Posts tagged 'Turkey'

Where is the EEMEA flow?

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Mar 08 10:39 | Comment |

An interesting anomaly is popping up in the world of Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EEMEA) flows, note Bank of America Merrill Lynch on Friday:

Investors are puzzled by the lack of EEMEA FX appreciation in spite of G-10 central bank printing. Waiting for the flow may be like Waiting for Godot: you wait and wait, but he never comes. Global rebalancing, deleveraging and higher US rates are responsible for this, in our view. In sum, the flow trends are consistent with the poor performance of EEMEA FX—and insofar as they are unlikely to change, currencies are likely to remain weak. Read more

Financial punditry reportedly criminalised in Turkey

Paul Murphy is the founding editor of FT Alphaville.

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| Jan 04 15:32 | Comment |

Bloomberg states that Turkey’s new Capital Markets Law, enacted at the turn of the year, promises harsh punishment for… Read more

Turkey’s pending upgrade to currency war footing

David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.

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| Nov 05 2012 16:44 | Comment |

So, Fitch has become the first of the ratings agencies to upgrade Turkey to investment grade, giving it its first such rating since 1994. It’s been a while coming and the Turkish lira jumped at the news — up 0.9 per cent at pixel time against the dollar to a three month high:

So far, so rosy… if unsurprising. But there may be an interesting by-product of this overdue upgrade. Namely, it might force the Turkish central bank into a smidgen of FX fiddling. That is, if the upgrade actually matters and inflows really step up. Read more

Carlyle to focus on Turkey and Saudi Arabia

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Feb 06 2012 04:39 | Comment |

Carlyle Group has installed a leadership pairing at its Middle East and north African arm as the private equity group reframes its investment strategy, focusing on the region’s main growth markets in Turkey and the Gulf, reports the FT. Carlyle has promoted Can Deldag and Firas Nasir to co-heads of its regional franchise, in a move that is set to be unveiled on Monday, said people close to the US buy-out house. The leadership change emphasises Carlyle’s focus on Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the two countries where it has struck all its deals since setting up a regional $500m fund in 2009. Turkey in particular is attracting foreign investment capital while many north African economies are being shunned by investors, amid a string of political upheavals in the region. Read more

Turkey quake death toll reaches over 200

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Oct 24 2011 05:31 | Comment |

More than 200 people were confirmed killed and hundreds more feared dead after an earthquake hit parts of southeast Turkey Sunday with rescue teams working through the night to free trapped survivors, Reuters reports. Early Monday, interior minister Idris Naim Sahin said the 7.2 magnitude quake killed 100 in the city of Van and 117 in the badly hit town of Ercis, 100 km (60 miles) further north. The death toll was expected to rise. Overseeing emergency operations in Ercis, Sahin said a total of 1,090 people were known to have been injured. Hundreds remain unaccounted for. Rescue efforts struggled to get into full swing following the quake, with electricity cut off as darkness fell on the towns and villages on the barren Anatolian steppe near the border with Iran. Read more

Regulatory arbitrage with Tony & Nat – redux

| Sep 07 2011 11:37 | Comment |

More on Tony Hayward’s first big oil deal at his new investment vehicle Vallares– the $2.1bn acquisition, via a reverse takeover, of Turkish E&P company Genel Energy.

We have already mused on whether Genel would be allowed to list in London given the share dealing misdemeanour’s of its executive team, which are detailed in this FSA release. Read more

Further further reading

| Mar 03 2011 21:59 | Comment |

For the commute home, or while marking your over/under on tomorrow’s payrolls number,

- Banks’ litigation losses in tabular form. Read more

Alarm over plans for Libya no-fly zone

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Mar 02 2011 09:47 | Comment |

US and British moves to consider military action against Muammer Gaddafi in Libya triggered international alarm on Tuesday, with Turkey and Russia opposing the idea and France and Germany expressing deep unease, the FT reports. With a refugee crisis growing on Libya’s western border after Colonel Gaddafi’s attacks on opposition forces, the US and Britain said they were making contingency plans for a possible no-fly zone over the country. Both made clear there had been no final decisions on such a zone to stop Col Gaddafi from deploying jets and helicopter gunships. Robert Gates, US defence secretary, said the US was moving two amphibious warships, with about 2,000 marines aboard, through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, although he highlighted that they would be for emergency evacuation and relief operations. He noted there was no unanimity within Nato on using military force. Read more

