Search results for

The debt poll of polls

Nigeria completed the clearing of its international private debt in March, ­leaving the way clear for new debt issuance on favourable terms across Africa.

The credit crunch has spurred an increase in the number of new hedge fund launches. Marco Masotti, partner in the fund formation practice at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York, says he has had an increasing number of enquiries from new managers over the past two to three months. "Some are setting up as they wish to take advantage of the investment opportunities that have sprung up, others are leaving financial institutions to start on their own as they are unhappy with management changes, or bonuses at their financial institutions."

Fitch Ratings has placed Sigma Finance’s senior note programme on negative watch, in a move affecting $31.6 billion of medium-term notes rated triple A and some $2.3 billion of F1 rated CP.

The Sepa revolution quietly creeps in

Winners and losers in the credit crunch

The Argentine government under the leadership of Cristina Kirchner will have to reach a resolution with the holdout investors from the sovereign’s debt restructuring of 2005 if it is to avoid financing issues, according to analysts.

Structured finance departments have taken a bit of a battering in the past few months but in southern Africa there is still belief in and appetite for the business. The domestic market in South Africa is growing rapidly, partly to meet political pressure to transfer assets to people with little money and no equity. Electricity shortages might well also be a key driver of new deal flows.

In a sign of growing economic cooperation between Russia and China, VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank, has become the first bank from the country to receive a licence to open a branch in China. VTB’s Shanghai branch will primarily service Russia-China trade, big industrial inter-state projects and the investment projects of Russian and Chinese companies.

The Islamic finance industry is expanding so rapidly and in such a fragmented manner that barely a month goes by when some financial institution does not claim to have launched a new shariah-compliant asset class.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez raised the regulated price of milk and threatened to seize dairies that tried to charge more as he attempted to increase milk supplies.

The strategic investment case for emerging European equities remains solid despite the deterioration of global markets caused by liquidity constraints in the banking system, says Martin Majdaniuk, manager of Baring Emerging Europe, which has $850 million under management and has returned 195.6% over the past three years.