Russia’s ratings upgrade has caused a surge of interest in corporate Eurobonds from investors hungry for yield. Ben Aris reports on activity in the country’s bond markets.
In the offices of Moscow City State Debt Committee, the body that organises all of the Russian capital’s debt issues, outsized cheques for hundreds of millions of dollars and euros hang on the wall – money that chairman Sergei Pakhomov has raised for the city.

There has been an explosive rise in company flotations in Russia and plans are afoot to reform the market infrastructure to make IPOs easier. Ben Aris reports.

Competition is the main reason for Russian companies to buy others and realising value is the main reason to sell.Ben Aris reports from Moscow.

The top 100 ranking banks in the EBRD transition countries reflect the sector’s ongoing success.

Although Mr Profumo describes UniCredit’s aggressive expansion into central Europe (it owns Poland’s Bank Pekao, Croatia’s Zagrebacka Banka and Bulgaria’s Bulbank) as “a great opportunity that offers the potential for enormous value creation”, the fact remains that the EU newcomers face daunting challenges in institutional and structural reforms.

Slovakia has achieved the greatest success since a centre-right coalition government ousted Vladimir Meciar, an authoritarian prime minister, in 1998. Ivan Miklos, Slovakia’s ambitious finance minister, has launched sweeping economic reforms, including a 19% flat tax on personal and corporate income and an aggressive deregulation of the labour market.

The new central and eastern European members of the EU are setting the pace on economic reform, stimulating a liberalising shake-up that the rest of the union has been trying to avoid. Nick Spiro reports.

Investment banks that are starved of corporate business have looked to project finance as a source of growth but middle-market corporate lending is looking up and they are getting ready to grab their share, reports Peter Wise.

Having been left in the dust of other countries racing to be at the economic forefront of the EU, Portugal is fighting back to reclaim its rightful place among the leaders in global investment, says Peter Wise.
Since 1993 more immigrants, most of them from the Ukraine and other east European countries, have been arriving in Portugal each year than emigrants have been leaving.

The appointment of Paulo Teixeira Pinto as chief executive of Millennium BCP ended speculation about the succession to one of the most prominent positions in Portuguese banking.