Google’s short but sweet boost to Colombia
When Google launches its “g.co” URL shortener on Tuesday, the internet search company will be moving into an exclusive new internet neighbourhood.
Beyondbrics is calling it Alphabet City. Twitter, Amazon, Overstock and GoDaddy have already moved in, snapping up teensy URLs such as a.co, t.co and x.co for a premium.
Of .co’s three-letter addresses, 18 alphabetical remain, and nine numerical. For Colombia, owner of the .co domain, Alphabet City is proving lucrative. Continue reading »
“Try your Big Mac”, a giant billboard advises patrons in Sarajevo, as the hours tick down to one of the biggest events since the Dayton peace accords. Nearly sixteen years after the war ended, the Bosnian capital has attained the ultimate sign of modernity: a McDonald’s on the main central thoroughfare, Marshal Tito Street. Continue reading »
Dim sum bonds: cake for all?
In an effort to feed the offshore renminbi bond market frenzy, Deutsche Bank this week launched what it calls the first “investable” benchmark bond index for offshore renminbi bonds. The launch coincides with the confettied one year anniversary of the offshore reincarnation of the renminbi, the CNH.
But with prospects for the renminbi’s appreciation against the dollar this year no longer so hot, demand for CNH related products – which remain largely plays on the currency – may be cooling. This has led to speculation about how relevant the DB’s new index really is. Continue reading »
India: no price too high for gold?
Indians love buying gold, sustaining demand even during the traditionally slack summer months, as the FT reported on Monday. But with gold prices breaching the $1,600 an ounce barrier on concerns over the eurozone debt crisis, could the skyhigh prices finally put the brakes on India’s demand for the yellow metal?
Maybe.
Continue reading »
Chile’s middle class people power
By Janie Hulse
It all must seem so unfair. Chile is one of the world’s most politically stable countries. The economy is growing gangbusters. And yet Sebastian Piñera, the president, is increasingly unpopular.
His approval rating has sunk to 31 per cent. The country has been riven by strikes at Codelco, the state-owned copper miner, and elsewhere; it has been shaken by environmental protests over a multi-billion-dollar hydroelectric project in the south of the country; and it has been surprised by massive student protests – in June, some 80,000 students took to the streets, the largest such gathering since the transition to democracy in 1990. What to do? Piñera’s response: re-shuffle eight ministers in his 22 strong cabinet. Continue reading »
En+/VTB Capital – it all adds up
What does VTB Capital want with a stake in Oleg Deripaska‘s holding company? VTB’s investment banking arm announced on Tuesday it had bought a 4.4 per cent stake in En+ for $500m because of the group’s ”great potential” in energy, mining and metals.
While the deal might appear to be evidence that Deripaska (pictured) is in need of further financing, it actually appears to be a good move for both parties involved.
India: reforms, reforms, reforms
Ratan Tata, India’s leading industrialist, has warned that the government anti-inflationary fiscal policies could harm access to credit and choke economic growth and infrastructure development.
His warnings this week come just days after Deepak Parekh, another prominent business leader, said that big Indian companies had lost patience and were investing more abroad. Continue reading »
Petrom sale: fingers crossed for Friday
Romania has become the latest European country to curb its ambitions on a big share offer in the face of the turmoil in the markets.
On Tuesday the government set a minimum price for the sale of 9.8 per cent of Petrom, the country’s dominant oil and gas group, at 0.3708 lei a share. That’s a 2.7 per cent discount to the market and nearly 20 per cent below the price it originally hoped to achieve.
But a lot is at stake. At $680m, this is the country’s biggest share sale: as well as bringing lolly to the treasury and approval from the IMF, success would mark a considerable advance in developing the country’s financial markets. Continue reading »
Age of austerity? not in Indonesia
Gold hovered near a record high as global investors dumped equities. Political deadlock in Washington threatened a technical default by the government. In the EU, towering state debt weighed heavily on the euro.
If that picture of a perfect financial storm leaves you depressed, maybe this tid-bit of news from Indonesia will brighten your day: a vast majority of Indonesians have never felt more confident about their financial future. Yes, you read correctly. Continue reading »
New York headlines
Seoul tightens reins on kimchi bonds
Beijing State newspaper closes its investigative team
India’s wealthy boost gold with unexpected spree
Tata Motors considers pooling engine production
Western futures exchanges tap China market
Cisco loses 6,500 jobs in drive to cut costs Continue reading »
India is too corrupt to become a superpower
By Ramachandra Guha
The sociologist Ashis Nandy once noted that “in India the choice could never be between chaos and stability, but between manageable and unmanageable chaos”. He wrote this in the 1980s, a decade marked by ethnic strife, caste violence, and bloody religious riots. But it applies even more so to the India of today, and is being made worse by the steady deterioration and corruption of India’s ruling political elite.
Polish privatisation: trimming the sales
Shares in PKO BP, Poland’s biggest bank, jumped over 2 per cent on Tuesday after the government announced it would be selling a maximum of 15.25 per cent in the state-controlled lender – well down on the 25 per cent previously mooted.
It’s a realistic response to the Europe-wide market turmoil that has already seen other would-be issuers cancel, cut or postpone equity offerings. If the flight to safety persists – and the gold price is signalling that it might – other central and east European capital raisings are bound to suffer. Continue reading »
Further reading: how to marry rich
Tuesday’s top picks from the beyondbrics team: what lessons to take from Argentina’s default, who holds the world’s oil reserves and how to marry rich in China. Continue reading »
Gold: a warning for Turkey
The beauty of gold is in the eye of the beholder – and its value is in the beholder’s currency.
With gold hitting a record US$1,600 an ounce this week, it has also reached new all-time highs in emerging market currencies. As the chart below shows, gold has soared 91 per cent in US$ terms since January 2008. But it has risen far more in Turkish lira (169 per cent), Argentine pesos (150 per cent) and Vietnamese dong (145 per cent). Continue reading »
London headlines
* Beijing State newspaper closes its investigative team
* India’s wealthy boost gold with unexpected spree
* Tata Motors considers pooling engine production
* Western futures exchanges tap China market
* Cisco loses 6,500 jobs in drive to cut costs Continue reading »
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