Highlights
Big spenders: Brazilian tourists take NYC by storm
Hong Kong IPOs: back with a whimper
Mexican growth: don't panic yet
Zenith Bank makes its own way
Chart of the Week: woes of Malaysia’s exporters

Daily Archives: Mar 19, 2012

[video] The spat undermining Rusal

Mar 19, 2012 5:04pm by beyondbrics
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The Russian aluminium producer’s net profit for 2011 fell by more than 90 per cent after a $1.4bn writedown on the value of its 30 per cent stake in Norilsk Nickel. Lex discuss the implications for the investors of the determined pursuit of Norilsk by Rusal’s controlling shareholder Oleg Deripaska.

Tags: , , Posted in Europe, Russia |

Egypt and the IMF: drawn out

Mar 19, 2012 4:22pm by Rob Minto
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There’s no pleasing everyone. As Egypt and the IMF started talks on Monday about a $3.2bn loan package, equity markets dropped. The EGX30 index closed 0.62 per cent down and the CMA general index fell as much as 3.8 per cent before recovering to close 1.45 per cent down.

Why? After a big run-up this year, some negative signals out of Cairo will have given investors the trigger they were waiting for to take profits. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in Africa, Egypt |

Poland’s shale gas divided by 5?

Mar 19, 2012 3:08pm by Jan Cienski
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Hopes that Poland could turn into an energy exporting potentate like Norway are looking fragile. The country may be sitting on Europe’s biggest shale gas deposits but it is becoming increasingly clear that early estimates of their size were much too large. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , , , Posted in Europe, Poland |

EM e-commerce: growing unequally

Mar 19, 2012 1:14pm by Rob Minto
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As more and more of the world gets internet access, it’s tempting to measure progress in emerging economies by the number of people online. Is there a better or more revealing way of measuring relative strengths? How about the internet economy as a proportion of GDP?

A report released on Monday by the Boston Consulting Group, The $4.2 Trillion Opportunity, does exactly that for the G20, and has a few surprising insights along the way. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , , Posted in Global |

Guest post: India’s budget gamble

Mar 19, 2012 12:46pm by beyondbrics
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By Anand Shanbhag of Avendus Securities

India’s budget proposals for the year beginning April 1 aim to strike a low-level equilibrium between cutting the country’s fiscal deficit and preserving relatively high economic growth, while facing political opposition. However, the budget contains very little that could pull India’s real GDP growth to the heady levels of 2004-08. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in Asia, India |

New York headlines

Mar 19, 2012 12:02pm by beyondbrics
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* Afghanistan acts to curb flight of capital

* India’s railway minister quits

* Lukoil chief aims to shake up Arctic oil Continue reading »

Posted in Global |

India’s RCom plans to list cable unit

Mar 19, 2012 11:42am by Neil Munshi
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Looks like Anil Ambani may finally be making some progress towards shoring up the roughly $7bn of debt accumulated by his flagship Reliance Communications.

RCom applied Friday to list its undersea cable company, Flag Telecom, on the Singapore Stock Exchange, two people familiar with the proceedings told beyondbrics on Monday. They said approval for the listing would likely take around a month and the company was expecting to raise $1.25bn-$1.5bn by selling a 75 per cent stake. Rcom declined to comment. Continue reading »

Tags: , , Posted in Asia, India |

Further reading: struggling to improve

Mar 19, 2012 10:54am by beyondbrics
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Monday’s picks from the beyondbrics team: India struggles with the infrastructure challenge; the real meaning of Bo Xilai’s downfall; Bahsar Al-Assad’s internet surfing ruthlessness and the blossoming of politics in post-Gaddafi Libya; from Korean salary man to billionaire entrepreneur; and curbing cash, or not, in Nigeria. Continue reading »

Posted in Global |

Nigerian CPI: low figure, big surprise

Mar 19, 2012 9:47am by Jonathan Wheatley
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Consumer price inflation in Nigeria was 11.9 per cent year on year in February, according to Monday’s data release from the national bureau of statistics.

That was a big drop from 12.6 per cent in the year to January and “a huge surprise to the market”, in the words of Razia Khan, head of Africa research at Standard Chartered Bank. It may be enough to persuade the central bank not to raise interest rates again after all. Continue reading »

Tags: , , Posted in Africa, Nigeria |

Strong start for Tesco Thailand fund

Mar 19, 2012 9:29am by Josh Noble
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In a vote of confidence for Thailand’s economy, Tesco’s Thai property fund, which listed in Bangkok on Monday, enjoyed a buoyant first day of trading.

The listing – which raised $602m – is the biggest in Thailand since 2006 and Asia’s second biggest this year. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , Posted in Asia, Thailand |

London headlines

Mar 19, 2012 5:42am by beyondbrics
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* Lukoil chief aims to shake up Arctic oil

* Tan to simplify structure at Bumi

* Chevron puts damper on shale gas hopes Continue reading »

Posted in Global |

Hengqin: another city out of thin air

Mar 19, 2012 3:49am by Enid Tsui
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Hengqin Island used to be known for one thing, and one thing only: oysters. But today, its many oyster shacks and fish farms are being demolished to make way for highways and skyscrapers.

The Chinese island located next to the casino town of Macao is being transformed into a special economic zone offering business concessions not found anywhere else in the country. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , Posted in Asia, China |

BB: time to register

Dear beyondbrics readers,

After more than three years of fully open access, we are taking the step of asking our readers to register on FT.com to read our articles. Beyondbrics will still be free but we'd like to know a bit more about you, our readers. Other FT blogs (including Alphaville) already do the same thing. Registration is active on beyondbrics from May 6.

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Many thanks

Stefan Wagstyl, emerging markets editor

Global equities macromap

beyondbrics

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Brics at 10
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China bubble? (June 2011)
Post-election Nigeria (June 2011)
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