Nigeria has reimposed foreign exchange controls reminiscent of restrictions last seen during military rule in the mid-1990s, as the government reverses key market reforms to cope with pressure caused by the global economic crisis.
Borse Dubai, a government-owned exchanges group, is expected to finalise a $2.5bn loan. The company, which controls Dubai’s two equity markets and has stakes in the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, needs to pay off a $3.4bn loan.
Société Générale and Crédit Agricole announced last month that they will merge their asset management arms. The new entity will be the fourth largest in Europe with €638bn under management.
Australia’s Senate voted against an A$42bn ($28bn) stimulus package. The plan aimed to distribute A$12.7bn in cash to families and low-income earners and invest A$28.8bn on schools, roads, hospitals and energy efficiency.
Fortis shareholders rejected a plan that aimed to sell parts of the Dutch banking and insurance group to BNP Paribas, and they also voted against its nationalisation. Fortis was one of the first European banks to face turmoil in September 2008 because of a liquidity crisis.
CORRECTIONS
The Banker’s Top 1000 Global Banks, published in July 2008, showed an incorrect set of results for First Bank of Nigeria. The results, marked as March 2007, were in fact results from March 2006.
The actual results for March 2007 were as follows: Tier 1 capital: $634.45m; Assets $7.12bn; Pre-tax profit $201.89m. The bank’s country rank remains unchanged at 8, but it has moved up 99 places in the world rankings to 603. (Calculations based on the International Monetary Fund exchange rate for March 2007: 128.06 naira/dollar.)
In The Banker’s Top 500 Banking Brands in February, Kookmin Bank and Emirates NBD were omitted from the report. The banks would have had brand values of $1.82bn and $631m, respectively.
Due to a clerical error, UBS was not included in the 500 and is re-introduced with a value of $7.57bn placing the brand 15th.
In addition, researcher Brand Finance has updated the value of Akbank, which moves up from 137th to 115th and DBS, which moves to 73rd in the Top 500.
