Global news and insight for corporate financial professionals
THE MAZE OF GLOBAL M&A By Udayan Gupta Cross-border M&A is once again on the rise. But completing a successful deal is increasingly complex and fraught with political, and other, risks. At first glace, it seemed like ...
JUMPING THROUGH HOOPS By Kathryn Tully In the hunt for demand and revenue, securities lending in emerging markets sounds perfect, but big obstacles still curtail liquidity. Faced with falling demand and tighter regulation in North America and ...
A HOUSE OF CARDS By Karen Kroll Companies are consolidating purchasing and expense card programs and are starting to extend programs globally. But gaining supplier acceptance still remains challenging. As companies’ supply chains become increasingly multinational, a ...
FLYING BLIND By Anita Hawser Despite new entrants joining the market, the equity derivatives business saw a marked slowdown over the past year, and some well-established firms are now scaling back their operations. After the global financial ...
LOCATION | NEW YORK CITY To celebrate the launch of its new monthly section on Frontier Markets, Global Finance held a networking event in January at the Harvard Club in New York. Frontier markets specialists and investors from around ...
STAKING ITS CLAIM By Dan Keeler A history of stability, a growing middle class and a rapidly expanding economy are among the key assets of this West African gem. Photo Credits: REUTERS / YAW BIBINI Ghana has ...
ANOTHER LEAN YEAR By Arthur Clennam Investment banks in Asia are facing a reduced deal pipeline and slashing their fixed-income, currencies and commodities units. But a flurry of small-scale Chinese IPOs in Hong Kong could add cheer to ...
BEYOND OLD BOUNDARIES By Justin Keay Oil wealth, a favorable location and buoyant economic growth have thrust Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia onto the international stage. However, regional conflicts, political tensions and corruption are never far away. “The ...
AUTOMATIC RESPONSE By Paula Green Recent natural disasters have shown that in times of crisis, having a robust crisis management plan that kicks in automatically—and a team to implement it—can make all the difference when it comes to ...
EMBRACING THE MODERN ERA By Gordon Platt Global Finance presents the winners of its annual trade finance providers awards, incorporating the results of our first-ever trade finance readers’ survey. The ancient business of financing trade is now ...
By Gordon Platt GLOBAL WINNERS BEST TRADE FINANCE PROGRAM International Finance Corporation (IFC) IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, offers programs that focus on supporting trade in areas that have the greatest impact on the poor. Georgina Baker, ...
By Gordon Platt REGIONAL WINNERS AMERICAS Citi With its extensive presence in the US, Canada and Latin America, Citi is the largest service provider for private-labeled letters of credit and open account transactions. The bank’s global footprint enables it to ...
S OUTH AFRICA MOVES CLOSER TO JUNK STATUS WITH DOWNGRADE By Antonio Guerrero South Africa’s weakened economy pushed it closer into junk territory, as Fitch Ratings further downgraded its sovereign rating in January. The agency cut the country’s ...
TRUMP TO BUILD OFFICE TOWERS IN REDEVELOPED RIO PORT By Antonio Guerrero New York billionaire investor Donald Trump will launch Trump Towers Rio, his first Brazilian venture, with an estimated $4 billion investment. The complex of five 38-story ...
HOPES RISE THAT CHINA IS REGAINING MOMENTUM By Thomas Clouse China grew at its slowest rate in 13 years in 2012, but an acceleration in the fourth quarter has raised hopes that the economy is regaining momentum. Photo ...
HIGH INTEREST RATES AND RISING FUEL COSTS HIT AUTO SECTOR By Aaron Chaze Indian car sales slipped 12.5% year-on-year, to 141,083 units, in December, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Heavy-vehicle sales (trucks and buses) ...
GCC LEADERS FAIL TO ADVANCE POLITICAL UNION By Gordon Platt When the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council met in Bahrain in late December for their annual summit, they postponed an official announcement of the GCC Union proposed by ...
