Emerging Markets

Global equity/drs     China-based manufacturers of products that convert the sun’s rays to electricity are raising growing sums of money on Wall Street to expand their production facilities to meet expanding demand for alternative energy in the face of ...

Dr news     Russia’s state-controlled Vneshtorgbank (VTB) raised nearly $8 billion in its sale of a 22.5% stake in the company, making it Russia’s seventh-largest company by market capitalization. VTB selected The Bank of New York as the depositary ...

India     Up, up and away: Air India's fundraising spree finances expansion of its fleet Air India, which is owned by the Indian government and is also the largest Indian air carrier, has begun the process to raise $1.5 ...

Brazil     Beefing up: Brazilian meat producer JBS is set to buy the US's Swift Following a spate of local IPOs by Brazil's main meat processing companies, sector players are now engaged in an acquisitions spree to expand their ...

News     The value of trading in emerging markets fixed-income instruments totaled $1.7 trillion in the first quarter of 2007, an increase of 4% from the same period a year earlier, according to EMTA, formerly the Emerging Markets Traders ...

LATIN AMERICA     Hugo Chávez: Wants to see the World Bank out of Latin America While most media attention on the World Bank recently has focused on a political scandal that could spark the downfall of bank president Paul ...

INDIA     Winds of change: The Indian rupee rises against the dollar The Indian rupee gained nearly 7% over a nine-week period culminating in the second week of May in a nine-year high against the US dollar on increasing ...

COMPANY TO WATCH: AIR ARABIA/UAE     Air Arabia, the first low-cost carrier in the Middle East and North Africa, raised $700 million in its recent initial public offering, the largest IPO ever in the United Arab Emirates. The company’s ...

BRAZIL     Brazil's agricultural output is helping boost its economy Brazil moved closer to a coveted investment-grade rating in May as both Standard & Poor’s and Fitch upgraded the sovereign to BB+ from BB. The rating puts it just ...

CHINA     Kiani Kertas pulp mill in Indonesia Bankrolled by an injection of capital from the Chinese government, which enabled them to write off non-performing loans (NPLs), as well as fresh investment from foreign stakeholders, China’s leading commercial banks ...

DR NEWS     Edenor, a Buenos Aires-based electricity distributor, became the 12th Argentina-based company to trade on the New York Stock Exchange, following its initial public offering in the United States and Argentina. The company, also known as Distribution ...

SECTOR REPORT / MICROFINANCE   Some of the world’s biggest banks are taking an interest in lending to some of the world’s smallest potential customers.     After her husband died, Adija Msw was left destitute with an extended family ...

RUSSIA     Boris Yeltsin: Russias first freely elected president The death of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin in April marked the end of an era for Russia. Retrospectives in the Russian press of the country’s first freely elected president ...

CHINA     Eureka: New oil and gas deposits in China China’s stock market is again breaking records, with the Shanghai Composite Index surging past the 4,000-point milestone for the first time on May 9. Stock fluctuations early this year ...

TURKEY     Gul: Nomination triggered a political crisis Turmoil sparked by the nomination of a suspected Islamist candidate for president in Turkey might have been expected to derail the long-anticipated l2.5 billion Turkish Lira ($1.86 billion) privatisation of the ...

NEWS     Harvard economist Jeffrey Frankel says that we are in the boom phase of the third consecutive cycle of capital inflows to developing countries and that the next emerging-market meltdown won’t happen until about 2010. “It’s the Biblical ...

UKRAINE Amid the growing political turmoil in Ukraine, the country’s economy is proving remarkably resilient. When thousands of protesters took to the streets of Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, at the end of March, to outside observers it must have felt ...

NEWS Measurable risk and volatility have declined in emerging markets over the past 10 years, providing attractive long-term risk/return characteristics, according to a study by Chicago-based Northern Trust Global Investments. “In our view, this asset class has ‘grown up’ from ...

COUNTRY REPORT / INDONESIA Indonesia is slowly moving toward a wide range of structural reforms critical to soothing the anxieties of local and foreign investors. Less than a decade after the fall of the dictator Suharto, Indonesia is moving to ...

ANNUAL SURVEY In our 14th annual survey of top banking performers in emerging markets, we name those banks that are consistently providing high levels of service in often-tumultuous markets. Despite China being hit by its worst day of trading in ...