Magazine Cover

Cover Story

Cover Story : The people who are making the new Germany…

The people who are making the new Germany… Out: Gerhard Schröder Peer Steinbruck, finance minister (SPD): This 58-year-old bureaucrat-turned-right-wing Social Democratic politician has arguably the toughest job in Germany: putting the country’s finances back on track. He might—just—be the man ...

Cover Story : Germany: Beyond the Election Gloom

As the dust settles after the German election, it is becoming clear that Europe’s largest economy is undergoing a profound transformation. That change will come at a price, though. When German conservative leader Angela Merkel finally put together a Grand ...

Features

Features : Best Internet Banks Conference Report

Internet Banking Conference and Awards Ceremony Global Finance brings together leading figures from the Internet banking world to discuss the future of the market. Jorge Vargas, W3 On November 8, 2005, Global Finance presented its inaugural Internet Banking Conference. The ...

Features : Dealbreakers

Sharply increasing M&A; deal volumes mask some very real problems in the cross-border M&A; market. At first glance 2005 appears to have been a record year for worldwide M&A.; In the third quarter the volume of worldwide M&A; deals was ...

Features : Money Launderers Find Fewer Places to Hide

New regulations and unprecedented global cooperation have combined to put the squeeze on money launderers. In just a few short years, the global effort to clamp down on money laundering and terrorist financing has yielded dramatic results. Now there are ...

Features : Technology: Finding the Right IT Strategy

Determining what style of IT management is right for an organization can be complex. Although centralization offers many benefits, it does not always offer the necessary flexibility. With the speed of technological development, the desire to drive greater efficiency through ...

Features : The World’s Best Derivatives Providers

As the use of derivatives for risk management and cash management continues to grow dramatically, the opportunities and challenges for providers are multiplying. Global Finance’s second annual awards for the World’s Best Derivatives Providers recognize the banks that have excelled ...

Features : Treasury and Cash Management Comes Back To the Core

Increasingly, global businesses are recognizing the benefits they can gain from centralizing their treasury and liquidity management. Setting up suitable systems to achieve that goal, however, is far from simple. As the world’s biggest companies spread their operations ever farther ...

Features : World’s Best Internet Banks Awards: Part 2

Online security issues have taken center stage over the past year, presenting banks with greater challenges in retaining online customers and attracting new ones. Amid blaring headlines, customer concern and new regulatory action regarding the security of customers’ financial information ...

Award Winners

Award Winners : World’s Best Derivatives Providers 2005

Best Derivatives Providers NORTH AMERICA Best Commodity Derivatives Provider — Morgan Stanley Best Credit Derivatives Provider — JPMorgan Best Equity Derivatives Provider — Citigroup Best FX Derivatives Provider — Deutsche Bank Best Interest Rate Derivatives Provider — Morgan Stanley EUROPE ...

Award Winners : The World’s Best Internet Banks, 2005 Part 2

Regional Winners NORTH AMERICA Best Corporate/Institutional Internet Bank — Wells Fargo Best Consumer Internet Bank — Bank of America EUROPE Best Corporate/Institutional Internet Bank — RZB Best Consumer Internet Bank — Citigroup ASIA/PACIFIC Best Corporate/Institutional Internet Bank— DBS Bank Best ...

Emerging Markets

Emerging Markets : Heading Skyward

China China Construction Bank (CCB) on October 27 became the first of China’s four biggest state-owned banks to launch an initial public offering. Despite mixed reactions from investors, the bank raised US$8 billion on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, making ...

Emerging Markets : Dubai Exchange Lists First GDR

DR News Investcom, an international mobile-telephone services provider, has become the first company to list its global depositary receipts on the new Dubai International Financial Exchange. Investcom raised about $750 million in its initial public offering, which was also listed ...

Emerging Markets : Ethanol and Sugar Giant Offers Shares

News Sao Paulo, Brazil-based Cosan, the world’s biggest sugar and ethanol producer, made an initial public offering on the Bovespa Stock Exchange last month. Brazilian-produced ethanol is expected to gain increased penetration in global markets as a result of efforts ...

