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Has ABN Amro sacrificed HG Asia – nearly killing off the old-established Asian house – on the altar of its US investment banking strategy? Matthew Montagu-Pollock, who spoke to key brokers from the old days to present-day executives, tracks the institution's ups and downs and looks at how it is responding to the latest bear market challenge.

Cullen sails New Zealand towards new investment opportunities

Despite much wooing by banks and software providers, governments and corporates in Asia are only slowly coming to grips with the advent of e-trade. Pauline Loong reports.

After several false starts, 2001 was the year when the Australian leveraged finance market finally burst into life, seeing over A$2bn deals completed. Most market players expect this volume to continue over the next few years. The scene is set, with several conglomerates ripe for breaking up, opportunities expected for local management to buy into Australian subsidiaries of multinational companies, and an aggressive lending community whose appetite for leveraged debt is increasing all the time.

Investors used to be happy with a diet of Pfandbrief to fulfil their covered bond needs, but with the sector facing credit downgrades, the Spanish cédulas market has been attempting to convince investors that it is a realistic alternative. Spanish banks have issued a healthy Eu12bn of cédulas this year - but can it become the premier covered bond market in Europe? Neil Day reports. Spanish banks active in the cédulas hipotecarias market might be forgiven for feeling a touch of Schadenfreude towards their peers in the German Pfandbrief market.

Stalled banking sector reform has long been the biggest threat to sustainable economic growth in Russia. There is now a genuine political will to push reform forward, but a consensus on how best to achieve it is still lacking. By Kathryn Wells. Although Russia has been quick to reinvent itself as the darling of emerging market investors since its fall from grace in August 1998, reform in its banking sector has been slow to materialise. As a result, Russia has only half the penetration levels on deposit and loans to GDP of Egypt and Turkey, even though it has similar GDP per capita to these countries.

Spanish corporates have been hit hard by Argentina's problems over the past 18 months. Bond issuance has fallen, spreads have gapped out and investors have reverted to an ultra-conservative stance. However, prospects for 2003 are bright with most observers hopeful that Argentina's crisis will be resolved sooner rather than later. Neil Day reports.

EuroWeek's EuroMTN issuer survey 2002 asked the market's borrowers to air their opinions on which dealers are performing and which are not. A cross-section of the market was polled. Supranationals, government agencies, banks and corporates are all represented. So too are the triple-As, the unrated, the market veterans and the MTN novices. Responses came from the UK, the Nordic region, the US, and continental Europe. Adam Grossman reports on what they had to say. Borrowers' MTN business

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HBOS is one of the most prolific issuers in the private market. The double-A borrower's issuance has surged since the merger of Halifax and Bank of Scotland took effect last year, making it the fifth biggest issuer in the last quarter. While other issuers complain of difficult market conditions, HBOS has been a net beneficiary of a flight to quality. In a rare interview, HBOS's head of debt capital markets, Tony Main, tells Chris Newlands and Adam Grossman what changes need to be made to continue this success in the future. Tony Main has worked in the City for over 20 years. His background over the last 10 - 15 years has been predominantly in swaps, and he joined Halifax just over four years ago to set up its interest rate swap desk. Main was appointed head of the funding and money markets desk at Halifax two years ago.

The leveraged buy-out of Haitai Confectionry is widely seen as the most important template for Asian leveraged deals to date. Benefiting from the new Korean Corporate Reorganisation Act, the deal included a number of notable firsts for Asian LBOs, such as the inclusion of a tranche with a seven year tenor, and the arrival of the 'B' loan which brought in institutional investors. The story of Haitai Confectionery is an object lesson in the virtue of resisting the temptation to hurl the healthy baby out with the soiled bathwater.

When Moody's raised Spain's rating to Aaa at the end of 2001, Spain joined the leading pack of European member countries. But the hard work is not over as the sovereign wants to persuade the other two agencies of its triple-A qualities. Meanwhile, Instituto de Crédito Oficial and the regional governments hope to see their performance improve in the kingdom's slipstream. Neil Day reports. What were you doing on December 13, 2001? With no euro to prepare for or millennium bug to exterminate, most of us were probably winding down for the year, getting ready for a holiday break, doing some last minute shopping for presents, and looking forward to - or recovering from, in some cases - the Christmas party season. As a result of all the festive activity, it passed many people by that in Madrid the Spanish treasury had something of its own to celebrate.