Latest articles from Western Europe

Prospects look rosy for capital markets

April 2, 2007

With increasingly vibrant bond markets, and healthy M&A and IPO pipelines, the recovery of German real estate and the launch of REITs could be the icing on the cake. Geraldine Lambe reports.

AHBR’s Turnaround: restructuring in action

April 2, 2007

With Allgemeine Hypothekenbank Rheinboden’s (AHBR) balance sheet of about €75bn – about two-thirds in public sector loans and a third in mortgage loans – Lone Star first had to negotiate a large liquidity facility to replace the emergency measures provided by the German banks and backed by the deposit protection system.

Chipping away at the three-pillar structure

April 2, 2007

While the sale of Landesbank Berlin is raising hopes that Germany’s tripartite banking system will start crumbling, those more capitalist-inclined bank boardrooms with an eye on overseas expansion shouldn’t hold their breath. Geraldine Lambe reports.

Nick Teller

April 2, 2007

The CEO of Commerzbank’s corporates and markets division is meeting his brief to cut costs and risk but, he tells Geraldine Lambe, under his aegis there will also be selective growth.

Conservatives see red

April 2, 2007

Spain’s 12-year economic boom may be slowing down but the government’s handling of the ETA problem remains the prime polarising issue. Karina Robinson reports.

Banesto: a guinea pig for new ideas

April 2, 2007

Banesto is 89% owned by Santander and is run as a quasi-autonomous entity. Banesto’s small size relative to its parent ensures that it can be used as “a trial bank or a laboratory” for new technology and as a business model, which (if successful) can then be implemented across the group, chairman Ana Patricia Botín, told The Banker in a past interview.

Spanish bulls on a run

April 2, 2007

Can greater efficiency gains be made by Spain’s cost-effective banks – and will their forays into Anglo-Saxon markets succeed? Karina Robinson reports from Madrid.

Turkey’s Calik full of energy

April 2, 2007

Turkey-based Calik Holding, keen to finance its overseas purchases in areas ranging from construction and telecoms to banking and energy, has burst on to the international stage with a $200m debt issue. Edward Russell-Walling reports.

‘Fair’ penalties could threaten free banking

April 2, 2007

If British banks are forced to cut the penalties they charge on current accounts, there is a danger that they will make up the shortfall elsewhere, writes Michael Imeson.

On the bandwagon

April 2, 2007

Covered bond issuance out of the US will not only widen the global market, but also deepen the investor base for the European issuers, writes Michael Marray.

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