Global news and insight for corporate financial professionals
China opened the 29th Olympic Summer Games in Beijing on August 8 with a ceremony incorporating 15,000 performers and 29,000 fireworks shells and attended by US president George Bush, French president Nicolas Sarkozy and other world leaders. China spent a ...
INDIA Manmohan Singh: Has more scope to enact reforms. India’s ruling coalition, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by Manmohan Singh, survived a vote of no confidence in late July after the three communist parties in parliament said ...
TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK COUNTRY REPORT / INDONESIA Indonesia has made great improvements recently but some persistent problems are still holding it back. Clear skies ahead? Jakarta has worked hard to improve access for foreign investors. ...
SOUTH KOREA Lee Myung-bak: Beef deal sees president's approval rating plunge. Lee Myung-bak, the former Hyundai executive who was elected president of South Korea by a landslide last December, refers to himself as “CEO of Korea.” His ...
COMPANY TO WATCH: PT ADARO ENERGY/INDONESIA Jakarta-based PT Adaro Energy, the holding company of Indonesia’s second-largest coal producer, raised $1.32 billion in the country’s biggest initial public offering ever by selling 34.8% of its share capital. PT Danatama ...
NEWS KSK Emerging India Energy Fund (KEF) raised $200 million in June on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). It was the fourth India-focused company to raise funds on AIM in as many weeks. The equity offering came at ...
INDIA/UNITED STATES Global Finance's sponsored charity, Amrit Davaa, delousing children at Manjushree orphanage. In early June Global Finance’s partner charity Amrit Davaa embarked on its second mission to Tawang, a ...
INDIA RBI governor YV Reddy may tighten interest rates. Indian banks have continued to grow credit at a very rapid pace since the start of the new fiscal year on April 1. ...
A GIANT COUNTRY WITH GIANT CHALLENGES COUNTRY REPORT / KAZAKHSTAN Vast hydrocarbon reserves and financial regulators known for their toughness are helping Kazakhstan ride out an abrupt economic slowdown and a housing crunch. Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev at the opening ...
CHINA Fuel up: China's rising inflation rate is causing official concern. China and Taiwan agreed in June to open representative offices in each other’s capitals to promote better communication between ...
CHINA China's president Hu Jintao aims to improve relations with Japan. Rescue workers on May 14 reached southwestern China’s Weixian county, the epicenter of an earthquake that shook cities across Asia and damaged 70% to 80% of ...
INDIA India's construction industry promises rich returns. Bharti Airtel, India’s largest wireless company, with 62 million subscribers, is in talks with MTN of South Africa to acquire between 51% and 100% of that company. The deal could potentially ...
CHINA Pro-Tibetan protests have dogged the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. China upwardly revised its 2006 and 2007 gross domestic product (GDP) growth numbers, pushing the country closer to surpassing Germany to become the world’s third-largest economy. According ...
COUNTRY REPORT: THE PHILIPPINES The Philippines seems to be avoiding the worst of the global market slowdown, but there have been a few hiccups along the way. The financial Makati district in Manila is not feeling the pinch of ...
INDIA Reaching out: The US hopes its firms can win a slice of India's $500 billion spending spree. Bhopal Medical College Trust is the first Indian project to reap the benefits of US Export-Import Bank’s (Ex-Im Bank) Indian ...
THE ELEPHANT AND THE DRAGON Often uneasy neighbors and fierce competitors, India and China are finding ways to cooperate as their influence on the global economy grows. India's prime minister Manmohan Singh and China's premier Wen Jiao ...
INDIA Indian automobile manufacturers are scaling up production, unfazed by rising inflation. The Indian commerce ministry has announced that it has set India’s export target at $200 billion for 2008-2009. This export target is a part of India’s ...
China Chinese students prepare for this summer's Olympics in Beijing. China will more strictly examine applications from listed companies to issue new shares on domestic capital markets, the China Securities Regulatory Commission announced after the ...
Company To Watch: Ioi/malaysia Palm oil prices have almost doubled in the past year on rising demand from China and India and increased use of crude palm oil as an alternative energy source. Kuala Lumpur-based IOI, ...
India ICICI Bank: One of the Indian banks repurchasing bonds. Indian banks and corporate bond issuers in international markets are taking advantage of the widening credit spreads and tightening liquidity conditions in global bond markets ...