PUTIN NIXES CALLS FOR POLITICAL REFORM By Kim Iskyan During his annual state-of-the-union address in mid-December, president Vladimir Putin focused on social spending priorities, including raising salaries for teachers, doctors and other professionals. He also underscored the need ...
TOUGH TIMES TO COME By Kathryn Tully Global Finance sat down with with Joshua Shapiro, chief US economist for consultancy MFR, to discuss the US economy, the fiscal “cliff” and structural problems still facing the country. Global ...
RESISTANT TO CHANGE By Gordon Platt Saudi Arabia is working hard—and spending heavily—to diversify its economy and create jobs for its expanding population through a broad-ranging series of reforms. But these reforms are ruffling feathers in some quarters. ...
MILESTONES：GLOBAL By Luca Ventura “For the first time in regulatory history, we have a truly global minimum standard for bank liquidity,” announced the head of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, Bank of England governor Mervyn King, during a ...
MILESTONES: AFRICA By Alfred Sayila With member states’ foreign exchange reserves reaching a record $112 billion in 12 years, countries in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Africa’s leading trade body, may soon have a cheap new ...
MILESTONES: UK By Anita Hawser After four years under a shadow, the UK’s Financial Services Authority is once again being held up as a model financial regulator — both for its principles-based approach to reporting and for its ability to ...
MILESTONES: EUROPE By Valentina Pasquali On the tail of the European economic crisis, the relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union is nearing a breaking point. While in Brussels some members are pushing for further integration, in ...
MILESTONES: BRUNEI By Thomas Clouse The small country of Brunei Darussalam must navigate challenging terrain in the coming months after taking over the chairmanship of Asean at the beginning of the year. Brunei, whose approximately 400,000 citizens enjoy one ...
CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: CORPORATE DEBT By Gordon Platt Those investors reaching for higher yields in a low-interest-rate environment propelled bond markets around the world to new highs in 2012, but analysts don’t expect the party to continue forever. ...
CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: GLOBAL EQUITY / DRS By Gordon Platt Global initial public offerings declined 29% in 2012 to $117 billion, reflecting steep declines in IPO issuance in Hong Kong and China, according to Thomson Reuters. On ...
CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: FOREIGN EXCHANGE By Gordon Platt Central bank policies could create some interesting opportunities in the foreign exchange markets in 2013, despite what could be a slow-growth environment, analysts say. “We expect the newly elected Japanese ...
CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS By Gordon Platt Thanks in large part to record levels of spin-offs and divestitures, global mergers and acquisitions achieved a 2% gain in 2012 to $2.6 trillion, according to Thomson Reuters. ...
NEWSMAKERS: POLAND By Justin Keay Poland’s central bank governor, Marek Belka, marked the start of the New Year with an interview to a leading business newspaper in which he claimed Poland had experienced “the perfect slowdown” rather than the slump ...
NEWSMAKERS: SOUTH KOREA By Thomas Clouse South Korea will swear in 60-year-old Park Geun-hye as the country’s first female prime minister this month, after she narrowly defeated her more liberal competitor, Moon Jae-in, in the general election in December. ...
NEWSMAKERS：US By Valentina Pasquali With high-stakes negotiations with Congress under way, US president Barack Obama is bringing in a new treasury secretary. Lew: An experienced political negotiator Jacob Lew, 57, was the White House’s chief of ...
NEWSMAKERS: VENEZUELA By Valentina Pasquali As Hugo Chávez’s 13-year-long domination of Venezuelan politics is overshadowed by ill health, speculation over who will carry on his legacy is largely focused on vice president Nicolás Maduro Moros, whom Chávez himself appointed as his ...
Checking The Pulse Of Sovereign Risk BlackRock’s BSRI risk ranking provides a framework for tracking sovereign credit risk. In the last quarter, perceived risk worsened for Japan and South Africa, improved for China, Australia and New Zealand and remained the ...