September 2006

The Big Consumers Ebel: “There’s no silver bullet” Blame it on James Watt and the steam engine. Ever since the Industrial Revolution began in Britain more than 200 years ago, global energy consumption has increased in lockstep with economic growth. ...

The Energy Issue THE ENERGY ISSUE Recent events have transformed the way the world views its energy supplies. With startling rapidity, energy security has become a tremendously important strategic issue. Corporations and national governments alike are hurriedly drawing up plans ...

Climate Change A rising tide: Companies are coming under increasing pressure from shareholders As concern grows over the enormity of the corporate world’s energy demand, businesses are coming under increasing scrutiny over their readiness to deal with the flip side ...

Reducing Consumption Most large corporations place huge demands on the world’s energy resources. New technology, however, is providing them with multiple ways to cut their power needs. In these times of heightened environmental awareness, it is not uncommon to hear ...

Investing In Alternatives Near-panic in global energy markets has spurred an explosion of interest in alternative sources. Spurred by factors from skyrocketing oil prices to escalating concerns over climate change and national security, global investors are expected to sink $60 ...

Russia Shopping around: Investors are buying up Russian DRs Foreign investors have developed an impressive appetite for Russian depositary receipts—and with good reason. The past year-and-a-half has been remarkable for Russian equities. In 2005 they returned about 70%, as measured ...

GLOBAL CUSTODY Ehrenstrom: Custodians mitigate risk and respond to regulatory and cost pressures Total assets under custody worldwide have surpassed $80 trillion, according to Globalcustody.net, an online database of 48 securities services providers. Not only is the industry getting very ...

Brazil Local market jitters have failed to dampen investor enthusiasm for the Brazilian ADR market. Geraldo Soares is happy these days. The investor relations manager at Banco Itaú, Brazil’s second-largest bank by market value, has seen his company’s two ADR ...

EXCHANGE-TRADED FUNDS Emerging market ETFs are coming into their own as an investment tool. The reason? They provide increased opportunities for both the investor and the underlying market. As emerging market equities become an increasingly important part of the portfolio ...

Middle East/bric New horizons: Islamic investors branch out In the wake of September 11, 2001, many Middle Eastern investors pulled their money from Western markets and began looking for sound investments closer to home. At the same time, the region ...

India Mumbai, India’s financial hub India’s biggest corporations brought some welcome cheer to the country as they announced interim results this summer. Market sentiment had been hit by a volley of terrorist attacks but rebounded as the first results trickled ...

China CNPC: Buying into Russia’s Rosneft China’s economy continues to grow at a furious pace. In the second quarter it swelled by 11.3% over the same period last year, its highest increase in more than a decade. The faster growth ...

Dr News The value of American and global depositary receipt, or DR, trading in the first half of 2006 set an all-time high and was higher than all but two full-year totals, recorded in 2000 and 2005, according to an ...

News While many markets have stabilized since the plunge that started in early May, the economic uncertainty and fundamental risks remain, according to an analysis in late July by Citigroup’s chief economist Lewis Alexander. In addition to the risk of ...

Brazil Lula: Frontrunner in election race Brazil’s central bank slashed its Selic benchmark interest rate in July to 14.75%, the lowest level since 1986. The cut, the bank’s ninth reduction since last September when the Selic stood at a record-high ...

Russia Putin: Taking a tough stance Russia held its coming-out party in the northern Russian city of St. Petersburg when it hosted the annual meeting of the G-8 in mid-July. Even though events in the Middle East overshadowed the gathering, ...

Company To Watch: San Miguel/philippines San Miguel’s Pale Pilsen is the leading beer not only in the Philippines but also in Hong Kong and the southern part of China. Meanwhile, the company’s growing range of beverages, from fruit juices to ...

Middle East/bric New horizons: Islamic investors branch out In the wake of September 11, 2001, many Middle Eastern investors pulled their money from Western markets and began looking for sound investments closer to home. At the same time, the region ...

United States A recent survey has shown that senior financial executives are surprisingly eager to see more disclosure of the details of executives’ compensation. Despite the fact that heightened corporate governance and financial transparency are throwing increasingly more light on ...

