June 2011

COVER STORY: EMERGING MARKETS INFLATION   By Laurence Neville   Emerging markets have been credited with saving the world’s economy from catastrophe with their resilient exports. Now they’re exporting a different product that threatens to stop the global recovery in ...

ANNUAL SURVEY: ISLAMIC FINANCE   By Gordon Platt   The Islamic finance industry is benefiting from a lack of confidence in the conventional banking sector and is expanding rapidly in emerging markets.   The global financial crisis has forced bankers ...

Overall Awards Best Sukuk Bank CIMB Islamic Malaysia-based CIMB Islamic has been the top sukuk underwriter for each of the past four years. In 2010 it boosted its leading global market share to 23%, largely on the strength of Malaysian ...

Country Awards Algeria Al Salam Bank-Algeria Al Salam Bank-Algeria was established in October 2008 with capital of $100 million. New rules on Islamic banking in Algeria became effective in January 2011 and are expected to promote the growth of the ...

Regional Awards Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Kuwait Finance House Kuwait Finance House was the first Islamic bank established in Kuwait. It is now a market leader in the GCC and beyond, offering a wide range of shariah-compliant products. KFH has ...

EMERGING MARKETS INVESTOR: DR NEWS   By Gordon Platt   China-based Renren, a copycat of Facebook, became the first social networking site anywhere to be listed on an exchange, with a solid debut on the New York Stock Exchange last ...

EMERGING MARKETS INVESTOR: NEWS   By Gordon Platt   Indonesia’s stock market was expected to take a breather this year, after being one of the star performers of 2010, with an advance of 46%.   Instead, the benchmark Jakarta Composite ...

INVESTORS FALL FOR AFRICA’S CHARMS   By Antonio Guerrero   Foreign direct investment into Africa will reach $150 billion a year by 2015, according to a May report by global accounting firm Ernst & Young.   Africa’s consumer goods boom ...

SPENDING BOOST PLANNED TO LIFT OIL OUTPUT   By Antonio Guerrero   Brazil’s Petrobras state-controlled oil company plans to more than double its investments to develop the country’s pre-salt offshore oil fields through 2015.   Petrobras to accelerate output from ...

TRADE SURPLUS GROWS SHARPLY   By Thomas Clouse   China’s trade surplus jumped to $11.4 billion in April, after the country posted its first quarterly deficit in seven years in the first three months of the year.   China moves ...

INDIA SHORTLISTS EUROPEAN FIGHTERS FOR $11 BILLION CONTRACT   By Aaron Chaze   After a fiercely contested bidding process, which involved President Obama’s pitching in on behalf of US aerospace firms, the Indian government has announced the finalists in the ...

SAUDI ARABIA REOPENS IPO MARKET WITH TELECOM ISSUE   By Gordon Platt   The first initial public offering of the year in Saudi Arabia, home of the Arab world’s largest stock market, attracted more than 638,000 subscribers, more than 92% ...

POPULIST MOVES SUGGEST PUTIN IS SETTING SIGHTS ON PRESIDENCY   By Kim Iskyan   Following gasoline shortages in late April in a number of regions, prime minister Vladimir Putin announced a sharp hike in export taxes on motor fuel as ...

LATIN AMERICAN RETAILER PLANS $2 BILLION SHOPPING SPREE   By Gordon Platt   Santiago, Chile–based Cencosud, the largest retailer in Chile by sales and the third biggest in Latin America, plans to issue up to $2 billion of new shares ...

A TREASURER’S BEST FRIEND   With cash visibility and control more important than ever, and with risk management becoming an increasing part of the corporate treasurer’s job, technology is playing an ever more pivotal role. As its sophistication grows, treasury ...

EXPOSING FOREIGN EXCHANGE RISK   By Denise Bedell   Companies with international operations are looking beyond spreadsheets to get a timelier view of their global FX exposures.   Within a few hours of Osama bin Laden’s being killed, global markets ...