Best Buy brand closes shop in China and Turkey

| Feb 22 2011 21:35 | Comment |

Best Buy, the world’s largest electronics retailer by sales, is closing all of its branded stores in China, highlighting the resistance of Chinese shoppers to some western-style store experiences. The retailer, which will continue to run 170 stores in China under the Five Star brand acquired five years ago, is also giving up an attempt to enter Turkey, with the closure of two trial-run stores opened in the past two years. The company said in a statement that it would close all nine China stores that carry the Best Buy brand, one of the best known US retail marques, but one that has failed to catch on in China, reports the FT. Read more

Diageo strikes Turkish deal

| Feb 21 2011 04:45 | Comment |

Diageo is close to buying Turkish spirits company Mey Içki Sanayi ve Ticaret for $2bn to $2.5bn, in a deal that would give the UK alcohol giant access to a vast distribution network in the fast-growing nation, reports the WSJ. Barring a last-minute setback, the deal is to be announced on Monday, said people close to the matter. Mey’s owner, US buy-out firm TPG Capital, earlier considered floating the business. UK-based Diageo and other foreign liquor companies have been in a six-year customs dispute in Turkey, which caused Diageo to halt shipments to the country for the past six months. But the row appears to be nearing a resolution, recently approved by the Turkish parliament, which helped convince Diageo to proceed with the deal. Read more

Casualties of the currency war

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| Jan 05 2011 15:41 | Comment |

This is ironic, Brazil.

That’s a Nomura chart showing the Brazilian government as the biggest ‘loser’ of the currency war. You know the war we’re talking about: Brazil was the first and loudest to declare it in 2010. Oops. Read more

The trend continues

| Dec 01 2010 08:19 | Comment |

Same sort of messages from Turkey, Poland and Norway: New orders were up 3.2 and 1.7 points, respectively. Norway was basically flat.

Not going to move the global needle but reassuring consistency. Read more

BBVA in €5bn rights issue

| Nov 03 2010 04:03 | Comment |

BBVA, Spain’s second-biggest listed bank, has launched a €5bn ($7bn) rights issue following a deal to buy joint control of Turkey’s Garanti Bank, the FT reports. The rights issue is the third by a big European bank since regulators’ Basel III agreement in September to toughten bank capital requirements. China Construction Bank also on Tuesday announced a $9.2bn rights issue to strengthen its capital ratios. BBVA said that it was buying 24.9% of Garanti for €4.2bn and would jointly manage the bank with Turkey’s Dogus group, a conglomerate. The Source notes that the numbers look good for BBVA, in a deal that ‘kills two birds with one stone’. Read more

Turkish stocks falling? Blame Mark Mobius

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Nov 02 2010 10:25 | Comment |

On Tuesday evening, October 26, Mark Mobius — the most wanted man in the world — put into effect his dastardly plan to crush the Turkish economy.

Mobius — whose previous schemes included plotting to increase the value of his own gold stocks by detonating a dirty nuclear bond inside the US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, and smuggling and selling ancient gold coins in order to finance SMERSH operations – has long had it in for Turkey. Read more

Turkey moves towards investment grade status

Cardiff writes mostly about US macroeconomic issues, with daily excursions into other topics about which he claim no expertise. Before Alphaville, Cardiff spent a little more than two years as a reporter at Dow Jones Financial News covering investment banking, asset management, and private equity. Along the way he has written freelance pieces on a variety of other topics from behavioural psychology to Muay Thai, the latter also being a personal interest that involves frequently getting kicked in the shins (and torso, and head).

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| Aug 19 2010 22:33 | Comment |

In the fourth in a series of hot money flows to emerging markets, the FT writes about Turkey’s move towards investment grade status. Istanbul’s ISE100 equity index has hit record highs. Yields on sovereign debt are close to historic lows. The currency is more stable than it has ever been – and strong enough to squeeze exporters. All this is the result of a new reputation for stability that Turkey has established in the past two years: its solid banking system, robust public finances and strong growth prospects led David Cameron, UK prime minister, to assert on a recent trip he paid to Ankara that “Turkey is Europe’s Bric”. Read more

There’s always Schadenfreude, Greece

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| Mar 10 2010 11:23 | Comment |

At least now, Athens probably won’t quite get to the point of having to fend off rumours that it’s about to go cap in hand to the IMF. Unlike, say, its old enemy in Ankara. As Reuters reported on Wednesday:

Turkey and the IMF are not currently holding talks on a stand-by loan agreement, Turkey’s economy minister said on Wednesday, confirming earlier comments from an IMF spokeswoman that talks were no longer taking place. Read more

For Greece, another insult

Paul Murphy is the founding editor of FT Alphaville.