Panama Canal dreams: Panama is planning a $5 billion widening project Panama has prepaid more than $350 million of its Brady bonds, reducing its debt-service cost by $19 million a year for the next 10 years and eliminating the country’s ...

Russia Rosneft IPO: Frosty reception Russian oil giant Rosneft’s listing in mid-June was undoubtedly a landmark event. The $10.4 billion deal was the largest oil IPO, the largest-ever Russian float and the fifth largest in the world. But more important ...

World Bank Urges Asia To Develop Bond Markets East Asian banking systems have revived since the 1997 financial crisis, but the region needs to develop its bond markets to provide a market price for risk, according to a report by ...

Analysts Say China May Accelerate Pace Of Its Currency Reforms To Cool An Overheating Economy China will allow the yuan to strengthen much more quickly, in the hope that a stronger currency will be in the best interest of its ...

Global Equity Issues Setting Record Pace Global equity capital market volume surpassed the $400 billion level in mid-July, marking an increase of 46% from the same period a year earlier, and was the highest year-to-date volume on record, according to ...

Three-way Merger Creates Mining Titan Phelps Dodge, the Phoenix, Arizona-based mining company, agreed with Toronto-based Inco and Falconbridge, a leading producer of copper and nickel, to combine in a $56 billion transaction to create one of the world’s top mining ...

France/global Lamy: Pulled the plug on Doha It must have been a painful moment for Pascal Lamy, the former French civil servant who has served as director general of the World Trade Organization for the past 12 months. After carefully ...

Japan Bank of Japan governor Toshihiko Fukui It’s not exactly a real-estate boom yet, except for the fashionable Ginza shopping district of Tokyo, which is always in demand, but land prices across Japan are rising again, especially in the country’s ...

Japan Shinzo Abe: Favorite to take the top job Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Shinzo Abe, 51, is both soft-spoken and outspoken. He could be about to get a much more powerful voice. As a popular member of a prominent political ...

United States Flying high: Rick Wagoner is lifting sentiment on General Motors No one is suggesting that General Motors is back in the fast lane, but chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner has managed something of a turnaround at the troubled ...

Contributed Article: The Bank Of New York Kumar: With 40% of the world’spopulation, Chindia represents the world’s second largest economy As the world’s largest developing nations, China and India continue to fuel Asia’s economic growth, which the Asia Development Bank ...

Trade Finance Evolving electronic systems are blurring the lines between trade finance and cash management. David Conroy, Citigroup: Buyers are concerned with the financial viability of their suppliers head, Citigroup International trade is almost as old as mankind itself, and ...

Contributed Article: Abn Amro According to a survey of 1,200 large and mid-sized companies conducted by RPMG Associates1, on average, 11% of employees use card programs. The savviest payments managers are now expanding their card programs to drive increased usage—sometimes ...

Cashflow Forecasting With both regulatory and market forces demanding more effective and transparent use of cash, treasurers are under increasing pressure to improve—and speed up— cashflow forecasting. There are many forces at work on any corporate treasury, both internal and ...

Contributed Article: Citigroup Michael Guralnick, is managing director and Global Transaction Services EMEA corporate & public sector relationship management head, Citigroup The introduction of the Euro in 1999 changed the face of banking and finance in Europe. However, it is ...

Contributed Article: Citigroup There's no cutting corners when it comes to managing risk. You've established risk committees, appointed risk executives—you're looking at it from every angle. To spare your company the potential losses that come with risk exposure, your approach ...

As multinational corporations expand their global footprint into new markets, they are confronting a range of issues—be it demands on liquidity and working capital, risk management or sourcing effective trade financing. In this our second annual Treasury & Cash Management ...

Electronic Invoicing Electronic invoicing offers benefits to both suppliers and their customers, but a lack of international standards is hindering its adoption. In Lapland, inclement weather conditions means that a journey to the post office, be it by a team ...

In Treasury And Cash Management Ann Cairns CEO, transaction banking ABN AMRO Ann Cairns runs the global product business unit that develops and delivers payments, liquidity management, trade and supply-chain services and card products to ABN AMRO’s clients. The transaction ...