Opportunities and pitfalls abound for the Western banks rushing to build a presence in the Chinese banking market. There is no doubt that China’s banking market is huge—so sizeable, in fact, that it is tempting global banks to invest billions ...
Shrugging off concerns about increasing centralization, banks and corporations are enjoying boom times in . Booming hydrocarbon exports, GDP rising at over 7% a year and a rapidly growing middle class—all of these factors and more have made Russia a ...
Growth expectations This year’s list of best Brazilian companies is made up mainly of those firms that have taken advantage of the country’s increasing consumer confidence and booming exports. Despite high interest rates and ongoing demands for infrastructure improvements, winning ...
Despite uncertainty over the likely result of Mexico’s impending election, financial markets are showing remarkable stability. It’s a sign of their newfound resilience. Mexico is known for its banking and financial systems. The country has one of the most advanced ...
Companies in the Philippines recovered quickly from the recent turmoil, and the economy continues to prosper. Business as usual,” proclaimed President Gloria Arroyo as she closed another chapter in the Philippines’ lengthy history of coup plots after a hectic week ...
Global Custody Buyer’s Guide 16th Annual Buyer’s Guide Wafer-thin margins, unrelenting competition and ever increasing demands from clients are themes that recur year after year in the custody industry. So much consolidation has taken place over the past decade and ...
While they are wallowing in petrodollars from $60-per-barrel oil, some of the more forward-looking Gulf states are planning to ease themselves off their own addiction to oil.. Soaring oil prices have brought a historic transfer of wealth to the countries ...
At a meeting in Istanbul, outgoing governor of Turkey’s central bank, Süreyya Serdengeçti, joined Global Finance and a group of key figures in the Turkish banking industry to discuss the country’s economic progress. GLOBAL FINANCE : Last year was a ...
Despite uncertainty over the likely result of Mexico’s impending election, financial markets are showing remarkable stability. It’s a sign of their newfound resilience. Mexico is known for its banking and financial systems. The country has one of the most advanced ...
While they are wallowing in petrodollars from $60-per-barrel oil, some of the more forward-looking Gulf states are planning to ease themselves off their own addiction to oil.. Soaring oil prices have brought a historic transfer of wealth to the countries ...
Foreign exchange The logic couldn’t be simpler. An investor borrows Japanese yen at a low interest rate and invests the proceeds in US treasury bonds or higher-yielding emerging market bonds. The interest-rate differential provides an easy route to arbitrage yield ...
China China’s premier, Wen Jiabao The annual meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC) convened on March 5 with rural issues topping the agenda. Rural land seizures and a widening urban-rural income gap fueled the majority of the 87,000 protests ...
News With the 1997 Asian financial crisis a receding memory, lower-rated companies in the region are successfully issuing growing amounts of longer-term bonds. Standard & Poor’s says in a report, released last month, that a rising proportion of lower-rated issuers, ...
INDIA The Indian government has been quietly liberalizing foreign direct investment rules to the point that most of the restrictions covering even tightly regulated industries have been lifted. The results are beginning to show. For January 2006, FDI has hit ...
Company to watch: CBD/Brazil São Paulo-based Companhia Brasileira de Distribuicão, or CBD, Brazil’s largest retailer, is shifting its emphasis away from groceries to non-food items to escape food deflation. While CBD’s sales of non-food products rose 12.5% in 2005, they ...
RUSSIA Finance minister Alexei Kudrin New government-owned oil major Rosneft, which vaulted into the top tier of Russian oil companies with the controversial December 2004 acquisition of the largest production unit of Yukos Oil Company, submitted paperwork to launch an ...
DR NEWS South Korea’s largest department store chain, Lotte Shopping, raised $3.5 billion in its February initial public offering, including $2.8 billion in global depositary receipts. The issue of GDRs, which was listed on the London Stock Exchange, was the ...
Brazil New contender: Geraldo Alckmin Capital markets were encouraged by the opposition party PSDB’s tapping in March of São Paulo state governor Geraldo Alckmin as its candidate for the October presidential election. Following the announcement, emerging market bond spreads narrowed ...
Snow: Apparently unconcerned The recycling of windfall OPEC petrodollars into the US bond market is no longer a sure bet, economists warn. The potential reversal of petrodollar flows from US bonds remains the greatest threat to the dollar in 2006, ...
UNITED STATES The dollar weakened, especially against the euro, after the US Treasury reported on March 15 that net capital inflows into the country fell short of the trade deficit for the second straight month in January. The report put ...
Corporate Debt New issuance of high-yield debt in the US corporate market fell sharply in February to about $4.8 billion from $13.5 billion in January, according to Montpelier, Vermont-based KDP Investment Advisers. There was no lack of foreign companies, particularly ...
GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, or GAP, Mexico’s largest airport operator, raised $1 billion in the country’s largest privatization since the sale of Telmex in 1990. The government sold its 85% stake in GAP, which operates 12 airports in ...
Foreign exchange The logic couldn’t be simpler. An investor borrows Japanese yen at a low interest rate and invests the proceeds in US treasury bonds or higher-yielding emerging market bonds. The interest-rate differential provides an easy route to arbitrage yield ...
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS Even before AT&T; announced plans last month to buy BellSouth for $67 billion in stock, the pace of mergers and acquisitions worldwide in 2006 was keeping pace with the same period last year, which was a very ...
CHILE Bachelet: Confident start Michelle Bachelet, the 54-year-old medical doctor who was sworn in as Chile’s first female president on March 11, is the newest member of Latin America’s growing club of left-wing leaders. However, Bachelet espouses the Chilean-style socialism ...
UNITED KINGDOM Arun Sarin Embattled CEOs of the world must have been pleased last month when one of their own, Arun Sarin of Vodafone, tightened his grip on the company and put down a boardroom revolt that had threatened his ...
