Global news and insight for corporate financial professionals
GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS Mumbai-based Reliance Power raised $3 billion in January in India’s largest-ever initial public offering. The shares sold represented a 10% stake in the company, which aims to provide electricity to power the country’s fast growth but which so ...
MARKET FORCES / EQUITY DERIVATIVES Corporations might be wary of employing complex financial instruments in the wake of the credit crunch, but a closer look at the anatomy of the meltdown suggests equity derivatives still present some interesting opportunities. ...
Corporate Debt While money market pressures appear to be slowly receding, worries about a possible US recession that could trigger a surge in corporate defaults are moving to the fore for 2008. “If round one of the current credit crisis ...
Global Equity/drs Records galore toppled in the depositary receipt market in 2007, and DR liquidity, prices and capital raising likely will continue to be strong in 2008, as growth continues in the big emerging market economies of Brazil, Russia, India ...
Mergers & Acquisitions Cross-border mergers and acquisitions accounted for a record 47% of worldwide M&A; transactions in 2007, as global consolidation continued to drive merger activity in the materials, financials, and energy and power sectors, according to Thomson ...
GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS When state-owned China Railway, the world’s third-biggest construction company, offered $3 billion worth of shares for sale in its initial public offering in Shanghai last month, it attracted more than $450 billion in subscriptions. Clearly, ...
SECTOR REPORT / PRIVATE EQUITY Cash-heavy buyout firms are still looking for deals, but the rising cost of borrowing may result in their emulating their smaller private equity cousins. Just a few months ago there were ...
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS More mergers in the mining industry are likely in 2008, analysts say, including potentially some of the biggest M&A; deals ever. Australia-based mining company BHP Billiton in November announced plans to launch an unsolicited tender offer to ...
CORPORATE DEBT With banks still reluctant to lend, corporations that have delayed borrowing during the recent turmoil in the credit markets may have little choice but to issue debt in the coming months, putting further pressure on ...
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS The year 2007 already has set an all-time record for the value of worldwide mergers and acquisitions, thanks to the growing influence of private equity funds and attractive financing opportunities earlier this year. However, deteriorating ...
SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS With sovereign wealth funds rapidly becoming one of the most powerful forces in global finance, one key question has emerged: Should they be feared or revered? With the subprime-induced credit crunch causing stocks of financial giants such ...
GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS PetroChina, China’s largest oil and gas producer, added fuel to the fire of Shanghai’s overheated stock market last month with its initial public offering on the mainland. The company’s A-shares surged 163% in their $8.9 billion ...
DUBAI DP World’s flagship port operation in Jebel Ali, Dubai When DP World, the Dubai government-owned port giant that bought the UK’s P&O; in March 2006, lists at the end of November (still pending as this issue of ...
CORPORATE FINANCING FOCUS Prospects have improved for clearing away a huge backlog of leveraged loans and high-yield debt to finance already completed corporate takeovers, thanks to a revival of new issuance in the US high-yield bond market. Nearly ...
GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS China has approved a series of major IPOs in recent weeks in an attempt to cool its soaring stock markets by flooding them with a growing supply of new issues. The country’s main Shanghai index has ...
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS Energy companies are fueling a merger boom in Europe, as the industry continues to restructure in response to liberalized markets and foreign competition. Investment bankers are welcoming the advisory fees from these huge deals at ...
PARTY ON! PRIVATE EQUITY Private equity has had a tough year. It was hounded by legislators for its methods during the first half of 2007. And in the second half it was hit by the credit crunch. Can its ...
CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS / CORPORATE DEBT The high-yield bond market in the United States has revived, thanks in part to the Federal Reserve’s half-point interest rate cut on September 18, with some companies able to double the size ...
FOCUS / TERRORISM FUNDING Legislation aimed at cracking down on funding for terrorists is having some damaging side effects for banks and businesses. Kochan: It may be a fallacy that banks can anticipate terrorist financing. Following the attacks ...
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS The global credit crunch appears to be having a major impact on the size and financing of takeovers, where cash deals for much smaller targets are increasingly the rule. The biggest announced M&A; transaction worldwide in August ...