Americas markets wrap: Stocks mixed on US jobs worries
Latin American markets were mixed on Wednesday, with Brazil’s Bovespa falling for the first time in eight days on disappointing US jobs data, while Mexico’s IPC extended its gains. Continue reading »
Chile surges forward on good policies, good timing
Good policies or good luck? Sebastián Piñera’s promises of 6 per cent a year growth in Chile and 1m new jobs during his 2010-14 presidency always sounded ambitious, especially when he took office in March two weeks after a devastating earthquake.
Yet here we are, nearly 7 months into Mr Piñera’s term, and the growth forecast for 2010 is edging ever closer to that magic number. Continue reading »
Currency wars: Wen fires retaliatory salvo at critics
China has once again made clear that it won’t be told what to do when it comes to the renminbi. In case previous pronouncements on the issue weren’t clear Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, who is in Brussels, has warned, “Do not work to pressurise us on the renminbi rate…Yes, we are going to proceed with the reforms.” For now it’s been a war of words, but Wen today foreshadowed grimmer days ahead, saying that letting the renminbi appreciate “would be a disaster for the world.” Continue reading »
CEE markets wrap: Turkish stocks rise; a Hungarian bank in Vietnam?
Turkish stocks continued their rally on Wednesday, after the IMF said the country’s economy would grow 7.8 per cent this year. Mining stocks across the region performed well on higher global prices.
The IMF had previously estimated Turkish growth at 6.1 per cent, but said higher consumer spending and strong bank balance sheets has boosted the country’s economy. However, there was less optimism about Russia, with a Yale professor predicting a “significant slowdown in growth”. Continue reading »
GM’s Tim Lee says growth in emerging markets
Tim Lee, head of GM’s international operations, tells the FT why the carmaker is moving its research and design to China where it sees the biggest growth opportunities, and what steady growth in all four Bric countries means for GM.
Investors bet Mexico will still be around in 100 years
On Tuesday, Mexico offered US$1bn worth of century bonds – that’s debt to be repaid in 100 years, something only two other emerging countries (China and the Philippines) have attempted until now. The move was nothing if not opportunistic. Record-low interest rates in developed markets have driven investors to search for higher yields and, by extension, to emerging markets. Indeed Mexico had initially planned to offer only $500m. But the century-bond issue was also made possible by the country’s prudent handling of its public debt. Continue reading »
Liverpool: where Asian ambitions end
Oil companies, pylon-builders, even a burger chain – is there any rich-world asset that emerging-market players aren’t buying? Yes: Liverpool Football Club. The troubled English giant is to be sold by one group of Americans to another, after rumoured Asian interest came to nothing. So why didn’t the Asian buyers show up? Continue reading »
Deal of the day: grand ambitions in Indonesian e-commerce
By Natasha Khan of mergermarket
An Indonesian provider of telecoms infrastructure, Inovisi Infracom, is paying $40m for Abundant Global, a Malaysian company that offers business-to-business e-commerce infrastructure for the oil and gas sector.
Inovisi is not short of ambition: it says it now wants to compete with Google and Alibaba.com. Given that the company was founded only three years ago, and has annual revenues of just $6m, those goals may be a little on the high side. Continue reading »
Guest post: why is Turkey’s credit rating behind its peers?
By Timothy Ash, head of emerging markets, Royal Bank of Scotland
I agree wholeheartedly with the concerns over structural reform in Turkey expressed by Murat Ucer in Tuesday’s beyondbrics post.
But the key point about ratings is that they should gauge where a country stands relative to others, particularly in terms of the chances of it defaulting on sovereign debt.
On this basis can it really be right that Moody’s, the credit rating agency, ranks Turkey lower than Egypt, Hungary and Latvia – and is about to rate it the same as Greece? Continue reading »
Why is Taiwan blocking mergers and acquisitions?
Another day, another blocked Taiwan M&A deal. The latest to be binned by the Financial Supervisory Commission is a US-based MetLife’s attempted sale of its Taiwan life insurance unit to local financial group Waterland.
This is just the most recent of a long series of setbacks that are causing bankers and investors to complain that Taiwan is becoming an increasingly unfriendly investment destination. Continue reading »
The Algerian connection
Can Russia succeed where South Africa has failed?
Dimitri Medvedev, Russia’s president, travels on Wednesday to Algeria where he is expected to try to resolve an impasse over Vimpelcom, the Russian telecoms company’s, bid for control of Djezzy, the lucrative Algerian mobile company, currently run by Egyptian entrepreneur Naguib Sawiris.
With Russia serving as Algeria’s main arms supplier, Medvedev is in a position to apply pressure. But Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria’s authoritarian leader, is no push over. Continue reading »
Asia markets wrap: stocks strong; HTC’s smartphone sales soar
South Korean stocks led gains on Asian markets, as plans for quantitative easing in Japan and the US lifted sentiment. Resource stocks outperformed.
Taiwan’s biggest smartphone-maker, HTC, announced that its profits nearly doubled in the third quarter, thanks to the popularity of handsets using Google’s Android operating system. Continue reading »
New York headlines
* Mexico sells $1bn of 100-year bonds
* Thailand blast kills three
* Indian Oil plans $2.5bn share sale to lower debt, expand
* O’Key looks to raise $300m with London listing
* Investors calm over Brazil tax rise Continue reading »
Turkey tries to suppress the lira’s rise
Has Turkey entered the “international currency war”, as Brazil’s finance minister labelled the recent spate of central bank moves to limit currency appreciation?
This week Ankara’s central bank began a new procedure for FX purchases, in which it will continue buying a regular daily $40m, but will also buy a discretional extra amount that it will set at the start of each week. Continue reading »
South Africa: back to reality after the World Cup
South Africa says it wants to achieve 7 per cent annual growth to ease its chronic unemployment problem – but this looks a tough ask, says a special report on the country in Wednesday’s FT. The report also looks at President Jacob Zuma’s fraught efforts to maintain political support amid complaints of weak leadership, and fears about a perceived attempt by the government to restrict press freedom.
After the excitement of the World Cup, there’s a look at what will follow now: tourism should benefit from the positive publicity generated, while the tournament’s success has emboldened Durban to launch an Olympic bid. But it’s still not clear what will be the long-term fate of the six stadiums built for the World Cup at a cost of R12bn ($1.74bn). Continue reading »
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