Emerging Markets : Investment Grade Looms for Brazil

Brazil Brazil continues to move closer to a coveted investment-grade rating, albeit slowly. In October Moody’s upgraded the sovereign’s foreign currency rating to Ba3 from B1 with a positive outlook, putting it three notches away from the top rating. The ...

Emerging Markets : Putin Prepares for Succession

Russia Russian president Vladimir Putin reshuffled the government in mid-November, promoting presidential administration head and long-time Putin loyalist Dmitry Medvedev to the position of first deputy prime minister. Sergei Sobyanin, the governor of the oil-rich region of Tyumen, was named ...

Emerging Markets : Rubber to Hit the Road in Hungary

Company to Watch: Hankook Tire/South Korea Hankook Tire, South Korea’s largest tire-maker, in November selected Dunaujvaros, Hungary, which is about 40 miles south of Budapest, as the site for its first European factory. The $600 million plant is scheduled to ...

Best Derivatives Providers

Features : The World’s Best Derivatives Providers

As the use of derivatives for risk management and cash management continues to grow dramatically, the opportunities and challenges for providers are multiplying. Global Finance’s second annual awards for the World’s Best Derivatives Providers recognize the banks that have excelled ...

Award Winners : World’s Best Derivatives Providers 2005

Best Derivatives Providers NORTH AMERICA Best Commodity Derivatives Provider — Morgan Stanley Best Credit Derivatives Provider — JPMorgan Best Equity Derivatives Provider — Citigroup Best FX Derivatives Provider — Deutsche Bank Best Interest Rate Derivatives Provider — Morgan Stanley EUROPE ...

Milestones

Milestones : Buenos Aires Opens Global Swap

Argentina Buenos Aires: Offers default swap Nearly four years after its default, the Argentine province of Buenos Aires opened a global debt swap in November that analysts predict will prompt bondholders to tender as much as 85% of defaulted debt ...

Milestones : Oil Company CEOs Defend Record Profits

United States Lee R. Raymond The Republican leadership of the Senate called the chief executives of the nation’s leading oil companies on the carpet last month to explain why they were making a lot of money at a time when ...

Corporate Finance

Corporate Finance : Corporate Debt

Mexican Homebuilder Cuts Borrowing Costs Ford Motor Credit, the finance arm of number-two US automaker Ford Motor, sold $1 billion of debt in a two-part offering in late October that produced higher-than-expected yields. Ford Motor Credit offered yields of 4.375 ...

Corporate Finance : Focus: Foreign Exchange

Dollar Will Remain Buoyant As Long as the Federal Reserve Keeps Raising Rates, Analysts Say Interest-rate rises are like vitamins for the dollar, which jumped to its highest level in two years in November and which will continue to flex ...

Corporate Finance : Global Equity/DRs

Electricité de France Offers Record ESOP The biggest leveraged ESOP, or employee stock-ownership plan, that Europe has ever seen was part of Electricité de France’s $8.5 billion initial public offering in November, the largest IPO in the world for the ...

Corporate Finance : Mergers & Acquisitions

Telecom Mergers Surge As Telefónica Buys O2 Global mergers and acquisitions in the telecommunications sector reached $303 billion in the first 10 months of 2005, the highest since 2000, according to Dealogic. Cross-border M&A; volume more than doubled in the ...

Newsmakers

Newsmakers : Candid Fed Chief Could Spook Market

United States Ben Bernanke Ben Bernanke could prove to be a fine Federal Reserve Board chairman in the long run, assuming he is confirmed, but his honeymoon threatens to be a stormy period for the financial markets. Analysts say Bernanke’s ...

Newsmakers : Colombia’s Uribe Goes for Second Round

Colombia Alvaro Uribe Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, 53, scored a victory in November when the nation’s Constitutional Court overturned a 1991 ban on reelection for sitting presidents. The move hands Uribe, whose approval rating hovers near 80%, a virtual guaranteed ...