Denton Wilde Sapte joins the rush for transatlantic law firm mergers June 6, 2010 MERGERS and acquisitions are rattling along at quite a pace among transatlantic law firms – unlike at the corporate clients they service, many of which are still finding the M&A game a little hard going at the moment, not least of course Prudential. The latest legal mega-deal repays a closer look. The City’s Denton Wilde [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 3, 2010 Financial times TNK-BP STEP UP SALE OF GAS FIELD TNK-BP, BP’s Russian joint oil venture, ratcheted up the pressure for a sale of its vast Kovykta gas field on Thursday, announcing that it was pushing the unit that owns the licence to the field into bankruptcy. The move raises the stakes over the future of [...]
AgBank set to struggle in IPO plan June 2, 2010 AGRICULTURAL Bank of China may struggle to get the kind of valuation it wants as it gears up to launch the world’s biggest IPO into a market that has slumped by a fifth in just six weeks. China’s market drop is one of several factors prompting potential investors to query whether AgBank, China’s fourth-biggest lender [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 31, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES CHINA TOLD PROPERTY RISK IS WORSE THAN IN US The problems in China’s housing market are more severe than those in the US before the financial crisis because they combine a potential bubble with the risk of social discontent, according to an adviser to the Chinese central bank. Li Daokui, a professor at [...]
China: Europe’s debt troubles may derail global recovery May 31, 2010 CHINA yesterday issued a stark warning to world leaders, cautioning that the burgeoning sovereign debt crisis in Europe could lead to a double-dip recession across the globe. Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, addressing business leaders during an official visit to Japan, issued his warnings a day after France admitted it will struggle to keep its top [...]
Travel and tourism is a global money-spinner May 31, 2010 YOU might not know it, but travel and tourism is one of the world’s most important sectors. Despite the downturn, it employs 235m people, which is equivalent to 8.2 per cent of all employment globally. Last year will go down in history books as the worst year ever for air travel demand, yet, that year, [...]
Markets boosted as China reassures on Eurozone assets May 27, 2010 THE euro staged a broad rally andUS stocks jumped about three per ceyesterday after China said Europe remains a key investment market for its foreign-exchange reserves. The People’s Bank of China said a Financial Times report that Beijing was concerned about its Eurozone bond holdings due to the European debt crisis was groundless. The report [...]
Don’t be caught unawares by bank volatility May 26, 2010 FEARS of sovereign debt contagion within the Eurozone have quickly turned into concerns about a European banking crisis. As if investors needed any further confirmation about the fragility of European banks, regional Spanish bank CajaSur was seized last weekend by the Bank of Spain after it had been crippled by property loan defaults. Plenty of [...]
Rollercoaster forex markets are here to stay May 25, 2010 IN THE current environment it can be difficult to judge where the financial markets are going even one month ahead let alone 10 years, but that is just what UBS, the investment bank, has done. It published its FX mega trends 2010-2020 report earlier this week, and the overriding theme is volatility. The bank notes [...]
BROKEN EURO TROUBLE FOR CHINA AND US May 25, 2010 BORIS SCHLOSSBERG DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT WITH the yuan up nearly 15 per cent against the euro this year, there was some speculation in the market last week that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) was a major buyer of the currency as Chinese monetary officials tried to slow the chaotic sell-off. A drop [...]