s wealth in the hands of the already rich, deemed high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs).

The wilder shores of technical analysis never want for proponents and followers. So are there perhaps truths to be found in all this numerology? Or is it just a load of bloody offal?

Several private equity firms are poised to launch new debt management businesses as the European CLO market goes into overdrive.

As readers of September’s 408-page issue will appreciate, Euromoney seldom finds itself lost for words.

The privatization of Japan Post means that a huge store of capital will be unleashed into the private sector. Lawrence White travelled to Tokyo to find out what progress has been made, and to assess the likely effects of this historic IPO on the global capital markets.

Oman’s Blue City Investments securitization packages a series of unusual risks for ABS investors.

The back office is the unglamorous end of the deal chain. But as some banks are now finding out, keeping the pipes clear is vital if business is to be kept flowing from the front end. Lee Oliver reports.

SG aims to capitalize on the increasing demand for credit derivatives as a risk mitigation tool.

In October, two rating agencies struck down Italy’s credit ratings: Fitch lowered the republic’s long-term debt rating to AA–; Standard & Poor’s now has it at a lowly A+.

Washington Mutual has broken new ground in several areas during the past year. Not least as the first American issuer of a covered bond. However, it made a substantial impact with its hybrid issuance too. WaMu’s treasurer, Robert Williams, explains his bank’s financing strategy to Alex Chambers.

Technological developments in multilateral trading facilities look set to be much more significant than link-ups between private monopoly exchanges.