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Ten months after its unusual regional retreat in equity capital markets and M&A, HSBC has had a good year in debt capital markets, suggesting its new strategy can work
New look corporate finance division has merged M&A and sponsor coverage
Physical infrastructure, once seen as boring and ex-growth, has become one of the hottest areas for capital markets and M&A, and that is set to accelerate in 2026
Hit by an alleged ‘fraud’ at the bankrupt US car parts maker, Wall Street’s last pure play investment bank has its sights set on European leveraged finance as it expands its alliance with SMBC
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If anyone had suggested 18 months ago that HSBC’s investment banking business would be turning a healthy profit in 2008 while luminaries such as Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, UBS and Merrill Lynch would be racking up losses, they would have been pointed in the direction of a good psychiatrist. David Rothnie finds that a novel strategy is paying dividends.
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The appointment this week of an outsider, Naguib Kheraj, to run JP Morgan Cazenove shows how far the former stockbroker to the Queen has moved from its traditional roots to the investment banking mainstream. Kheraj, though, has a lot of work to do if he is to take the firm even further as the 2010 date when JP Morgan can exercise its option to take full control of the business looms.
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Does Merrill Lynch still have the balance sheet firepower to support its top clients? Yes, says David Rothnie, so long as it continues to be choosy over the deals it backs. At the moment that means trophy mandates in the financial institutions business trump the needs of lesser clients.
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RBS’s takeover of ABN Amro is an experiment in big banking mergers that will be widely watched. So far the clues to its success are mixed. But as David Rothnie argues, RBS could make every move right and the deal might still be remembered as a failure — if the combined bank is blighted too badly by the credit crunch.
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Merger negotiations between Commerzbank, Dresdner Bank and Dresdner’s parent Allianz are intensifying. But the once mighty Dresdner Kleinwort investment bank has no seat at the table and is marginal to the main discussions. As David Rothnie writes, the firm may be entering its last months, in a process that is out of its control.
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Citigroup has joined the small group of investment banks that plan to reform their bonus policies to encourage more responsible and collegiate behaviour. But as David Rothnie writes, Citi’s CEO Vikram Pandit has tried the idea before, at Morgan Stanley. He may have a stronger hand at Citigroup, but this still looks like a half-hearted attempt.