Global news and insight for corporate financial professionals
CHANGING INVESTMENT STRATEGIES CORPORATE TOOLBOX / SHORT-TERM INVESTING Credit market turmoil has forced corporate treasurers to re-evaluate their investment strategies. They are scrutinizing short-term investments for their strength and creditworthiness and demanding much greater information from the banks with whom ...
{loadposition Country_Skyscraper_Left} GENERAL INFORMATION Time Zone Afghanistan, Kabul, Afghan, Afghans Total Area 2,381,741 (2006) km² Capital Algiers (2009) Currency Algerian dinars (DZD) (2009) Government type republic (2009) Languages Albania, Albanian, Tirana, Albanians Religions Africa Total population 35.44 million(2009 forecast) Urban ...
REGIONAL REPORT: GCC / ECONOMIC UPDATE Currency pegs could come unglued as the region’s economies heat up. Just when it seemed that it couldn’t get any better for the oil-rich countries of the Gulf Cooperation ...
REGIONAL REPORT: GCC / CAPITAL MARKETS The region’s biggest exchanges, in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are ready for liftoff. Al Sowailim: Saudi Arabia offers great opportunities for global investors. The volume of initial public offerings on ...
REGIONAL REPORT: GCC / COUNTRY PROFILE: QATAR Qatar has plenty of gas for the long drive to becoming a knowledge-based economy. Doha's constantly changing skyline illustrates Qatar's rapid growth. Qatar has the world’s third-largest reserves of ...
GREASING THE WHEELS OF GLOBAL TRADE ANNUAL SURVEY / SUPPLY CHAIN FINANCE Global Finance pinpoints the leaders in the increasingly innovative, creative and commercially important field of supply chain finance. The physical transportation of goods between buyers and suppliers ...
AFRICA Kenya's mobile communications industry flourishes following IPO of Safaricom. A June IPO by Kenyan mobile operator Safaricom was oversubscribed by 532%, according to Kenya’s finance minister Amos Kimunya. The government exercised a provision allowing ...
INDIA RBI governor YV Reddy may tighten interest rates. Indian banks have continued to grow credit at a very rapid pace since the start of the new fiscal year on April 1. ...
RUSSIA Russia's new president Dmitry Medvedev, on his first international outing, with German leader Angela Merkel. Newly anointed Russian president Dmitry Medvedev used his first foreign visit—to Germany—to signal the Kremlin’s continued ...
BRAZIL Mantega: Expects wealth fund to grow sharply. The Brazilian government increased its primary budget surplus by 0.5% of GDP, or some $7.9 billion, as part of a plan to finance its ...
CHINA Fuel up: China's rising inflation rate is causing official concern. China and Taiwan agreed in June to open representative offices in each other’s capitals to promote better communication between ...
MIDDLE EAST Sustainable development: Abu Dhabi plans to create an eco-friendly city. Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, the world’s third-largest oil exporter, is building a $22 billion carbon-neutral city near its international airport. Known ...
COMPANY TO WATCH: PT ADARO ENERGY/INDONESIA Jakarta-based PT Adaro Energy, the holding company of Indonesia’s second-largest coal producer, raised $1.32 billion in the country’s biggest initial public offering ever by selling 34.8% of its share capital. PT Danatama ...
DR NEWS Global Investment House, an asset management and investment banking company operating in 16 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), has become the first Kuwait-based company to issue depositary receipts. The issue of 35% ...
NEWS KSK Emerging India Energy Fund (KEF) raised $200 million in June on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). It was the fourth India-focused company to raise funds on AIM in as many weeks. The equity offering came at ...
COUNTRY REPORT / PORTUGAL Increased competition from new entrants to the European Union has dealt a severe blow to Portugal’s economy. Tourism and investment in renewable energy are helping it pick up the slack. Calm before the ...
TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK COUNTRY REPORT / INDONESIA Indonesia has made great improvements recently but some persistent problems are still holding it back. Clear skies ahead? Jakarta has worked hard to improve access for foreign investors. ...
A GIANT COUNTRY WITH GIANT CHALLENGES COUNTRY REPORT / KAZAKHSTAN Vast hydrocarbon reserves and financial regulators known for their toughness are helping Kazakhstan ride out an abrupt economic slowdown and a housing crunch. Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev at the opening ...
EUROPE UBS: Its third cash call, this time to investors, was successful. Almost a year after the US subprime crisis burst onto the wider global stage, Europe’s banks are paying ...
CHILE Chile's state-owned copper mine, Codelco, faces opposition over privatization plans. With the long wave of Latin American privatizations seemingly coming to an end, Chile looks like it might be about to ...
CORPORATE DEBT A consortium led by major investment banks active in the huge over-the-counter derivatives market in credit default swaps (CDS) plans to launch a central clearinghouse by September in an effort to reduce counterparty risk in the ...
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS The agreement announced last month by Verizon Wireless to buy rural cell phone service provider Alltel for $5.9 billion in cash and $22.2 billion in debt did more than create the biggest mobile-phone company ...
GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS JPMorgan has added new depositary receipt specialists in Argentina, Brazil and Singapore to assist the growing number of companies in these countries that want to have their equity traded on exchanges outside their home markets. The ...
FOREIGN EXCHANGE Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke gave the dollar a powerful boost last month with his observation that a weak dollar was contributing to imported inflation. Even before Bernanke gave his noteworthy speech at an international monetary ...
INDIA/UNITED STATES Global Finance's sponsored charity, Amrit Davaa, delousing children at Manjushree orphanage. In early June Global Finance’s partner charity Amrit Davaa embarked on its second mission to Tawang, a ...
URUGUAY Danilo Astori: Businesses' "darling" in presidential race. Unable to seek reelection, Uruguayan president Tabaré Vázquez has tipped his finance and economy minister to be the ruling Frente Amplio (FA) coalition’s candidate ...
TURKEY Coskun Ulusoy: Army pension fund looks beyond Turkey, but not Asia. While pension funds in Europe and other parts of the world are being told to raise their game in order to make up investment ...
SOUTH KOREA Lee Myung-bak: Beef deal sees president's approval rating plunge. Lee Myung-bak, the former Hyundai executive who was elected president of South Korea by a landslide last December, refers to himself as “CEO of Korea.” His ...
