Video: China’s property bubble
In a video today on FT.com, Jim Chanos, president of US-based Kynikos Associates and one of the world’s most famous hedge fund managers, talks to the FT’s John Authers about China’s property bubble and the implications for the rest of the world.
MICEX & RTS to merge, official
One of Moscow longest financial courtships was finally consummated on Tuesday.
The MICEX and RTS stock exchanges announced a non-binding agreement of intent to merge. Central bank first deputy chairman Alexei Ulyukayev made the announcement in a signal of the authorities’ blessing for the creation of what they hope will be first-class base for Russia’s financial markets. Continue reading »
Americas markets wrap: Metals prices boost miners, steelmakers
Higher commodities prices helped boost Latin American stocks today while currencies firmed against the dollar as investors moved back into riskier assets across global markets.
In Brazil, the Bovespa climbed the most in a day this year, rising nearly 2 per cent as miners and steelmakers rallied on higher metals prices and Banco Panamericano surged on news of its sale to BTG Pactual. Continue reading »
Wanhua deal paves China’s way in emerging Europe
China’s Wanhua Industrial Group has completed its takeover of Hungary’s Borsodchem – an intra-emerging market marriage that creates the world’s third largest isocyanate manufacturer.
The chemistry of isocyanates (raw materials used to make foams for the automotive, construction and furniture industries, since you ask) are perhaps of less interest to most readers than a prediction by Wanhua’s chief executive that the €1.2bn deal could be the first of many by Chinese companies in the region. Continue reading »
[snap] Mubarak won’t run for re-election
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak will not run for office again, he said in televised address, but will spend the remainder of his term working towards a peaceful and stable transfer of power.
Crowds gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square reacted jubilantly to the announcement late Tuesday night, following a day of nationwide protests that saw at least a million Egyptians turn out to demand his resignation. Continue reading »
Russia’s oil windfall: how to spend it?
With the price of oil above $100 a barrel, Russia’s federal budget is starting out 2011 in the black. The country’s budget balances at about $95 per barrel and it will be interesting to see how it uses its windfall oil surplus. Continue reading »
Hungary’s pension funds soldier on
Some 102,000 Magyars have said ‘no thanks’ to the Hungarian government’s efforts to cajole – critics would say ‘blackmail’ – them to leave their once-mandatory private pension funds and move with their accumulated assets to the state pension scheme.
The 102,000, or 3 per cent of total members, who acted by Monday’s deadline is far lower than the pension industry’s hopes that up to 300,000 would stay But, the final total is well above the government’s predictions of only 70-75,000 remaining with the private funds. Prime minister Viktor Orban can claim victory, but it is messy and incomplete. Continue reading »
Banco Panamericano: the Esteves effect
Shares in Banco Panamericano, the troubled Brazilian lender to the nation’s fast-spending consumers, surged almost 20 per cent on Tuesday following Monday night’s news that it had been sold to BTG Pactual, the investment bank run by Andre Esteves, Brazil’s home-grown master of the universe. Continue reading »
CEE markets wrap: stocks gain on manufacturing data
Central and eastern European stocks rose on Tuesday, after strong manufacturing data from the United States and China increased confidence in the strength of the global recovery. CEE currencies soared against the US dollar.
“Egypt was an excuse for profit taking,” said Markus Steinbeis, head of equity portfolio management at the Unterfoehring, Germany-based unit of Pioneer Investments KGmbH. “It’s more about macroeconomic themes at the moment. I expect a rally until the end of the week but overall we’re in a consolidation mood.” Continue reading »
Egypt: buying under fire
An old adage, reputedly coined by Nathan Rothschild during the Napoleonic Wars, urges investors to be contrary, and “buy at the sound of cannons, and sell at the sound of trumpets”.
Some intrepid fund managers seem to be heeding the advice, and bought Egyptian shares today. Continue reading »
Deal of the day: KIT Digital expands
By Mark Shapland of mergermarkets
In 2009 when a little-known tech company from Dubai, KIT Digital, moved its headquarters to Prague, sceptics may have questioned the location, no closer to the tech capital of Silicon Valley than its home town. But on Tuesday the company proved sceptics wrong by acquiring three companies – New York-based KickApps, Paris-based Kewego and San Fransisco-based Kyte – for a combined total of US$77.2m. With the acquisition the video asset management company will also add new research centres in New York and San Francisco.
Simor: rating Orban’s policies?
The Hungarian government of prime minister Viktor Orban has made repeated criticisms of central bank governor Andras Simor. But how does Simor rate the current government?
In an interview with the Financial Times, Simor complains of “blatant political pressure” from the government. But he insists that three interest rate rises since November were justified by inflation concerns, not – as some analysts suggested – muscle-flexing by the bank. Continue reading »
Coke: $1bn jackpot with cut-price juice
For Coca-Cola it’s the real thing. The world’s largest beverage company has become the first multinational to claim to have produced an emerging markets “billion dollar brand”.
The company announced on Tuesday that its Minute Maid Pulpy – a juice drink with pulp, conceived in China and developed for emerging markets – has surpassed the US$1bn mark in sales in just 5 years.
Polish banks: defying expectations
Poland’s banks are defying expectations – with the sector looking likely to report strong profits in 2010 and rebuild their balance sheets faster than many west European counterparts.
Millennium Bank, a unit of Portugal’s Banco Comercial Portugues, on Tuesday reported a better-than-expected 2010 net profit of 326 million zlotys ($113.8 million). That is 217 times higher than 2009′s 1.5m zlotys. The results season will have BCP and other multinational banks operating in the Polish market feeling pleased. And rivals without Polish subsidiaries will be very envious. Continue reading »
Time for a new Arab stock index? Yes
The shares of companies listed across the Middle East and North Africa are taking a hit on international concerns over unrest in Egypt and regional stability. So it would not seem the most auspicious time to launch a new stock market index.
But that is what Standard & Poor’s did with a couple of partners on Tuesday, unveiling a new index of 50 equities designed help investors identify companies that do well in terms of environmental and social policy as well as governance. And that last word, governance, does give the index a certain resonance. Continue reading »
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