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| Feb 19 2010 16:15 | Comment |

From S&P:

 Read more

A European sovereign upgrade cometh? (some mistake, eh)

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Jan 14 2010 10:41 | Comment |

BNP Paribas’s emerging markets team draws attention to Turkey on Thursday, suggesting the country might be in line,  in contrast to most of Europe, for an S&P ratings upgrade.

As they stated, this would follow upgrades already initiated by Moody’s and Fitch: Read more

Chop, chop, chop the dollar

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| May 19 2009 15:50 | Comment |

The FT reported on Tuesday that Brazil and China have come one step closer towards dropping the dollar in trade transactions in favour of their own currencies. Brazilian president  Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is currently visiting Beijing on a state visit.

The news follows a Reuters report on Saturday that Russia and Turkey have also discussed the possibility of switching to national currencies for the purpose of bilateral trade. As Reuters points out, Russia is Turkey’s largest trading partner, while Turkey is the fifth largest trading partner for Russia. Read more

Political fat tails

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Apr 28 2009 16:24 | Comment |

Probability distributions didn’t do a great job predicting financial meltdown, and we’re not sure they’ll be much better at predicting general events. But, since it’s not far-fetched to think that political extremes can follow economic ones, for what it’s worth, here is the political application of fat tail risk.

Risk consultancy Eurasia Group is exploring the “increasing likelihood of radical political disjunctures”, or fat tail events in national-level politics. Read more

Emerging Europe outlook: still bleak

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Apr 01 2009 15:40 | Comment |

It’s still not looking good for Emerging Europe according to the latest report on the region from Fitch:

The central Europeans economies (less so Poland) will be badly affected through the trade channel as they are relatively open and their exports weighted towards cyclical industries such as cars. Commodity producers, mainly in the CIS, will see a sharp drop in income from the fall in their terms of trade. Some poorer countries in the CIS and Balkans are likely to see a drop in workers’ remittances. Read more

CDS report: Markets go into reverse

| Mar 17 2009 12:27 | Comment |

After an expected bounce in the market for credit default swaps on the back of rally in equities, sentiment in the debt markets has deteriorated.
European credit derivative indices were trading wide of their closing levels on Tuesday. The Markit iTraxx Crossover index of mostly junk-rated borrowers’ CDS was quoted at 1092bp -  at its wides of the day so far – having briefly traded inside the previous session’s closing level of 1072bp.

The iTraxx Europe index of mainly investment-grade borrowers’ CDS was quoted at 184.38bp, having traded as tight as 179.25bp this morning, after a close of 181bp Monday. Read more

IMF firepower could soon run short

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Oct 28 2008 04:16 | Comment |

With its $2bn rescue loan to Iceland and $16.5bn to Ukraine, the IMF has started to dip into an arsenal that is full to the brim — yet the organisation could soon run short of firepower. It has about $200bn in easily reachable money and another $50bn or so it can access rapidly. The Telegraph says the IMF could print money by issuing Special Drawing Rights, as it did briefly after the fall of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, politicans in Turkey are debating whether the country should turn again to the IMF for help. Read more

Emerging (markets) squeeze

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Oct 22 2008 09:55 | Comment |

Speaking of emerging market economies in the 1990s, we may be having a repeat.

This is from Sean Corrigan, chief investment strategist at Diapason Commodities Management. Read more

Citigroup in Turkey talks

Helen Thomas is the FT's mining correspondent in London. Previously she was a Lex writer, and also on FT Alphaville.

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| Feb 14 2007 04:43 | Comment |

Citigroup Venture Capital is in talks to buy stakes in two of Turkey’s leading retail chains in a deal that highlights the growing interest of private equity groups in acquiring Turkish assets. The Boyner family, an Istanbul-based business dynasty, said on Tuesday that its holding companies had entered into exclusive talks on selling stakes in Boyner Department Stores and Beymen, a luxury goods chain, to CVCI in a deal that could value them at $450m. The family had been in talks about a year ago with KKR about selling stakes in the stores. But that deal fell through when Turkey’s financial markets were badly hit in a wave of emerging markets volatility in the spring of 2006 Read more