Search results for

Until very recently, many investment bankers, investors and analysts almost refused to acknowledge the existence of Greece. The reason was simple enough: Greece was virtually impossible to compartmentalise.

The government-owned Mass Transit Rail Corporation (MTR Corporation) is Hong Kong's longest established issuer in the international markets and a major player in the domestic bond market. Although MTR Corporation has been hit by the downgrading of Hong Kong's sovereign credit in the wake of the Asian crisis, its spreads have remained more stable than most Asian credits in recent months - testimony to the strength of its investor base.

With $14.5bn of funding to do in 1999, the Republic of Argentina is the neediest Latin borrower.

As little as four years ago, European investors bought credit card securities out of the US and relatively little else. Now, investment bankers boast that home equity and auto loans are almost viewed as everyday occurrences. In some segments of the asset-backed market, US issuers rely on European demand for as much as a half to two-thirds of placement. Is this transatlantic flow likely to continue?

* Eckart von Reden, chairman, Deutsche Ausgleichsbank

In size as in geography, the UK asset-backed market lies somewhere between the US and continental Europe. It is nearly twice as big as the French market (its nearest European competitor) but only a tenth the size of that in the US.

One of the most mystifying features of modern option pricing is the irrelevance of the expected return of the underlying stock.

THAI FARMERS Bank has announced an extensive fund-raising programme just five months after it gained $860m through a share placement led by Goldman Sachs. The bank intends to raise up to $3bn from the sale of bonds, with maturities up to 100 years.

SINGAPOREAN property developer Far East Organization raised S$136m ($77m) this week with a bond issue that comes closer to securitisation than any previous deal from the island state. The bond was part of a S$162m package arranged by Citicorp, and secured on the Leonie Condotel, a luxury service apartment block in the heart of Singapore's shopping district. A S$26m floating rate loan from Citicorp made up the balance.

BANKERS continue to hope that the sale of a stake in Indonesian cement producer Semen Gresik can proceed -- and with it the country's privatisation process -- despite the government pulling out of a majority stake sale due to domestic political pressure. A lower stake of 14% is now being offered and the previous bidder, Cemex of Mexico, is thought to remain interested.

WARBURG Dillon Read continued its successful run of recent placements in the Australian market this week with an 11.7% sale of the Lowy family's stake in Westfield Holdings. Bankers said the stock "sold like hotcakes" given its relative unavailability in the free market. A total of A$312m was raised by the sale, which reduced the family's stake to around 32% from 43%. A company statement declared a long term target of a 30% stake and said the money raised had been placed with external fund managers in order to diversify investments.

Australia Difficult conditions in the international bond markets have delayed plans for a possible Asian Development Bank Kangaroo bond, according to bankers. Since pre-marketing began spreads have widened, reflecting turmoil in Russia.