Search results for

Speculation is rife that Australia's largest retail bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, will attempt a tie-up with one of Asia's leading banks. But the ability of Australia's banks to pursue growth opportunities overseas is under scrutiny. Westpac's talks last year with Singapore's DBS and National Australia Bank's thoughts of a UK acquisition have come to nothing. Yet CBA's David Murray, one of the country's longest-standing CEOs, says the bank is more concerned about the home front, as it digests last year's hefty merger with fund manager Colonial Mutual. Fiona Haddock speaks with him in Sydney.

CLSA is eyeing the lucrative investment banking market in China. It hopes to team up with a local securities house on the mainland to take up a niche that the investment banking leaders have left largely unexploited: the local market. It is seeking regulatory approval to set up a securities joint venture with a local firm. CLSA's chief executive, Rodney Smyth, explains the move. "We have a strong franchise in Hong Kong and Taiwan," he says. "Going into the mainland is a logical evolution as the economies of Greater China coalesce."

Since US Enron Corporation pulled out of the Indian Dabhol Power Company (DPC) last April, its chances of selling its 65% stake in the company are becoming ever more remote. With a further slow down in the world economy compounded by the terrorist acts in New York, now is certainly not the most favourable time to buy. Even prior to the September 11 incident, the Indian power ministry had rejected a demand from the local government of Maharashtra that the state-run National Thermal Power Corporation buy Enron's share in the project. Few interested parties have appeared – if any. Industry sources suggest the US power company, AES Corporation, is looking to the company. However, AES is already attempting to pull out of power distribution in the eastern state of Orissa and it is unlikely to want to make fresh investments into India given the slump in the US economy. On the home front, Reliance Industries has already ruled out the possibility of acquiring any part of DPC, leaving the Indian Tata group as the only company to express publicly some interest in the company.

When KDIC's subsidiary Hanareum Mutual Savings & Finance (HMSF) closed its US$278 million asset backed deal on September 13, a large portion of its finance team – joint-bookrunners and underwriters Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and Societe Generale (SG) – was based in New York. This was a trying time, coming only two days after the World Trade Center terrorist attack. The back office operations located in downtown Manhattan had to be evacuated and emergency quarters set up elsewhere. As Paul Solomon, managing director of financial engineering at SG, notes: "There was this kind of incongruity in seeing what was going on around you, yet knowing you had to keep on moving forward on this deal." Taking nine months to complete and not seeing it through in the last 48 hours simply wasn't an option. The deal was never destined to be simple. The floating rate notes were issued against a portfolio of US$470.9 million performing assets, wrapped by triple A rated, mono-line insurer Ambac. It was this underlying collateral that was a huge part of the headache. Transferred in mid-1998 to government entity KDIC from the remains of 14 failed Korean merchant banks, the performing assets consisted of 286 leases and 19 loans and varied in every way possible. According to Solomon, KDIC's overriding goal was to include as many of the assets in the portfolio as possible, resulting in a very diverse asset pool: "You had bilateral leases and loans, syndicated leases and loans, sub-participations, sub-leases – all different forms of underlying collateral. Then you had US dollar-denominated assets and Korean won-denominated assets; maturities as little as three months and extending out to 12 years." Given there were 14 different banks, they also had to deal with widely disparate means of underwriting and documenting the underlying transactions. Assessing the many types of risk also proved a huge task and required complex manipulation of the legal and commercial structure to accommodate the range of assets.

"Global custody is dead." So says a senior representative of one of the world's major custodians. What he means is that core custody on its own is no longer enough, and that custody players must continuously innovate to make money in this market. With pension reform taking shape in Asia the opportunities for these organizations should be great, but perhaps there is a more burning question to address first – what's the difference between them all?

Speculation is rife that Australia's largest retail bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, will attempt a tie-up with one of Asia's leading banks. But the ability of Australia's banks to pursue growth opportunities overseas is under scrutiny. Westpac's talks last year with Singapore's DBS and National Australia Bank's thoughts of a UK acquisition have come to nothing. Yet CBA's David Murray, one of the country's longest-standing CEOs, says the bank is more concerned about the home front, as it digests last year's hefty merger with fund manager Colonial Mutual. Fiona Haddock speaks with him in Sydney.

A flight to quality by skittish investors allowed Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG) to complete successfully the largest ever equity placement in Australia last month. The company managed to raise A$1.7 billion (US$839 million) to fund its acquisition of a 40% stake in the Spanish construction company, Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, a subsidiary of the Ferrovial group. According to joint lead manager UBS Warburg, the offer was well supported by existing shareholders, with additional strong demand from new institutional investors. The issue was upsized from A$1.55 billion to A$1.7 billion, with institutional investors picking up about A$1.26 billion of the offering and retail investors the remaining A$440 million. Demand was split evenly between international and domestic investors, with strong offshore demand mainly from Europe, North America and Asia.

The FIX protocol is gaining increasing prominence as an effective way to develop electronic connectivity for investors and brokers worldwide. But what does connectivity mean, and what can it really achieve – particularly in a fragmented market such as Asia? To find out, Asiamoney and UBS Warburg brought together people from the buy side, the sell side and the exchange.

Finding the right wealth manager or the right investment strategy to stay ahead of the markets is becoming more difficult. Pauline Loong talks to the men, women and smart machines who try to beat the odds.

The FIX protocol is gaining increasing prominence as an effective way to develop electronic connectivity for investors and brokers worldwide. But what does connectivity mean, and what can it really achieve – particularly in a fragmented market such as Asia? To find out, Asiamoney and UBS Warburg brought together people from the buy side, the sell side and the exchange.

Air New Zealand's Aussie airline Ansett was in need of quick cash. Major shareholder Singapore Airlines was willing to come to the rescue, yet neither Australia or New Zealand were comfortable with the deal. Come September it was too late. In a dramatic turn of events, Ansett was cut loose from its parent as Air NZ grappled with its own financial woes. Fiona Haddock reports.

Billionaire George Soros made his name in Asia when he shorted the Thai baht in 1996, thereby setting off the regional currency crisis, it is said. However, these days Soros has a whole new approach to investment – one Asia's leaders might take a little more kindly to. Fiona Haddock reports.