M&A: Japanese Steelmakers Merge

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS   By Gordon Platt   Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest steelmaker, is acquiring rival Sumitomo Metal Industries to create the world’s second largest steel producer, at a time when global competition in the steel industry ...

DRs: Market Volatility Hinders IPOs

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS   By Gordon Platt   The recent volatility in global equity markets and the heightened uncertainty around the global economic outlook forced a virtual shutdown of the market for initial public offerings in early August, just ...

Debt: No Spike In Corporate Defaults

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: CORPORATE DEBT   By Gordon Platt   Credit spreads widened dramatically during the turmoil in the credit markets this summer as the global economic outlook worsened, Standard & Poor’s stripped the US of its triple-A credit rating, and ...

M&A: Google, HP Lead Tech M&A

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS   By Gordon Platt   Transformations of technology companies are fueling multibillion-dollar mergers and acquisitions and divestitures, as the industry consolidates and develops new businesses to compete for corporate IT budgets.   Google’s $12.5 billion ...

Special Report: Equity Derivatives

FOCUS: TRADING SHIFTS TO EXCHANGES By Gordon Platt New rules to reduce systemic derivatives market risk and increase transparency are still evolving. As regulators on both sides of the Atlantic struggle to come to grips with new derivatives trading rules, ...

M&A: Cash-Rich Firms Drive M&A

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS / MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS   Corporate Finance Focus   by Gordon Platt   Corporations worldwide are using their cash stockpiles to make acquisitions and are driving M&A; activity to a higher level that confirms the bullish trend ...

DRs: Sovereign Funds Boost Glencore

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS   By Gordon Platt   Switzerland-based Glencore International, a commodities trading and mining company, could have timed its initial public offering better.   Amid the steepest decline in commodity markets in years, Glencore was looking ...

Debt: Investors Fear Inflation

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: CORPORATE DEBT   By Gordon Platt   The European Central Bank sent a shockwave through global fixed-income markets last month with its “strong vigilance” alert, signaling that it was about to raise interest rates to ensure that ...