Missed Calls

September 18, 2009 12:00 am

“Don’t try to get in touch with me by cellphone,” Warren Buffett told Fortune’s Most Powerful Women summit in California this week. The reason? He didn’t recognise the sign for an answering machine message about a year ago. The message turned out to be from Bob Diamond asking him if would insure a Barclays bid for Lehman Brothers.

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The Mumble: Vive la différence

French regions may find themselves under pressure to raise funding as the central government looks to save cash by reducing transfers to regional and local authorities by €11bn between 2014 and 2017. Fortunately help is at hand in the guise of a brand new issuer: Agence France Locale, which should — by agglomerating regional funding needs — be able to offer smaller regions cheaper financing than they would be able to obtain in the open market. But there are a lot more factors than just cost to consider.

May 30, 2014

European parliamentary elections: still got “whatever it takes”?

Investors’ renewed confidence in the eurozone is very much a matter of trust that the currency bloc’s leaders will never let the project fail. But with anti-European Union parties looking set to perform well in this week’s European Parliament elections, how will investors respond?

May 23, 2014

Of Ice and MTNs

The build up to Íslandsbanki’s annual Thorrablot celebrations — for the uninitiated, it’s an Icelandic midwinter festival — is always fraught with nerves, anticipation and a slightly sickly feeling at the prospect of crunching down on goats’ testicles. But this year’s shindig on Thursday night has some added spice — or, more appropriately, pickle — as it could be the last event ever.

Craig McGlashan, February 28, 2014

GE's sukuk debut should not deter corporate supply

When General Electric issued a debut $500m sukuk five years ago it did not receive a great deal of acclaim. But with the company considering another potential Islamic deal later this year, neither it nor other rumoured Western first time borrowers such as Total should fear for a bad result this time around.

February 28, 2014

MTNs: BNP Paribas in pole on three tables

Dealers of private EMTNs: Non-syndicated deals for <= €300m excluding financial repackaged SPVs, GSE issuers, self-led deals and issues with a term of < 365 days Dealers of private EMTNs including self-led: Non-syndicated deals for <= €300m excluding financial repackaged SPVs, GSE issuers and issues with a term of < 365 days Dealers of structured EMTNs excluding self-led: Structured, non-syndicated deals for <= €300m excluding financial repackaged SPVs, GSE issuers, puttable FRNs and issues with a term of < 365 days

Dariush Hessami, January 23, 2014

MTNs: BNP Paribas moves into early lead

Dealers of private EMTNs: Non-syndicated deals for <= €300m excluding financial repackaged SPVs, GSE issuers, self-led deals and issues with a term of < 365 days Dealers of private EMTNs including self-led: Non-syndicated deals for <= €300m excluding financial repackaged SPVs, GSE issuers and issues with a term of < 365 days Dealers of structured EMTNs including self-led: Structured, non-syndicated deals for <= €300m excluding financial repackaged SPVs, GSE issuers, puttable FRNs and issues with a term of < 365 days

Dariush Hessami, January 16, 2014