In the September issue of Euromoney, in an article about Turkey entitled It’s about the journey, not the destination, we wrongly attributed a quote to Ceren Akdag of Yapi Kredi. We would like to point out that these comments were not made by Ms Akdag nor anyone else at Yapi Kredi, and apologise for the error.

Commerzbank has confirmed market rumours that two senior figures from Dresdner Kleinwort will not now be joining it. Staff were told that Eddie Listorti, Dresdner’s head of FICC, and Stefan Gütter, its head of sales, would have senior roles at the new, enlarged bank when the takeover is completed in Q3 of 2009. The two were involved in pre-integration planning. Their decision will no doubt lead to a good deal of uncertainty among their existing staff at Dresdner.

China’s cabinet has approved a capital injection into ailing state lender Agricultural Bank of China, priming it for an initial public offering in late 2009 or 2010. In addition, $150 billion to $200 billion of failed loans will be sucked out of ABC, which was set up in 1979 to provide financing to China’s 800 million farmers, and stored in one or several of the country’s leading asset management companies. In a year full of record bail-outs, the capital injection will be provided by Central Huijin, a division of China Investment Corporation (CIC), Beijing’s sovereign wealth fund, ABC vice-president Pan Gongsheng told a press conference on October 22. Set up in 2005 to oversee the bail-out of other leading Chinese banks, Central Huijin will take a 50% stake in ABC, with the remainder to be held by the country’s finance ministry. The bank will also seek further capital – as well as much-needed management and risk-control expertise – from one or more foreign lenders, who will buy a strategic stake in the lender before its IPO.

Investors in convertible bonds have been washed out by the storm in debt, equity and derivatives markets, so potential issuers are having to look to other buyers.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group closed its $9 billion investment in Morgan Stanley on October 13, ending speculation that the deal might not go ahead. The terms of the deal were more favourable to the Japanese institution than had originally been agreed, reflecting Morgan Stanley’s troubles. Rather than spending $3 billion of the total on ordinary shares at $25.25 each and the rest on convertible preferred shares with a conversion price of $31.25, MUFG will get a total of $7.8 billion-worth of the convertible preferred shares converting at $25.25 and the remaining $1.2 billion in preferred shares. The new deal offers substantially more protection for MUFG on its investment since preferred shares offer a fixed yield and their holders rank above common equity owners.

Central bank governor reveals the extent of intervention required by the FX losses of a Mexican retailer.

As the global financial crisis begins to take its toll in Latin America, several banks are starting to look towards private equity opportunities. "Investment banks are very creative at finding ways to charge fees," says Matt Cole, managing director at North Bay Equity Partners, a Latin America focused private equity house. "In 2006/07 the investment banks encouraged companies to list on the stock exchange. Now the banks are starting to pitch private equity deals rather than public equity deals." Antonio Neto, debt banker at HSBC, says: "It makes sense for the investment banks to consider private equity investments when the capital markets are so quiet."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said last month that oil prices, which have dropped by half in the last few months, will probably keep falling as the US falls into recession.

Mid-caps starved of operational and growth capital have new lenders.

The Loan Market Association held its inaugural conference in London on October 16. It was packed meeting of market participants looked for reasons to be optimistic amidst the gloom. The programme featured panel discussions designed to shine some light in the darkness: how to revitalize the primary market; where the liquidity safe havens are; how to invest in distressed debt.

Rage against the dying of the light

Apparently, you can learn everything you ever wanted to know about investment banking in just four weeks.

The BBC has launched a new series in the UK that seems eerily well timed considering the current financial situation. Little Dorrit, which premiered on Sunday October 26, is the story of a family that has fallen into debt and lost its house thanks to the overly aggressive lending policies of banks on the brink of world recession.

"This is a profound ethical issue. These are very sophisticated operations where the counterparty was not a hedge fund – it was not even a financial institution. Should a grocery chain be selling volatility protection?"

