The advent of whole-business securitization and the creation of a liquid market in project-related debt has opened investors’ eyes to the rewards available in infrastructure. Governments’ desire for off-balance-sheet funding has also boosted the supply of suitable investments. But what makes infrastructure different? How do you buy it, sell it and manage it?

Hedge fund managers need to realize that many investors will be attracted most by track record and big-name managers.

Access to collateral is the number one topic of conversation in the CLO market. But if a viable leveraged loan CDS market develops, Christmas will have come early for many players.

British Land’s decision to convert to a Reit might prompt the restructuring of its Meadowhall securitization.

Bankruptcy of Nici shows vulnerability of small German SME securitizations.

The eagerly awaited opening up of mainland China to Reits investment continues to hang fire but the market is hot elsewhere in the region, with retail and institutional investors piling into new issues. Some in the market, though, reckon that investors often have over-inflated expectations of Reits’ returns and a poor grasp of the complexities of the deals. Chris Wright reports.

Otmar Issing has been the most impressive advocate of the ECB. What happens now that the bank has lost its implicit third pillar in monetary policy?

The National Bank of Slovakia is likely to consider a 50 basis point rate increase this month as the koruna’s failure to appreciate in recent months drives inflation, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank. The Slovak Republic enjoyed an acceleration of real GDP growth to 6% in 2005, and the central bank felt confident enough to issue a target inflation rate of below 2% by 2007. But the currency’s disappointing performance has led to higher than expected inflation this year, and the strong suspicion that the NBS will buy crowns if further tightening doesn’t prevent further depreciation.

AXA’s proposed extreme mortality cat bond will set the tone for the insurance securitization sector this year.

Greek real estate moves into catch-up mode

Barely a month seems to pass without either the launch of a new foreign exchange trading platform or at the least a significant enhancement and upgrade to an existing one.

Europe’s government bond auctions are a classic example of market failure. The department of Charlie McCreevy, the EU’s markets commissioner, knows this but can do nothing until it receives an official complaint. If banks are subsidizing the auction process to the tune of €600 million a year, as some claim, why don’t they make the call to Brussels?

Financiers in the Caribbean are planning to establish a region-wide capital markets exchange to create a financial hub with critical mass.

Spain’s securitization market grew by more than 35% last year, driven by demand for more, and more flexible, mortgage credit. Specialist investors are now hoping that issuers can be persuaded to sell first-loss exposure to this risk. This comes, though, as concerns grow about the potential fallout from a seemingly unsustainable house price boom. Louise Bowman reports.

Spacs increasingly interested in listing on UK's Alternative Investment Market.

One piece of analysis that is certain to be a fixture on desks this summer is a 59-page report by Goldman Sachs. In preparation for the football World Cup, which kicks off on June 9 in Germany, Goldman Sachs has put together a guide to each participating country and its team’s chances of success.

The bad news for Mexicans is that their country is one of the most prone to earthquakes. But at least the government’s financial resources will not be stretched to the limit should one strike following the launch of a $160 million catastrophe bond last month – the region’s first.

Too much of a good thing can be harmful, and so it is proving with Asia’s fledgling real estate investment trust sector. Given Asian markets’ passion for property, Reits were always going to be popular. Now one of the latest offerings suggests that investors are becoming more discerning.

If a product swamps a market, prices go down. Yet this basic economic tenet seems to have eluded many of the issuers in the Spanish covered bonds market. How else to explain the consistent lack of coordination in issuance endemic in the world of the cédulas?

Following a two-year hiatus, Belgium settles trade with Citi.

A busy sporting calendar means a burgeoning expense account for many investment banks.

Lebanon puts itself back at the hub

UBS has appointed Tom Fox and Matthew Koder as joint global heads of equity capital markets, replacing Lucinda Riches, who has headed the division for the past seven years.

I was lunching at Cecconi’s with my friend Richard. Cecconi’s is an Italian restaurant in Mayfair frequented by hedge fund hotties, Latvian lovelies with pneumatic mammaries and the odd voyeur such as myself. Dame Marjorie Scardino, chief executive of publishing group Pearson – or her doppelganger – was at the next table. Regretfully, under my Cecconi classification system, she falls into the voyeur category. Well she’s hardly a buxom Latvian is she? Richard is the brother I never had. He is funny, clever, irreverent and, in his spare time, a successful investment banker. If he weren’t one of my closest friends, I would hate him for the insouciance of it all.

Although adoption of an exchange-like structure has been predicted for years, foreign exchange has predominantly been traded over the counter. Could a new initiative by the CME and Reuters finally force the transition through? Lee Oliver reports.

Here are the bond issuers that have taken the market by storm over the past 12 months: from the IFC, punching above its weight within the World Bank group with its pioneering work in developing local bond markets, to Bayer’s use of innovative methods to maintain its credit profile while making acquisitions.

Despite its size and maturity, the covered bond market is fast changing. New countries, new asset classes and new issuers vie for investors. But does the conflict between regulators’ desire for quality and consistency clash with investors’ needs for yield and diversification?

“It’s so bloody liquid, it’s not even funny.”

NAIC’s SVO brings further woe to the hybrids industry; the US market looks less viable than it once did.

Despite brighter prospects for the Japanese economy, corporate issuers are not rushing back to the international or domestic bond markets. Chris Wright reports.