A research note from macroeconomic research consultant Capital Economics says that current market turmoil will lead to hedge fund losses but performance won’t be as bad as feared, and investors are unlikely to turn away from the asset class.

As recent bridge collapses in the US and China illustrated, the difference between good and bad infrastructure is a matter of life and death. Nowhere is that more true than in Russia, where Soviet-era infrastructure is now creaking under the strain of coping with the increasing demands of the country’s booming market economy.

Citi has joined its emerging markets credit and global credit trading businesses. Carey Lathrop is the new head of the group, replacing Jim Higgins and Dave Pichler, who are leaving the bank. Lathrop has been at Citi since 1988 and was head of the investment-grade syndicate until 2003 when he took over emerging markets credit trading.

South African financial services group PSG Group says that it will seek a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange. The group, which is involved in private equity and corporate finance, financial advisory services, assurance operations and fund management, says it will issue up to 18 million shares to raise up to R400 million ($55.28 million) before the secondary listing on the LSE, if market conditions permit.

Just when liquidity on Wall Street was starting to dry up in the summer, one US bank was taking it to a whole new dimension.

Despite the fallout from US sub-prime woes, analysts are optimistic about prospects for the global economy, as commodities remain strong. But the US drops out of the top five in Euromoney’s latest country risk rankings. Oliver Hexter reports.

National Bank of Kuwait is hoping to gain a bank branch licence in Syria soon. The bank is still preparing its application but expects to get the green light during the next two months.

Merger talks between E*Trade and TD Ameritrade could be a sign of things to come.

Too many sellers and not enough buyers curtail market growth.

Market-making commitment is under pressure.

Serbia’s equity market has spent most of the year firmly in positive territory. But can the good times last? Guy Norton reports from Belgrade.

Vladimir Evtushenkov, the chairman of Russian conglomerate Sistema, describes his company’s focus as consumer services but is tight-lipped about what that means. It apparently stretches to stakes in oil companies and a willingness to sell off what looked like a core element of a successful insurer. Laurence Neville reports.

Hedge funds should broaden their horizons beyond Brazil to the rest of the region in their search for yield, says Lou Gerken, chief executive of Gerken Capital Associates (GCA). Although there are 148 hedge funds in Latin America, only nine are not based in Brazil and solely focused on the region’s biggest economy. But now it would seem that investors, such as GCA, are seeing an opportunity across the region as countries such as Peru and Colombia, as well as Brazil and Mexico, are set firmly on the route towards investment-grade status. On top of this, liquidity in the region has been improving, although mostly in Brazil, which can now give funds a choice of nearly 60 stocks to short.

The Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX) has set up a dedicated structured products market segment to help facilitate the trading of derivatives-based and other structured investments in the region.

Kazakhstan’s economic boom has transformed the country into the undisputed economic leader in central Asia. But can it be a springboard for expansion in the rest of the region? Guy Norton reports from Almaty.

A growing social conscience about the environment has opened up new technologies and markets that offer hedge funds new areas in which to find alpha. But it is still a nascent area and the number of players is small. Helen Avery interviews four managers to see how they are approaching the emerging asset class.

A return of normal attrition rates does not spell the end for hedge funds and many will profit from market dislocations, says Neil Wilson, editorial director at HedgeFund Intelligence.

Despite growing market volatility and the fallout from the US sub-prime crisis, Latin American stock markets remain hugely profitable after a three-year bull run. Investors worldwide are keen to get a piece of the action. With plans for regional stock exchanges and cross-border trading still at the draft stage, investors are turning to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to get exposure to such equity markets as Brazil’s Bovespa and Mexico’s IPC index and tap into high-yielding shares.

The optimization of working capital is the treasurer’s crucial concern – all the more so as rates rise and credit conditions tighten. Financing issues within supply chains are key, and the increasing complexities of supplier-buyer relationships are creating new credit and payment pressures.

The global economy may be strong, but that does not make it immune to cyclical liquidity contraction.

In any economic downturn, banks are nearly always the first businesses to suffer, which is why the recent spike in credit growth among Korea’s banks looks alarming.

Deutsche Bank has lost its head of European ABS origination, Jeff Stolz, to Goldman Sachs. As a managing director in the financing group, Stolz will undertake a similar role at the US firm, which has not had an ABS chief for a number of years. Deutsche has yet to announce a replacement.

With successful IPOs completed and the domestic economy humming, China’s banks have never been in better shape to venture overseas, and there are compelling reasons to do so. Chris Leahy reports.

Russia’s flourishing mortgage market is the next big opportunity for the country’s securitization market. Jethro Wookey reports from Moscow.

Kuwait Finance House is eyeing up certain branches of Malaysia’s RHB Bank, according to Salman Younis, the chief of the Gulf bank’s Malaysian unit. RHB Bank has obtained regulatory approval to start the sale talks but the Malaysian unit of KFH was still awaiting the nod from Malaysia’s central bank to begin discussions. At the moment there are up to 30 branches that could change hands in the next few months.

In the clearest sign yet that Turkmenistan is opening to foreign direct investment, the country has granted the first gas production licence to an overseas company. China’s national oil company, CNPC, has received approval to develop a field in the Amu Darya region in eastern Turkmenistan – the first new gas deposit to be developed since Soviet times. The project includes pipelines that will carry gas east across the region to China. CNPC eventually expects to produce 17 billion cubic metres of gas a year from the field.

Indonesian companies have chosen to fund their businesses in esoteric ways, and that may be at the expense of developing a mature equity market. Old habits will prove tough to change. Chris Leahy reports.

No one doubts that China’s banks will make acquisitions abroad. What is less clear is when the buying spree will start and what international expansion strategies the banks will deploy. The answers might not be obvious. Chris Leahy reports.

Against the background of falling oil revenues and an ambitious five-year plan, Syria is taking its first steps towards a more liberal economy. Mohammed Al-Hussein, minister of finance, spoke to Euromoney about overhauling public expenditure, issuing treasury bills and bank ownership.

Lebanon’s banking sector is proving surprisingly resilient in spite of dire economic conditions, according to a recent report issued by one of the country’s largest banks.