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Cover Story

Cover Story : Fighting Spirit

They’ve been called the new European tigers, but many nations in central and eastern Europe have experienced troubled times recently. Now they’re fighting back. Fueled by a surge in inward investment and growing international demand for new opportunities,economies in central ...

Cover Story : Investment Magnet Loses Its Pull

Political uncertainty and a slowing privatization plan are threatening to dim Poland’s appeal to foreign investors. Corporate and capital market investors contemplating a leap into central Europe have long looked to Poland as a first port of call. But while ...

Cover Story : Investors Play The Waiting Game

Recent political turbulence gave potential investors pause for thought, but conditions in Ukraine are becoming much more investment-friendly. This has been a difficult year for Ukraine. First of all, it ended up in a painful and costly row with Russia ...

Cover Story : Mixed Signals

Stiff competition from its neighbors and growing deficits are threatening to thwart Hungary’s attempts to attract inward investment, but the country’s development agencies are fighting back. Two years after its historic entry into the European Union (EU), Hungary presents a ...

Features

Features : Financial Software: Risk Management

Corporations are increasingly turning to technology solutions that help them manage risks across the entire organization. The world is changing dramatically, and transparency and management of risks across an organization is absolutely necessary. With more and more responsibility for this ...

Features : Roundtable: Treasury & Cash Management

Fast Forward Global Finance brought together a group of experts to discuss how global solutions, changing regulations and non-bank providers are transforming treasury and cash management operations. GLOBAL FINANCE: Is it possible or desirable for a corporate to concentrate liquidity ...

Features : The Best Emerging Market Banks 2006

In our 13th annual survey of top banking performers in emerging markets, we name those banks that are turning in the best performance for both their shareholders and their customers. Emerging markets continue to present both opportunities and challenges for ...

Features : The Debt Debate

Some of the world’s poorest countries are about to begin seeing the effects of the $50 billion debt relief package agreed to at last year’s G8 meeting, but many still question if the aid will really make a positive difference. ...

Emerging Markets

Cover Story : Investment Magnet Loses Its Pull

Political uncertainty and a slowing privatization plan are threatening to dim Poland’s appeal to foreign investors. Corporate and capital market investors contemplating a leap into central Europe have long looked to Poland as a first port of call. But while ...

Cover Story : Mixed Signals

Stiff competition from its neighbors and growing deficits are threatening to thwart Hungary’s attempts to attract inward investment, but the country’s development agencies are fighting back. Two years after its historic entry into the European Union (EU), Hungary presents a ...

Features : Roundtable: Treasury & Cash Management

Fast Forward Global Finance brought together a group of experts to discuss how global solutions, changing regulations and non-bank providers are transforming treasury and cash management operations. GLOBAL FINANCE: Is it possible or desirable for a corporate to concentrate liquidity ...

Milestones : Foreign Acquisitions of us Companies Back in Vogue

Global Wright:Foreign buying is on the rise The urge by foreign-based companies to acquire US technology and management know-how is on the increase once again. Acquisitions of US companies by foreign firms rose 43% in the first three months of ...

Emerging Markets : Argentine Bank Issues ADRs

DR News Banco Macro Bansud, one of the largest banks in Argentina, received a warm welcome with its recent listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The bank raised $217 million in total proceeds from an offering of American depositary ...

Emerging Markets : Brazilian IPOS Beat the Broader Market

News Dozens of new equity offerings have flooded the Brazilian market, but their performance belies any difficulty in absorbing the heavy supply. In the first quarter of 2006, nearly $4 billion of new issues poured into the Brazilian equity market, ...

Emerging Markets : Food Firm Pushes Into the Provinces

Company to Watch: Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods/Russia Moscow-based Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods not only is selling more curds and whey in the capital region, but it also is expanding its dairy, juice, baby-food and bottled-water operations into the Russian provinces. The company was named ...

