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Indian companies are finding fresh ways to raise capital to fund their ongoing expansion. Scale and reach are taking on new meaning in favourable conditions for fund-raising. Chris Wright reports.

The prime minister, the prince and the high moral ground—Cambodia's most recent political shenanigans read like a fairy tale, but the consequences are far more serious.

Contributed by: AmInvestment Group

Asian corporates are generally happy with the level of service they get from global foreign-exchange houses. But they are not convinced about all the unsolicited bells and whistles, writes Chris Wright.

Once again, Asia's fee-seeking debt capital market bankers are confident about the region's high-yield bond market. They believe that expansion needs among Asian companies will help build a broader array of issuers than during 2005. But investors look more discerning too, and it will only take a simple shock to disrupt the potential of the market.

Poland’s Labour and Social Policy Ministry lowered the unemployment forecast for December 2006 from 16.4% to 16.2%. According to deputy minister Robert Kwiatkowski, there is a chance that unemployment will fall below the 16 percent threshold. "It is real. I hope we will be able to get it even lower," he said. In April the unemployment rate fell to 17.2% from 17.8% in March. The main reason was high demand for seasonal jobs in agriculture and in the construction sector. "Training for the jobless and effective use of the European Social Fund have also significantly contributed to combating unemployment," said Kwiatkowski.

China watchers are readying for the expected launch of index futures in the coming months, which should give a boost to OTC products. Winston Wenyan Ma, author of Investing in China- New Opportunities in a Transforming Stock Market, based in New York, said following the launch of stock index future products in the coming months on the Shanghai Financial Derivatives Exchange, a stock shorting mechanism may be permitted. With futures and stock shorting in place, market officials said it will be easier for dealers to structure OTC products offshore and hedge them locally.

BNP Paribas has recruited Yuri Lin, v.p. at Lehman Brothers in Hong Kong, for a new role in Hong Kong covering derivative product sales for hedge funds. He reports to Emanuel Breiter, head of flow equity derivative sales. Breiter referred calls to Christine Chan, spokeswoman, who declined all comment.

Royal Bank of Scotland has boosted its credit derivative presence in the region, kick starting a trading desk in Singapore and making a senior hire in the form of Mark Sewell. A credit derivatives trader at UBS in Sydney, he joins in a new role as head of illiquid credit trading for Asia, and will be setting up a trading unit in the Lion City.

Robert Burns, director and head of collateralized debt obligation distribution to Europe at The Royal Bank of Scotland in London, has quit the firm. He declined comment when reached on his cell, but market buzz has connected him with a similar role at a rival firm. At RBS, he reported to Al Sinsheimer head of capital markets credit sales.

Indonesia's central bank cut its key interest rate for the first time since July 2005, after six increases since August. The central bank wants to prevent growth from slowing for the first time in five years. Bank Indonesia lowered the rate by 25 basis points to 12.5%. Indonesia's consumer prices increased 15.4% year-on-year in April 2006 after increasing 15.7% year-on-year in the previous month. It was the smallest gain in prices since September 2005. The central bank expects inflation to fall to between 7% and 8% by the end of the year.

Merrill Lynch has hired Sowen Ng, executive director at Morgan Stanley, as a managing director for the Hong Kong global fx sales desk. Rig Karkhanis, managing director and head of fx and local currency trading at Merrill, said Ng is a replacement for Wu Yue, director, who recently joined Barclays Capital in a senior sales capacity (DW, 4/7). He added a few additional sales and trading hires are in the works for the newly-minted fx desk. "The region is booming—we're seeing a major increase in particular in fx and rates," said Karkhanis, adding that growth is being driven by corporate accounts and global hedge funds.