THE NEXT FRONTIER   By Anita Hawser   Take-up of mobile banking services is accelerating as services—and the devices they run on—become ever more sophisticated.   At an annual gathering of the world’s largest corporate and investment banks held in ...

THE WORKING CAPITAL TRANSFORMATION   By Denise Bedell   Companies are looking to technology to help them delve deeper into their working capital processes.   The debate that has long raged over whether enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can compare ...

COUNTRY REPORT: KUWAIT   By Gordon Platt   Kuwait has been largely unaffected by the winds of change sweeping through the Middle East and North Africa.   In the 50 years since Britain ended its protectorate and Kuwait became an ...

COUNTRY REPORT: EGYPT   By Justin Keay   Egypt is still in the very early stages of transition, but if it can establish political stability, its economy should grow strongly over the coming years.   If confidence really is the ...

MILESTONES: EUROPE   By Anita Hawser   How many central securities depositories (CSDs) does Europe need? The European Commission and the European Central Bank believe it is far fewer than the 40 CSDs currently scattered across the continent.   The ...

MILESTONES: LATIN AMERICA   By Antonio Guerrero   While Latin America led the world in FDI growth last year, the region’s companies also forged ahead with an aggressive international expansion drive.   Drive thru: Latin America buys up US brand ...

MILESTONES : THAILAND   By Thomas Clouse   The people of Thailand will soon go to the polls following a royal decree last month dissolving the lower house of parliament and calling for elections on July 3.   Thai PM ...

MILESTONES: UNITED STATES   By Anita Hawser   It may have taken only 12 days of deliberations for the jury in the Galleon trial to convict Raj Rajaratnam, the co-founder of Galleon Group, of 14 counts of securities fraud, but ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: CORPORATE DEBT   By Gordon Platt   High-yield bonds remained remarkably stable during the sell-off in global equity markets and the increase in global market volatility last month, but future gains in the prices of these below-investment-grade ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS   By Gordon Platt   Switzerland-based Glencore International, a commodities trading and mining company, could have timed its initial public offering better.   Amid the steepest decline in commodity markets in years, Glencore was looking ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: FOREIGN EXCHANGE   By Gordon Platt   China is planning major investments in foreign companies, including those in the US, in order to help turn its mountain of paper dollars and other currencies into hard assets and ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS   By Gordon Platt   An expanding global economy with a healthy appetite for smart technology and mobile devices is spawning a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the technology sector.   Microsoft’s $8.5 ...

NEWSMAKERS: HAITI   By Antonio Guerrero   Haiti’s president Michel Martelly, who took office on May 14, has the unenviable task of rebuilding Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake that killed nearly 300,000 and left some one million people homeless. ...

NEWSMAKERS: SINGAPORE   By Thomas Clouse   Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew resigned his cabinet post on May 14 after his party, the People’s Action Party (PAP), garnered just over 60% of the popular vote, its weakest showing since ...

NEWSMAKERS: GLOBAL   By Luca Ventura   While the shocking arrest in May of IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in connection with an alleged sexual assault dominated the news all over the world, it only complicated a plot that was ...

NEWSMAKERS: UNITED STATES   By Gordon Platt   Sheila Bair, the populist bank regulator who warned in advance that the subprime mortgage crisis was coming, is stepping down on July 8 as chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.   ...

SQUEEZING THE VALUE OUT OF YOUR DATA   By Ashok Vemuri, Member of the Executive Council (EC), Head of Americas and Global Head, Financial Services, Infosys Limited   The other day, I was reading an article in a technology journal ...

WHAT’S NEXT IN THE WORLD OF E-BILLS AND E-PAYMENTS?   By Adam Hoffman   Since the very first electronic payment was transmitted through the ether world more than 30 years ago, businesses have been steadily shrinking the stacks of paper that ...

NEXT GENERATION TREASURY FOR CORPORATE AMERICA   Deutsche Bank   Shahrokh Moinian, Deutsche Bank’s Head of Trade Finance and Cash Management Corporates for the Americas, discusses the latest treasury management trends in the region.   What are the key corporate ...