Global news and insight for corporate financial professionals
GOING GLOBAL Lacking the financial clout of multinationals or small enterprises’ easy access to government grants, mid-size companies are riding the wave of new technologies and today’s more liberal trading and regulatory schemes to successfully break into foreign ...
SECTOR REPORT / MICROFINANCE Some of the world’s biggest banks are taking an interest in lending to some of the world’s smallest potential customers. After her husband died, Adija Msw was left destitute with an extended family ...
CORPORATE TOOLBOX / CREDIT DERIVATIVES Corporates have largely ignored the rapidly growing credit derivatives market for years. But will it help or hinder them if global growth begins to slow? The credit derivatives market has been one of the greatest ...
FINANCIAL SOFTWARE / CASH MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS A new generation of mobile technology promises to bring comprehensive remote access to corporate finance systems for executives on the road. For many companies, mobile phones, PDAs and other mobile devices ...
20TH ANNIVERSARY SPOTLIGHT / INVESTMENT BANKING Investment bankers are riding a wave of profits in an expanding universe for their services. Ivanov: There is no limit to growth Year after year the world’s investment banks have been turning ...
FOCUS / TREASURY MANAGEMENT On-demand software services are making increasingly sophisticated treasury management systems available to a much wider range of companies. Atypical day in the life of a corporate treasurer entails managing the company’s cash, ensuring ...
TECHNIQUES / RISK MANAGEMENT As corporate risk systems become more sophisticated, businesses are moving beyond simple compliance and proving that better management of risk can drive greater efficiency. Over the past few years there has been a ...
ANNUAL SURVEY / INVESTMENT BANKS The continuing frenzy of global M&A; and debt and equity issuance shows no sign of abating—and investment banks are reaping the benefits. Records fell across the board in 2006 for worldwide debt ...
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS The need for bigger drug-development pipelines and more diversified businesses with greater geographic reach is fueling a wave of mergers in the pharmaceutical industry that is providing investment bankers with some much-needed underwriting fees. It is also ...
GLOBAL EQUITY /DRS The calendar of planned initial public offerings in the US was bone dry last month, and the only issue of size on the international horizon was a scheduled $1 billion preferred securities offering by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial ...
DR NEWS Edenor, a Buenos Aires-based electricity distributor, became the 12th Argentina-based company to trade on the New York Stock Exchange, following its initial public offering in the United States and Argentina. The company, also known as Distribution ...
COMPANY TO WATCH: AIR ARABIA/UAE Air Arabia, the first low-cost carrier in the Middle East and North Africa, raised $700 million in its recent initial public offering, the largest IPO ever in the United Arab Emirates. The company’s ...
NEWS Harvard economist Jeffrey Frankel says that we are in the boom phase of the third consecutive cycle of capital inflows to developing countries and that the next emerging-market meltdown won’t happen until about 2010. “It’s the Biblical ...
RUSSIA Boris Yeltsin: Russias first freely elected president The death of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin in April marked the end of an era for Russia. Retrospectives in the Russian press of the country’s first freely elected president ...
BRAZIL Brazil's agricultural output is helping boost its economy Brazil moved closer to a coveted investment-grade rating in May as both Standard & Poor’s and Fitch upgraded the sovereign to BB+ from BB. The rating puts it just ...
CHINA Eureka: New oil and gas deposits in China China’s stock market is again breaking records, with the Shanghai Composite Index surging past the 4,000-point milestone for the first time on May 9. Stock fluctuations early this year ...
INDIA Winds of change: The Indian rupee rises against the dollar The Indian rupee gained nearly 7% over a nine-week period culminating in the second week of May in a nine-year high against the US dollar on increasing ...
CHINA Kiani Kertas pulp mill in Indonesia Bankrolled by an injection of capital from the Chinese government, which enabled them to write off non-performing loans (NPLs), as well as fresh investment from foreign stakeholders, China’s leading commercial banks ...
SPAIN Spanish companies, which have been on a huge buying and expansion kick fueled by a strong domestic economy, face growing funding concerns as European Central Bank rate hikes look set to continue. As the economy is slowing, ...
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS The need for bigger drug-development pipelines and more diversified businesses with greater geographic reach is fueling a wave of mergers in the pharmaceutical industry that is providing investment bankers with some much-needed underwriting fees. It is also ...
CORPORATE DEBT The first central counterparty clearinghouse for credit default swaps (CDS) began operating on March 9, the same day that perceptions of default risk among the largest derivatives market makers in the over-the-counter market rose to an all-time high. ...
GLOBAL EQUITY /DRS The calendar of planned initial public offerings in the US was bone dry last month, and the only issue of size on the international horizon was a scheduled $1 billion preferred securities offering by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial ...
FOREIGN EXCHANGE The dollar fell to a record low against the euro last month and a 25-year low against the British pound following news that US economic growth in the first quarter was the weakest in four years. ...
TURKEY Gul: Nomination triggered a political crisis Turmoil sparked by the nomination of a suspected Islamist candidate for president in Turkey might have been expected to derail the long-anticipated l2.5 billion Turkish Lira ($1.86 billion) privatisation of the ...
LATIN AMERICA Hugo Chávez: Wants to see the World Bank out of Latin America While most media attention on the World Bank recently has focused on a political scandal that could spark the downfall of bank president Paul ...
