Global news and insight for corporate financial professionals
Cover Story | Compliance
As the US has extended its regulatory reach beyond its own borders, other jurisdictions have followed its lead. Global corporations face an ever-growing burden in maintaining compliance with increasingly complex regulatory and reporting regimes. This is affecting their budgets, their structuring and also their strategy.
Regional Report | The Caucasus
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, the nations that make up the region of the Caucasus, are all working hard to improve their business and economic climates, but with varying degrees of success.
Country Report | Turkey - Islamic Finance
Officials in Turkey have long declared their intentions to transform Istanbul into an international financial center. Islamic finance could be the key to making that goal a reality.
Regional Report | Africa
Africa’s story is no longer that of a continent with great potential. Increasingly, the leaders and peoples of the continent, in collaboration with outsiders, are translating that potential into concrete achievements.
The Age of the Internet of Things is in full swing—and manufacturing will never be the same.
Frontier Markets Report | Oman
The sultanate’s proximity to the Gulf has long been an attraction. But with war in neighboring Yemen, its location could be a drawback.
Regional Report | Central & Eastern Europe
Although geopolitical risks are still keeping executives awake at night, there has been a remarkable turnaround in some countries of the region, thanks in large part to structural reforms—implemented early and strongly.
Country Report | Turkey
The country’s economy has stalled, just in time for a crucial parliamentary election.
FDI Update | FDI Magnet
Countries that dismantled protec-tionist policies are still attracting FDI, despite the commodities bust. Others aren’t doing so well.
Newsmakers | Nicaragua
When Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega announced last December a plan to construct a controversial transoceanic waterway that would provide an alternative to the Panama Canal, he vowed the project would create jobs and bring prosperity to the hemisphere’s second-poorest nation.
Newsmakers | Nigeria
Nigeria’s presidential election proved the bookmakers both right and wrong.
Newsmakers | Israel
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s success among center-right political parties, which saw him recently elected for a fourth term, may have provided a stable political platform, but international pressure and recent social unrest could see the country change economic direction.
Infosys Strategic Vision
A company-wide Customer Relationship Management application gives investment banks an unrivaled view of clients.
Trends | Money Market Reform
Seven years have passed since investor panic during the financial crisis set off a run on money market funds. Since that time, the Securities and Exchange has adopted reforms aimed at reducing MMFs’ credit and interest rate risks and boosting their transparency.
Capital Markets | Mergers & Acquistions
Boutique investment banks are eating the lunch of Wall Street’s bulge-bracket firms.
Management | Hedging
The dramatic slide in oil prices over the past year or so has once again underscored the value—and perils—of hedging. Some companies and governments bet on a fall in the cost of crude and thereby obviated large losses. Others did not make out so well.
Capital Markets | Merger & Acquisitions: Biotech
The slew of M&A deals in the pharmaceutical industry could leave some firms with a bad hangover. Fitch Ratings warns that the race to find the next blockbuster drug could hurt overall credit rankings for the sector.
Capital Markets | Fixed Income
Hungary’s biggest financial scandal, which broke earlier this year, involved the alleged issuance of more than $500 million of phony bonds by Quaestor Financial Hrurira. The brokerage was one of three firms charged with fraud.
Trends | Islamic Finance
Islamic finance has seen tremendous growth over the past few decades.
Capital Markets | Private Equity
TVM Capital Healthcare Partners in late March became the first company to register a private equity fund under simplified rules implemented by the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC).
Management | Metrics
Corporations and analysts turn to scores of metrics—return on assets, working capital and others—to determine a company’s financial health. Another, the ratio of debt to internal funds, is one of the most widely used benchmarks. But a new study suggests that the debt-to-funds ratio isn’t all that accurate in predicting or explaining default risk.
Capital Markets | Equity Capital Raising
Eureeca, the first global equity crowdfunding company, with offices in London and Dubai, received regulatory approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to operate in Britain.
