Uruguay eyes Asia’s dairy market
Uruguay is a little country with more cows than people (by a ratio of more than three-to-one).
Yet it is a dairy export powerhouse, now increasingly looking to compete in New Zealand’s backyard – Asia. Continue reading »
After years of being labelled high risk, emerging market bonds are shedding their reputation for poor creditworthiness. Some strategists are even according them “haven” status. Is this deserved?
Historically, the debts of the developing world have been prone to default. Most of the 600-plus sovereign debt restructurings since 1950 were in emerging markets , according to a recent International Monetary Fund paper. Continue reading »
Carlos Slim’s latest punt: cement
Take one look at Mexico’s corporate landscape, and one of the first conclusions is that each of the business sectors is dominated by one or, more commonly, two groups.
The resulting lack of competition is a constant theme in discussions on why the economy has not performed better during the last decade or more. But Tuesday brought a small but important sign that things may slowly be changing: Elementia, an industrial conglomerate partly owned by Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire, announced that it would enter the country’s cement market. Continue reading »
Dilma Rousseff: pragmatist
Is Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s president, a left-wing ideologue, bent on boosting the role of the state, erecting barriers to free trade and treating financial market investors with disdain? Or is she a centre-right liberal, determined to lower interest rates, privatise roads and airports and keep a bloated public sector in check?
Neither, says Ilan Goldfajn, chief economist at Itaú BBA, a Brazilian investment bank. She is a pragmatist, concerned above all with investment, growth and jobs, who has listened to business groups and is acting on their concerns. But will it work? Continue reading »
Turkey’s banking blacklist risk
Turkish banks are a point of pride for the country’s government, which points to their high levels of capital adequacy (about 16 per cent) as one of the bulwarks of the economy in contrast with more brittle institutions in Europe and elsewhere.
They may also be a valuable source of revenue at a time when Turkey’s still slender fiscal deficit is growing more than the country’s government had reckoned on. Continue reading »
SA strikes: dismissals add to tension
Who will blink first in the South African mining standoff? On Tuesday, Gold Fields, the gold miner, delivered a “final ultimatum” to the workers still on strike at two of its mines, who face dismissal if they aren’t back at work by Thursday.
But one of the main unions said dismissals were “not the way to go” and urged mine bosses to withdraw the threat. Continue reading »
Nigeria: let’s go OTC
Small companies in Nigeria rejoice! A formal exchange for over-the-counter (OTC) trading is set to open in the country next month, a move that should create greater liquidity for small companies and more transparency for investors looking to invest in unlisted securities. The National Association of Security Dealers (NASD), initially set up as an association of stockbrokers, is behind the new platform.
OTC trades are those conducted through dealer networks rather than central exchanges, a route usually used by smaller companies and those that don’t meet listing requirements. Continue reading »
Russia: smoking bans in the pipeline
Russia is finally getting tough on tobacco with a new law that will ban smoking in public places by January 1, 2015 and increase taxes on cigarettes by as much as eight times over the same period.
In a video blog released on Tuesday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the government would go ahead with the measures despite complaints from foreign tobacco producers, who managed to carve out a niche in Russia at a time when European and US sales were plummeting. Continue reading »
Q&A: Jamil Anderlini, the FT’s Beijing bureau chief – Bo and the leadership
The FT’s bureau chief Jamil Anderlini has just concluded a lively online debate on Google+ about China’s forthcoming leadership change and the implications of the Bo Xilai scandal, the subject of his new ebook.
Beyondbrics presents highlights from the debate. Continue reading »
Georgia: waiting for Ivanishvili
Investors in Georgia are watching and waiting. After being taken by surprise by the opposition’s election victory earlier this month, they are giving prime minister-elect Bidzina Ivanishvili a bit of time to show what he means to do for the economy.
That, at least, is the implication of the recent movements in the shares of the Bank of Georgia, the country’s only international blue-chip. The stock rose 20 per cent in advance of the polls on hopes of president Mikheil Saakashvili’s supporters retaining power. It then plunged 10.6 per cent in the nine days after the vote, before settling down and moving sideways. Continue reading »
UAE’s telecoms confusion
A tug of war between the United Arab Emirates’ two telecommunications companies and their regulator over sim card security is baffling customers and doing little to enhance the image of a growing and internationally ambitious industry.
Fears are growing that the state-controlled operators might start cutting off customers who don’t re-register their sim cards, hobbling communications and business in a country that is a leading oil producer and an important hub for world trade. Continue reading »
CEE nuclear power: deeper in doubt
Nuclear power has long held the possibility of energy independence for central Europe, freeing it from its heavy reliance on imports of Russian natural gas. But a series of political and corporate decision across the region in the last few days leaves the future of atomic power murkier than ever. Continue reading »
New York headlines
* Asian stocks rise as exporters gain on US retail sales
* China slowdown could be nearing end
* Rothschild resigns from Bumi Plc board
* Promsvyazbank pulls London-Moscow IPO Continue reading »
UAE to foreign diplomats: stay away from financial sector
By Camilla Hall and Simeon Kerr
The United Arab Emirates has clamped down on meetings between foreign diplomats and local financial institutions, highlighting rising sensitivities in a country that is both a major global investor and central to western economic pressure on Iran.
A directive sent to embassies by the ministry of foreign affairs warned that direct talks between envoys and local banks, exchanges and investment companies were “contrary to international norms” and that the ministry itself was the only approved point of contact. The central bank issued a similar warning to lenders in a separate circular. Continue reading »
Is Malaysia riskier than it seems?
Investors haven’t loved Malaysia this year, but they’ve liked it enough. The ringgit is one of the better performing currencies in the region, while bankers have been able to get away a number of big ticket IPOs – albeit with some help from the country’s pension funds.
But, with an election a maximum of six months away, is the market showing complacency? Continue reading »
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