Global news and insight for corporate financial professionals
EM SPOTLIGHT - LATIN AMERICA Argentina's president Nestor Kirchner faced off against some of the worlds most powerful investors Latin America has spent the past two decades recovering from the “lost decade” of the 1980s, marked by debt defaults, hyperinflation, ...
AFRICA Figurehead: Nelson Mandela became a symbol of hope for many in Africa The past two decades in Africa have been marked by the twin themes of dramatic progress, such as the demise of apartheid in South Africa, and heartbreaking ...
THE MIDDLE EAST Change of tack: Oil-rich Middle East states are pouring their money into infrastructure Twenty years ago, petrodollars flowing into the oil-producing countries of the Middle East were “recycled” into London and New York real estate markets and ...
EM SPOTLIGHT - ASIA Dream town: The futuristic city of Shanghai symbolizes Chinas economic resurgence Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, foreign investors looked to the East for investment and higher growth opportunities. East Asia did not disappoint, with GDP in ...
CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE Turbulent times:Demonstrators in Romania in 1989 seize control of a tank Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has changed beyond recognition in the 20 years during which Global Finance has been published. Few would have dared hope ...
UKRAINE Amid the growing political turmoil in Ukraine, the country’s economy is proving remarkably resilient. When thousands of protesters took to the streets of Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, at the end of March, to outside observers it must have felt ...
TREASURY & CASH MANAGEMENT Global Finance brings together some of the top figures in treasury management to discuss the influence that clients’ rapidly evolving needs are having on their business. Greenwald, King and Franco (left to right) discuss developments in ...
TRENDS / VIRTUAL CURRENCIES As virtual communities come of age, the corporate world is just beginning to grasp the potential opportunities they present—and the phenomenal disruptive influence they might have on global commerce. Grand designs: Banking group INGhas invested heavily ...
COUNTRY REPORT / INDONESIA Indonesia is slowly moving toward a wide range of structural reforms critical to soothing the anxieties of local and foreign investors. Less than a decade after the fall of the dictator Suharto, Indonesia is moving to ...
ANNUAL SURVEY In our 14th annual survey of top banking performers in emerging markets, we name those banks that are consistently providing high levels of service in often-tumultuous markets. Despite China being hit by its worst day of trading in ...
THE MIDDLE EAST Change of tack: Oil-rich Middle East states are pouring their money into infrastructure Twenty years ago, petrodollars flowing into the oil-producing countries of the Middle East were “recycled” into London and New York real estate markets and ...
COUNTRY REPORT / INDONESIA Indonesia is slowly moving toward a wide range of structural reforms critical to soothing the anxieties of local and foreign investors. Less than a decade after the fall of the dictator Suharto, Indonesia is moving to ...
DR NEWS Uttam Galva Steels, based in Khopoli in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, has become the first Indian company to list global depositary receipts on the Singapore Exchange. Uttam Galva, a maker of galvanized and cold-rolled steel products, ...
COMPANY TO WATCH: SYNERGY DRIVE/MALAYSIA Sime Darby, the Malaysian conglomerate founded in 1910 by William Sime of Scotland and Henry Darby of England to manage rubber estates, is being merged with two other Malaysian plantation operators, Kumpulan Guthrie and Golden ...
NEWS Measurable risk and volatility have declined in emerging markets over the past 10 years, providing attractive long-term risk/return characteristics, according to a study by Chicago-based Northern Trust Global Investments. “In our view, this asset class has ‘grown up’ from ...
INDIA Winds of change: India Inc. is on a spending spree Foreign direct investment (FDI) into India has hit a new record high after growing at the fastest rate ever. For the fiscal year to March 2007 FDI reached $15 ...
BRAZIL Gol: Varig offer takes off at last Brazil’s IBGE national statistics institute reformulated its methodology for calculating the nation’s GDP in March, prompting a revision of all GDP data going back to 1996. Under the new formula, which uses ...
CHINA McDonald's: Facing growing pressure to allow its workers to gain union representation China stepped up its fight against intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement in early April, lowering requirements for criminal prosecution and mandatory sentences. The move did not silence ...
RUSSIA Thousands of riot police beat peaceful anti-government protesters during opposition marches in Moscow and St. Petersburg in mid-April, signaling the Kremlin's intention to obliterate what are only the smallest glimmerings of anti-Putin sentiment. The show of excessive force predictably ...
ANNUAL SURVEY In our 14th annual survey of top banking performers in emerging markets, we name those banks that are consistently providing high levels of service in often-tumultuous markets. Despite China being hit by its worst day of trading in ...
ITALY Thomson Financial, a provider of information and technology solutions to the worldwide financial community, and eClass, a company that supplies financial information and market data by satellite and via the internet, are to create a new workstation solution for ...
GERMANY/CHINA Deutsche Börse Although shares in Chinese companies have been traded on the Börse before, this is the first time a Chinese company has listed on the Frankfurt exchange. Historically, most Asian companies sought listings on US exchanges, but for ...
CORPORATE DEBT Investors who bought into a $6 billion bond issued by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold in March saw the value of their holdings rise quickly in the following weeks, as the price of copper surged to a four-month high ...
Foreign Exchange Increased volatility in exchange rates spurs adoption of best practices in currency-risk management Walldorf, Germany-based SAP, a leading business software provider, announced late in the afternoon of January 11 that it would miss analysts’ consensus estimates, as well ...
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS In the surreal world of corporate takeovers in Germany, pricey sports car maker Porsche has launched a below-market-value offer for “people’s car” maker Volkswagen—a bid that it hopes will never cross the finish line. After exercising an ...
LATIN AMERICA Chávez: Extending credit to other Latin American nations Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez’s dream of creating a South American development bank may be coming true. His finance minister, Rodrigo Cabezas, speaking at the annual meeting of the Inter-American Development ...
EUROPE Derain: Accuracy is the secret With the pace of corporate M&A; showing no signs of abating, a study of more than 200 European deals in the past two years indicates that few mergers—just 9%, in fact—are deemed to be ...
GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS Brazilian cleaning company Atmosfera Gestão e Higienização de Têxteis suspended plans for an initial public offering last month as investors tired of the rapid-fire pace of new listings on Bovespa, the Brazilian stock exchange in São Paulo. As ...