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Fund suggests some European financials are an opportunity.

It will have 10 million customers, which is roughly half of Australia’s population. Crucially, it will have Westpac’s AA rating, rather than St George’s A. At the time of the merger announcement, it was envisaged as having a combined market capitalization of A$66 billion ($477 billion), although an improvement in the St George share price since then had increased that figure at the time of writing.

UBS heads the Dealogic league table for investment banking fees earned between January and September this year. The Swiss bank, which was awarded the title of best investment bank in Asia in Euromoney’s Awards for Excellence 2008, took a 5% market share with $323 million in fees during the nine-month period. Citi and Goldman Sachs were second and third respectively.

It was not only US investment banks such as Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch that found themselves in dire trouble in September. In the middle of the month, Russia’s KIT Finance found itself unable to meet repo obligations and had to hurriedly find a strategic buyer to prevent itself following Lehman’s fate. According to market sources, KIT Finance failed to settle repo obligations worth about Rb6 billion to Rb8 billion ($153 million to $230 million) In the end the company was rescued by Leader Asset Management, the pension fund arm of Russian energy company Gazprom.

The Spanish central bank prevented its financial institutions from investing heavily in the US sub-prime related securities. But Spain’s mid-tier banks are heavily exposed to a local property sector in crisis. Can they ride out the downturn? Peter Koh reports.

Saxo Bank, despite reporting increased profitability, has shed about a third of its workforce. About 300 jobs have been axed at its Copenhagen headquarters, with up to 50 disappearing in London. The bank is believed to be reviewing its operations in both Singapore and Switzerland in particular. The cost-cutting comes after Saxo embarked on a spell of rapid and aggressive expansion. Its staffing level is now virtually back to where it was a year ago.

Unibanco, which has a 52% stake in Brazilian insurance joint venture Unibanco AIG, is looking at buying the remaining share of the company if it goes on sale. The unit’s president, Jose Rudge, hinted in a conference call in September that Unibanco had the first right of refusal for the 48% share. "We are very attuned to opportunities that may arise from this and would analyse the opportunity to buy if it were for sale," says Rudge, adding that this would be a natural step for Unibanco. He declined to comment on whether AIG had offered to sell, or if Unibanco was in direct acquisition talks.

A new investment banking boutique has been established to service clients in the Baltics and the Commonwealth of Independent States looking for moderate-yield, low-volatility investment opportunities. Maximus Capital is headquartered in the Latvian capital, Riga, but also has offices in Baku, Kiev, London and Moscow.

The Digicel Group is planning a multi-million investment in central America in the coming year. The investment will focus on technology, equipment and customer offers in an attempt to shake up the competition in the region. Luis La Rocca, Digicel manager for El Salvador, said the company had already invested $2.5 billion in developing its network, which has more than 7 million customers.

Funds seek alternative methods to sell options.

Standard & Poor’s has begun assigning recovery ratings to the debt of 16 speculative-grade-rated Mexican corporations, as global investors are forced to place more focus on the recovery of principal after a borrower’s potential default.