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Qatar Islamic Bank

Wafra Investment Advisory

Central and eastern European issuers are likely to find accessing the international bond markets a challenging experience in the coming months given the continued US-inspired global liquidity squeeze. Speaking at Euromoney’s conference on central and eastern Europe in Vienna, Fokion Karavias, general manager of the global markets division at Greece’s EFG Eurobank, says that on the back of a general flight to quality from emerging towards developed markets all borrowers will face tougher market conditions but that government borrowers should find it easiest to issue. "Sovereigns will need to pay much higher spreads, but they will be able to issue," says Karavias, adding that even potential Euromarket debutantes such as Albania and Azerbaijan could get maiden issues away if they are prepared to pay the higher market clearing levels being demanded by investors.

Euromoney has been informed by a source claiming to have been close to an eight-figure deal that cash-rich Saudi Islamic bank Al Rajhi entered into with troubled US bank Bear Stearns just before Christmas.

Lehman’s new loan modification programme reveals its pessimistic view of the UK housing market.

Bolsa de Mercadorias & Futuros, the Brazilian derivatives exchange, has announced that it will introduce a new electronic platform to trade spot US dollar/Brazilian real. The venture is a joint initiative with the Brazilian Federation of Banks and the Banco Central do Brasil. BM&F says it is currently responsible for the registration and settlement of about 95% of transactions in the domestic dollar/real market. About 85% of this is traded OTC. The exchange says the addition of transparency and easier access to the market will improve efficiency and facilitate the execution of arbitrage and hedge strategies. The platform is scheduled to go live in the second quarter of 2008.

M&A boutique GCA’s acquisition of US peer Savvian was a bold cross-border deal that belied the notion that Japanese securities houses lack ambition.

Goldman Sachs has taken a minority stake in Kiev-based investment bank Dragon Capital via a share capital increase. "This development is recognition of the professionalism and success of our 120-strong multinational team and of our track record of triple-digit returns on equity," says Tomas Fiala, Dragon Capital’s managing director and controlling shareholder.

As the Saudi Arabian project finance pipeline grows to almost $500 billion, there is new momentum behind the Shariah-compliant project finance world.

CIMB Islamic

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Electronic broker Icap, the world’s biggest interdealer broker, acquired a 15% stake in the Bolsa de Productos de Chile (BPC) commodity exchange in January. This deal makes Icap the first international investor to have an ownership stake in a Chilean exchange, after acquiring the last three shares that belonged to BPC for Ps400 million ($800,000). This deal values the Chilean exchange at $5.6 million.