With banks and structured investment vehicles no longer able to provide limitless leverage to European buyout funds, private equity firms are being forced to rethink their strategy towards both financing and acquisitions.
Barclays built a multi-asset execution platform out of the Lehman acquisition, and the debt specialist in the bank’s two-man management team for global finance in the EMEA region is relishing the opportunity to deploy that platform if merger and acquisition activity picks up.
Although not directly affected by the squeeze facing eurozone peripheral sovereigns and banks, central and eastern Europe is affected by its economic ties with the EU and the prevalence of western European banks in its markets. Philip Alexander hears from a range of European issuers outside the eurozone, including sovereigns, agencies, banks and corporates, on how the crisis has affected them.
Staff expenses are the largest single component of most banks' operating expenses and provide a good indication of the efficiency of each bank's business model. The Banker has tracked down the countries with the lowest and highest staff costs to discover where the most and least productive bankers are based.