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Cover Story

Cover Story : Africa’s New Wave Of Hope

As many people die from preventable causes every week in Africa as died in the recent tsunami. Now, however, Southern Africa’s struggling nations have reason to hope. As 2005 begins to unfold, investors and corporates around the world have plenty ...

Cover Story : Investment Remains Elusive

Africa’s New Wave Of Hope Investment Remains Elusive With so many countries’ economies largely dependent on external funding, it is difficult for many nations in Southern Africa to lure foreign investment without exacerbating poverty. Poverty levels in Southern Africa have ...

Cover Story : Lands of Lost Opportunity

Africa’s New Wave Of Hope Lands of Lost Opportunity Endowed with a huge land mass and immense natural resources, Southern Africa offers an important market opportunity for countries both in the region and outside. Many of Southern Africa’s governments have ...

Cover Story : Positive Impact - Eventually

Africa’s New Wave Of Hope Positive Impact - Eventually Romilly Greenhill of UK-based charity ActionAid believes the increased focus on aid and development that has been triggered by the tsunami will ultimately benefit Africa. “It needs the media and campaigners ...

Cover Story : Sharing the Debt Burden

Africa’s New Wave Of Hope Sharing the Debt Burden Many countries in Southern Africa have long been lobbying for the cancellation of their foreign debts. During a recent Southern African Development Community summit in Windhoek, Namibia, retired President of Mozambique ...

Cover Story : Signs of Hope Emerge

Africa’s New Wave Of Hope Signs of Hope Emerge Aid is working in some countries, though, and these might serve as an inspiration. Uganda, for example, used aid to remove the charges on basic health services, prompting a massive increase ...

Features

Features : Anemic Plans Drag On Corporate Profits

Stronger equity valuations fail to float many US pension plans that had found themselves under water. Corporate pension plans will no doubt be handing their chief financial officers some sleepless nights this year as the financially troubled plans start to ...

Features : Cards That Count The Costs

An increasing focus on corporate expenditure and on transparency is bringing a renewed focus on the potential benefits of corporate credit cards and purchasing cards. In sharp contrast to the consumer world, commercial cards are not necessarily equated with unbridled ...

Features : Custodians Push Toward A New Frontier

Changes in clients’ needs are driving global custodians beyond their traditional roles Placido: "Margin pressure is forcing the closer integration of vanilla-execution and post-trade processing" For almost a decade consolidation and the drive to reduce costs has characterized the global ...

Features : World’s Best Trade Finance Banks 2005

Global Finance selects the leaders in a specialized area of finance that is benefiting from a surge in global trade. Late last year, Deutsche Bank closed a $100 million syndicated insured receivables purchase facility for Sadia, one of Brazil’s largest ...

Award Winners

Award Winners : See owr award winners

World’s Best Trade Finance Banks 2005 Global Finance selects the leaders in a specialized area of finance that is benefiting from a surge in global trade. World’s Best Trade Finance Banks 2005 REGION COUNTRY Americas Citigroup Europe ABN AMRO Central ...

Emerging Markets

Cover Story : Africa’s New Wave Of Hope

As many people die from preventable causes every week in Africa as died in the recent tsunami. Now, however, Southern Africa’s struggling nations have reason to hope. As 2005 begins to unfold, investors and corporates around the world have plenty ...

Features : Custodians Push Toward A New Frontier

Changes in clients’ needs are driving global custodians beyond their traditional roles Placido: "Margin pressure is forcing the closer integration of vanilla-execution and post-trade processing" For almost a decade consolidation and the drive to reduce costs has characterized the global ...

Emerging Markets : Coalition Looks Shaky As Lula Feels The Heat

Brazil Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is feeling the heat from political opponents, as his ruling coalition begins to unravel. The decision by the PMDB Party to leave the government last December dealt a severe blow to the ...

Emerging Markets : Putin Fuels Businesses’ Fears

Russia An exceptionally long holiday slumber—with an official New Year’s break that extended from January 1 through January 10—in Russia was preceded by a final chapter in the so-called Yukos affair. On December 19 the company’s main asset, production subsidiary ...

Emerging Markets : Setbacks Set Tone

China It’s been a rocky month for China. In Singapore, a court gave China Aviation Oil (CAO) six weeks to formulate a rescue plan after it came to light that the company had suffered losses of $550 million in speculative ...

The World's Best Trade Finance Banks

Features : World’s Best Trade Finance Banks 2005

Global Finance selects the leaders in a specialized area of finance that is benefiting from a surge in global trade. Late last year, Deutsche Bank closed a $100 million syndicated insured receivables purchase facility for Sadia, one of Brazil’s largest ...

Milestones

Milestones : Dollars? No, Thank You.

Latin America The US dollar may once have been the currency of choice for Latin American debt issuers eager to fill their coffers with the hard currency. But with the greenback turning soft, the region's issuers are beginning to issue ...

Milestones : Qatar Gas Project Pushes Bounds Of Project Finance

Qatar/United Kingdom Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil secured funding in December for the $12 billion Qatargas II project, which will supply LNG from Qatar to the UK beginning in 2007. The $7.6 billion bank financing for the venture, the largest energy-project ...

Milestones : Winds Of Change Blow Through Us Power Industry

United States AES, a leading global power company based in Arlington, Virginia, agreed in January to acquire SeaWest Holdings, a privately owned wind-generation operating and development company, for approximately $60 million in cash. San Diego, California-based SeaWest operates electricity-generating wind ...

Corporate Finance

Corporate Finance : Dollar Starts Strong,But Hurdles Remain

Foreign Exchange The dollar’s rally in early January reflected optimism about the United States economy and the prospect for higher interest rates, as well as year-end repositioning in the greenback by market participants, analysts say. "We believe that this dollar ...

Corporate Finance : Mergers & Acquisitions

Telecom Mergers Cap $1.9 Trillion Year Telecom mergers on both sides of the Atlantic contributed to the biggest deal total on record for December, with more than $300 billion of global M&A; transactions announced in the final month of 2004, ...

Newsmakers

Newsmakers : Euro Disney Pins Its Hopes On Refinancing

France Is Euro Disney about to recover after three years of malaise? The Paris, France-based theme park-by far the largest in Europe-believes a forthcoming restructuring and fundraising will set it on its way. Investors might not be cheering just yet, ...

Newsmakers : Kirchner Resorts To Brinkmanship Over Defaulted Debt

Argentina Among international bondholders, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner has made few friends recently. After all, Kirchner has asked bondholders to take a 70% loss on their Argentine holdings and has turned a deaf ear to their pleas for a less ...

Newsmakers : Qaddafi Finds Virtue Has Its Cash Rewards

Libya Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi, Libya’s flamboyant leader since a 1969 coup, did his country a big favor when he came in from the cold last year. By ingratiating himself with the West and agreeing to dismantle Libya’s weapons of mass ...