Emerging Markets : Forex Reserves Reach Record Levels

China China surpassed Japan in February to become the world’s largest holder of foreign exchange reserves, partly as a result of China’s efforts to maintain the yuan’s exchange rate, which is fixed to a basket of currencies. The momentum is ...

Emerging Markets : IPO Fever Shows no Sign of Abating

India Reliance’s owner, Mukesh Ambani Chevron Corporation picked up a 5% stake in Indian oil and gas company Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, India’s largest private sector company, for $300 million with an option to purchase ...

Emerging Markets : Russia Edges Closer to WTO Agreement

Russia Khodorkovsky: Attacked in jail The US and Russia edged closer to a deal that could pave the way for Russia to finally join the World Trade Organization, not long after Russian president Vladimir Putin publicly expressed his exasperation with ...

The World's Best Emerging Market Banks

Features : The Best Emerging Market Banks 2006

In our 13th annual survey of top banking performers in emerging markets, we name those banks that are turning in the best performance for both their shareholders and their customers. Emerging markets continue to present both opportunities and challenges for ...

Milestones

Milestones : $500 Million Bond Issue Lures Investors

Argentina Miceli: Mobbed by investment bankers Argentina once again lured investors with a new dollar-denominated bond issue in March, marking its second attempt to regain investor support since the sovereign’s completion of a contentious $100 billion debt workout in February ...

Milestones : Foreign Acquisitions of us Companies Back in Vogue

Global Wright:Foreign buying is on the rise The urge by foreign-based companies to acquire US technology and management know-how is on the increase once again. Acquisitions of US companies by foreign firms rose 43% in the first three months of ...

Corporate Finance

Corporate Finance : Equity Capital Market off to Strong Start

Global Equity/DRS Global equity and equity-related issuance rose 24% in the first quarter from the same period a year earlier, according to Thomson Financial. The $144 billion raised in the equity capital markets in the first three months of 2006 ...

Corporate Finance : Foreign Exchange

Will dollar be adjusted while the sun shines? Worries about Asian central banks diversifying their massive reserve holdings out of the dollar and reports of oil-rich Middle Eastern countries boosting their euro holdings have been weighing on the greenback in ...

Corporate Finance : Mergers & Acquisitions

Cross-Border Acquisitions Facing Growing Interference from Tighter Security Reviews The currently busy market in cross-border mergers and acquisitions could slow significantly if protectionist moves to block such takeovers gain traction under the guise of safeguarding national security and protecting critical ...

Corporate Finance : Technology companies tap into bond market

Corporate Debt Cash-rich technology companies from California’s Silicon Valley, such as Cisco Systems and Oracle, are borrowing billions of dollars in the US corporate bond market to expand their financing options and pay for acquisitions. Cisco, which had never sold ...

Newsmakers

Newsmakers : Bush's New Budget Czar Pledges to Tackle us Deficit

United States Portman accepts his “leading role”on Bush’s economic team Rob Portman, selected by US president George Bush last month to be his budget director, was elected to Congress in 1993 on a platform that called for reduced government spending ...

Newsmakers : CEO'S $400 Million Send-Off

United States Under fire:Exxon’s ex-CEORaymond It’s not only by chance that America’s biggest company is also its most profitable, earning more than $36 billion last year. And with pay for performance all the rage, it shouldn’t be shocking that ExxonMobil’s ...

Newsmakers : IPO Puts New Dubai Exchange on the Map

Saudi Arabia / Dubai Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Alsaud Not content with saving Citigroup and Euro Disney in the 1990s with multi-million-dollar investments, renowned Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Alsaud turned his attention closer to home with an ...

Newsmakers : Mantega in the Hot Seat

Brazil Guido Mantega: Reassuring investors Brazilian finance minister Guido Mantega, sworn in on March 28, is sitting firmly on the proverbial hot seat. His predecessor, Antonio Palocci, was forced to step down amid a corruption scandal. Yet with Palocci credited ...