Author Archive: Jeremy Parkinson
Working goals
Size, says Margrit Schmid, is not the only criterion for success. But it does help indicate just how well a company is doing in its chosen marketplace. “In terms of premium volume, we are the leading global employee benefits network,” she says. “While size is not everything, our size does reflect how many multinational companies […]
Boutiques and banks clash
When did your banker last recommend against an execution or transaction for which they are being remunerated?” This leading question awaits prospective clients browsing the website of Ondra Partners, one of a new breed of independent boutique offering “unbiased” advice to companies raising equity, debt or making acquisitions.Senior bankers at established underwriting banks get angry […]
Dark pools braced for uncharted waters
Dark pools are not the “new black” anymore – they have been in Europe for more than a decade – but recently these esoteric trading systems emerged as the new battleground for European exchanges and their ambitious rivals.Multilateral trading facility Turquoise signed up six customers to a new service that aggregates the liquidity in their […]
Europe’s star performers guide clients in turmoil
To describe the past year as “difficult” for traders would be an understatement. The collapse of Lehman Brothers in September unleashed a tidal wave of volatility that sent traders running for cover. Trading strategies were blown apart, the hedge fund industry crumbled and it was touch and go whether the global economy would follow suit. […]
Checks and balances
The region compensates for its market size and higher risk with better returns, analysts said, with property yields ranging from about seven percent for a prime building in Warsaw’s central business district to about 10 percent in Moscow. This compared well against London where prime offices yielded five percent last year, but as the downturn […]
Mercantilism reconsidered
This question constitutes a Rorschach test for policymakers and economists. On one side are free market enthusiasts and neo-classical economists, who believe in a stark separation between state and business. In their view, the government’s role is to establish clear rules and regulations and then let businesses sink or swim on their own. Public officials […]
ETFs and emerging markets
Emerging markets and exchange traded funds (ETFs) have one thing in common: both are destined to hold increasing importance for investors for many years to come. Emerging markets offer some of the strongest long-term return prospects as they take their place in the global economy of the 21st century. The BRIC countries are widely predicted […]
Red squared
Russia’s budget deficit could reach 7.5 percent of GDP in 2010, stretched by state aid for banks, but economic growth should return after this year’s recession, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said recently. Russia has kept spending high to help the economy out of its first recession in a decade, while tax revenues are falling, in […]
The birth of a paradigm?
Even before the birth of the moniker, corporate social responsibility and sustainability have loitered around the foreground of investment analysis. ESG is becoming increasingly prevalent as not only a part of decision-making but also, as a representation of what traditionalists would consider a new paradigm. Never before have these non-financial factors become such a important […]
Barclays to generate £7.3bn
Sure, it’s possible to imagine better news – say £7.3bn in cash from a straight sale instead of a mix of cash and a 20% stake in the enlarged US find manager. But this deal would address the UK bank’s biggest problem: a perceived lack of capital. At first blush, selling all of Barclays Global […]
