Europe's leading companies are so threatened by competition from aggressive and multiplying private-equity firms that they need to mimic the firms' approach.

As real estate establishes itself as an asset class of choice for investors large and small, advisers are reaping the benefits. The next product in the production line could be property derivatives.

Wells Fargo leaves US equities stategy business

There's a lot of money to be made from the beautiful game. Deloitte's football money league shows that the top 20 football clubs in the world are set to break the £2 billion ($3.6 billion) income mark in 2005, for example. Germany's GNP is set to grow by €8 billion as a result of hosting the 2006 World Cup, and about 500 advertisers are set to spend €7 billion to enhance the branding of their products. According to VAT reclaims company Lowendal UK, an estimated €15 million will be spent on sponsorship events during the World Cup.

With valuation problems worsening, one US bank CFO thinks the major UK banks are becoming more appealing

Fund management AXA Investment Managers has acquired Framlington Group from HSBC and Comerica for £174 million. The deal adds about £4 billion to AXA's £52 billion ($93.5 billion) in UK assets under management, and puts an end to rumours that AXA IM was considering scaling down its UK business.

Mifid promises to shake up EU financial markets in a way that will make Big Bang look like a gentle nudge. To have any hope of meeting the implementation deadline of April 2007 investment banks might need to set aside as much as $12 million each in their 2006 budgets. Peter Koh examines the fallout

Research points to declining returns and greater risk as hedge funds grow older

Studying the birth chart of the US shows planetary patterns coinciding with upheavals and depressions in the country's history – and in his new book, Robert Gover predicts a decade of depression ahead. Helen Avery looks at this alternative approach.

Mexico has long been known for its big public companies: Televisa is the world's biggest broadcaster of Spanish-language programming, and wireless telephone group America Móvil has a reach that criss-crosses Latin America. But, with an illiquid stock market, Mexico falls short in providing financing for start-up firms that could be the region's Amazon.com or Apple, undermining the country's economic potential and shunning venture capitalists that are some of the most important providers of funding for small companies. "Mexico's problem is not a lack of capital or a lack of ideas, but a lack of local investors willing to take the necessary risks," says Howard Wallack, the recently appointed director of the Latin American Venture Capital Association (Lavca). "Mexico needs good business plans with the right people to execute them."

European borrowers make peso bonds hot new instrument

Shorting scoop picked up

There are signals from Korea that the government and regulators are taking an increasingly tough line with foreign participants in the local markets.

China's currency revaluation is more evolution than revolution but will have a number of knock-on effects

Public-sector banks in Europe have hit on a new and potentially profitable idea. They're trying to turn themselves into localised versions of the universal banking model. Who are some of the successful early movers? And we look at how Europe's cooperative banks are teaming up in debt capital markets.

New Dealogic data reveals the must-have private-equity clients – the ones that spend the most on investment banking fees

THE PARIS CLUB has gone through fundamental change over the past year. First it agreed to an enormous debt reduction for Iraq, then it started to allow debtor nations to buy back their debts. Most recently, it came to a long-awaited and ground-breaking agreement with Nigeria that involved elements of both debt reduction and buyback.

Persistent rumours are circulating in China that mainland authorities are likely to auction off a controlling interest in state-owned Guangdong Development Bank. Although unconfirmed, if the rumours prove accurate the GDB sale could presage the start of the true privatization of China's banking sector.

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Country risk index: Most countries have better access to capital than ever before and sovereign credit ratings have been on the rise for the past three years. But an increasingly tense geopolitical environment has led to marked decline in this year's country risk ratings. Research and analysis by Paul Pedzinski.

Recent Real estate industry award results

As Lebanese banks flush with liquidity devise regional expansion strategies, four of them have won licences to open affiliates in Syria's nascent privately owned banking sector.

Russia's domestic wealth management industry has a long way to go

In your latest quarterly inflation report you suggested that you'd overshoot the target. Is that correct?

The Chicago exchange aims to make currency option trading easier, bridging the gap between the cash and exchange markets

Platform adds five currency pairs to boost its regional offering

SocGen's move on big local player signals confidence in the run-up to Egypt's first open presidential election

A flurry of activity marked the first year of new management at Khazanah, Malaysia's state-owned investment arm. Tough decisions have been made and tougher rules set. But the job is far from complete and success may prove elusive. Chris Leahy reports from Kuala Lumpur