Magazine Cover

Cover Story

Cover Story : Mending Project Finance

This market has taken a battering but lenders are going back to basics Times are tough in the project finance market as lenders pull in their horns, equity investors scuttle home with their tails between their legs, and project after ...

Features

Features : Best Bank in Region: BSCH

LATIN AMERICA Santander Central Hispano, one of the top 15 banks in the world in terms of market capitalization and Spain’s leading financial group, has become a major player in banking in Latin America over the past decade. The Madrid-based ...

Features : Best Bank in Region: HSBC

ASIA Born in Hong Kong in 1865, HSBC continues to dominate the banking industry in Asia.Over the past year, it has made particular headway in mainland China, opening up more opportunities in this huge market. In 2002, the bank became ...

Features : Best Bank in Region: National Bank of Kuwait

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA Prudent risk management has kept National Bank of Kuwait’s books relatively clear of non-performing loans, but to call NBK conservative would be to ignore the bank’s dynamism in the face of a sluggish operating environment. At ...

Features : Best Emerging Market Banks 2003

Time was when emerging economies had to worry about things as mundane as a run on the bank. But now political uncertainty has replaced purely monetary concerns in judging the direction of emerging markets. The Turkish lira may still be ...

Features : Best in Region: Bank Austria Creditanstalt

BEST BANKS—CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE Bankers at Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BACA) much prefer talking about their exploits in central and eastern Europe than events closer to home—and little wonder why. While the 2000 tie-up with HVB of Munich has turned ...

Features : Citigroup

GLOBAL Emerging markets often prove whiteknuckle rides, but Citigroup has (once more) earned top spot as best bank, through prudent risk control combined with a commitment to expand proven formulas into new markets. The bank’s senior management walked the boundaries ...

Features : Creating the Link

At a recent roundtable in New York hosted by The Bank of New York industry leaders discussed the progress of Continuous Linked Settlement. Global Finance’s Joseph Giarraputo moderated. William Koleba William Koleba, vice president, manager of the CLS project office ...

Features : Global Money Go-Round

CONTINUOUS LINKED SETTLEMENT A new settlement system aims to cut out settlement risk. Way back in June 1974, a small German bank named Herstatt went bust, owing other banks money that was in transit. Since that day, Herstatt risk—the risk ...

Emerging Markets

Cover Story : Mending Project Finance

This market has taken a battering but lenders are going back to basics Times are tough in the project finance market as lenders pull in their horns, equity investors scuttle home with their tails between their legs, and project after ...

Features : Citigroup

GLOBAL Emerging markets often prove whiteknuckle rides, but Citigroup has (once more) earned top spot as best bank, through prudent risk control combined with a commitment to expand proven formulas into new markets. The bank’s senior management walked the boundaries ...

The World's Best Emerging Market Banks

Features : Best Emerging Market Banks 2003

Time was when emerging economies had to worry about things as mundane as a run on the bank. But now political uncertainty has replaced purely monetary concerns in judging the direction of emerging markets. The Turkish lira may still be ...

Milestones

Milestones : From Nought To Court In 18 Months

GERMANY It’s just not fair.That’s the complaint of Porsche AG over Deutsche Börse’s refusal to list its stock on the exchange’s hightransparency sector, the Prime Standard.The Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer is suing the exchange in an attempt to gain Prime ...

Milestones : Can't Pay, Won’t Pay

UNITED STATES/IRAQ In China, the families of executed criminals are often invoiced for the fatal bullet.Asking Iraqis to pay debts which Saddam Hussein and the Ba’ath regime accrued in stifling democracy and waging costly wars against Iran and Kuwait is ...

Milestones : Bechtel Wins Iraq Deal

IRAQ As the war in Iraq reached its apparent endgame in early April, the US Agency for International Development (USAid) began signing off contracts for companies to reconstruct and develop the country. Construction giant Bechtel won the first contract, a ...

Milestones : Fallen Hedges

JAPAN The number of Japanese hedge funds has risen sharply in the last few years—by around 50% since 2000—but many have taken a hit from lackluster and illiquid stock markets. In the latest sign of trouble, the Penta Japan Fund ...

Milestones : Selling Korea

SOUTH KOREA Until recently, South Korea’s recovery from the Asian crisis of five years ago was an easy success story to sell. But double-digit growth has stalled over concerns about the peninsula’s nuclear standoff, the war in Iraq and question ...

Corporate Finance

Corporate Finance : 3DM Worldwide Issues ADRs Instead of Listing on Nasdaq

EUROPE UK-based 3DM Worldwide, which develops patents for the plastics industry and manages businesses in the Kyrgyz Republic, issued American depositary receipts in the over-the-counter market. The company’s US subsidiary, Detroit, Michiganbased 3DM Technologies, had proposed seeking a listing on ...

Corporate Finance : Dollar Appears Vulnerable To Weak US Economy

THE AMERICAS While war news out of Iraq was the main determinant of currency movements in April, the US dollar could resume falling once the focus of market participants inevitably returns to economic fundamentals, analysts say. “The dollar is in ...

Corporate Finance : High-Yield Funds Attracting Investors

THE AMERICAS Mutual funds that invest in high-yield bonds returned 5.4% on average in the first quarter of 2003, continuing a winning streak that began late last year, according to New Yorkbased Standard & Poor’s. “Junk bonds have been helped ...

Newsmakers

Milestones : From Nought To Court In 18 Months

GERMANY It’s just not fair.That’s the complaint of Porsche AG over Deutsche Börse’s refusal to list its stock on the exchange’s hightransparency sector, the Prime Standard.The Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer is suing the exchange in an attempt to gain Prime ...

Newsmakers : Banking Coup For Hsbc

UNITED KINGDOM John Studzinski, with Stephen Green (HSBC CEO-designate) and Stuart Gulliver In a battle between two of the world’s most globe-spanning institutions, it’s HSBC that has come out on top of the Catholic Church. The bank revealed mid- April ...

Newsmakers : Ending An Island Exile

St. Helena “better Access Is Absolutely Fundamental To This Island’s Future.” —david Hollamby, Governor Of St. Helena When the RMS St. Helena casts off from Portland Harbor in the south of England in mid-June, David Hollamby hopes the ship will ...

Newsmakers : Snapping Up La Dolce Vita

ITALY Renato Preti Contrary to the old adage, you can buy style. That’s just what 47-year old Renato Preti does as co-founder and managing partner of the €215 million private equity fund Opera. The fund was jointly launched with Italian ...