"This is worse then a divorce – I’ve lost half my net worth but I still have my wife!"

Governments worldwide have moved to recapitalize banks. But the amounts injected will only be sufficient to avert a great depression; they are not enough to sustain lending and avert a global recession.

Hedge funds are resorting to fee cuts in an attempt to discourage investors from redemptions. Ramius Capital, which has two funds totalling $11 billion in assets, reduced its incentive fee last month from 20% to 15% for current investors who agree to leave their money in its funds. Those investors would enjoy the lower fees until the end of 2010. Investors that add capital won’t pay an incentive fee on the additional funds until the beginning of 2010.

Japan’s largest banks are mulling the possibility of more capital raising after the Nikkei 225 stock index plunged to a 26-year low and left them looking vulnerable. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, the country’s largest bank, announced on October 27 that it will issue up to ¥600 billion in common shares and up to ¥390 billion in preferred. Mizuho Financial Group and Sumitimo Mitsui Financial Group have been reported by local media to be considering similar measures.

Russia’s mega-rich are fast emerging as victims of the global credit crunch.

63,300,000,000 the amount in dollars of equity capital raised by financial institutions in the third quarter of 2008. The quarterly amount is the second highest on record after the second quarter of 2008, when financial institutions raised a record $109.1 billion. Finance sector ECM deals accounted for nearly half of the total volume of transactions in the third quarter.

Excuse the cliché, but there is a silver lining in the cloud hanging over hedge funds. Many are destined to shut down. But that means more opportunity for those that survive, argues Neil Wilson.

Under pressure from investors to put money to work, private equity firms are reconsidering the structure of their investment strategies.

Cash-strapped Pakistan is trying every trick in the book to stave off a humiliating default on its mountain of foreign borrowings and inject some life into its moribund share markets. Mirroring the financial crisis elsewhere, the State Bank of Pakistan on October 16 moved to inject liquidity into the country’s financial system, cutting the cash reserve ratio – the amount banks are required to hold in reserve – by two percentage points, to 6%, and promising a further one percentage point cut by November 15. SBP governor Shamshad Akhtar promised the country’s embattled bankers that the move would immediately inject up to Rs180 billion ($2.2 billion) into the banking system, with a further Rs90 billion in capital to be freed up "at a later date".

IMF loan may not be enough to stave off banking and currency collapse.

The people of Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger delta have yet to see many benefits of the natural resources under their feet. But Rotimi Amaechi, governor of Rivers State, the most populous delta state, is trumpeting the measures he is taking to improve his state’s infrastructural deficiencies. He tells Euromoney that in Nigeria’s federal system, the 36 states get 30% of government revenue, while the nine delta states get additional cash thanks to their importance in the country’s petrochemicals industry.

The huge losses being reported by corporates from emerging markets around the world suggest that not all is as rosy in FX as might have been reported.

Until now, the most famous thing the small Australian wheatbelt community of Parkes could boast was a massive radio telescope on the outskirts of town known locally, with typical Australian reduction, as ‘The dish’. Nationally recognizable, the dish was the one thing that connected Parkes and, by extension, Australia, to the world and beyond. Moonshots have been traced and tracked from Parkes. Visiting US citizens – astronauts and their counterparts from Nasa – would periodically add foreign dash to Parkes’s determinedly middle-Australia ethos.

Despite turmoil in the global stock markets, Cambodia is pressing on with its plans to open a stock exchange in late 2009. A note from Leopard Cambodia, a private fund that invests in the country, confirms that the currency of the exchange will be US dollars and that "the newly announced listing criteria include two years of profitability, $1 million paid-up capital or $2 million shareholders’ equity, and 100+ shareholders or 10% free float".

HSBC is buying 88.89% of Indonesia’s Bank Ekonomi for $607.5 million in cash, almost doubling the bank’s network in the country. The offer of Rp2,452 a share was a 29% premium on the bank’s stock price at the time of the offer; the shares rose rapidly on news of the deal.