By negotiating directly with Africa, China is changing the rules on commodity trading, writes Martyn Davies.

Poland’s largest bank, the state-owned PKO, is operating without a head while the ruling party searches for a ‘suitable’ CEO. Jan Cienski reports from Warsaw.

Last year, there was a big buzz about a book by Chris Anderson called The Long Tail, which describes the phenomenon of internet retailing. The concept is that traditional shops have a physical limit on shelf capacity so, for example, a music store can only stock as many titles as its physical space allows.

A consortium including Goldman Sachs won the mandate for a strategic review and IPO execution for Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank. A tight schedule for US distribution and a political/religious row that spilled volatility into the Istanbul stock market failed to derail the sale. Edward Russell-Walling reports.

As Portugal takes over the EU presidency, the country’s president, Professor Aníbal Cavaco Silva, stresses the need, among other things, for Europe to assert itself as an effective and influential global performer.

Karina Robinson talks to Iran’s central bank governor Ebrahim Sheibany, about inflation, privatisation and the UN’s freezing of Iranian assets.

All the talk of dealers and brokers giving up the ghost as a result of technology, regulation and margins is pure balderdash. They will take a leaf out of IFAs’ book by working harder to justify their existence and becoming more sought after.
By Chris Skinner.

Through the successful Asian marketing of IPOs for Russian property developers Sistema-Hals and PIK, Nomura’s Moscow operation has managed to position itself as a gateway to ‘eastern’ investors.Edward Russell-Walling explains.

It is high time France was given some credit for operating an economy that is more open than most to foreign companies.

The US and IMF’s targeting of China’s currency has as much to do with playing to the political gallery as it does with economics.