Headlines
Americas
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner threatens to upend Argentina again
FOR DECADES the city of Quilmes, a 40-minute drive south of Buenos Aires, has had the distinction of being the name of Argentina’s national beer. A German immigrant, one Otto Bemberg, started his brewery there, on the edge of the River Plate, in the 1880s; today Quilmes (now part of the AB InBev empire) is sold from Iguazú falls to Tierra del Fuego....
Sanctions on Cuba will only slow regime change
FOR THE past few months Cubans have faced shortages of some foodstuffs, as well as sporadic power cuts and fuel shortages that have affected never-abundant public transport. “We have to prepare for the worst,” Raúl Castro, Cuba’s communist leader, told his people last month. On May 10th the government announced that it would ration several staples,...
In Mexico, AMLO seeks to expel merit from schools
HOW QUICKLY winds change. The school reforms signed in 2013 by Enrique Peña Nieto, then Mexico’s president, were to be the only popular legacy of an unpopular man. No longer. On May 8th the senate scrapped them. In mere months a reform deemed vital to reduce poverty lost many of its most ardent defenders. Even senators from Mr Peña’s cowed Institutional...
Colombia’s peace tribunal defies an American extradition request
JESúS SANTRICH was supposed to become a member of Colombia’s congress in July 2018. As a former FARC commander, he was chosen to take up one of the ten congressional seats promised to the guerrilla group by the peace deal that ended the country’s 50-year armed conflict. But Mr Santrich, whose real name is Seuxis Hernández Solarte, could not be...
If Donald Trump gets another Supreme Court pick...
CONSERVATIVES MAY not love everything about Donald Trump, but the 45th president’s record of installing federal judges has delighted them. In barely two years in the White House, with guidance from the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organisation, Mr Trump has seated 104 judges on the district and circuit courts and won confirmation battles...
Asia Pacific
Hong Kong Voted as Top International Financial Centre by Global Corporate Services Industry: Vistra 2020 Report
Trend toward onshore and mid-shore jurisdictions continues The latest report on the Corporate Services industry conducted by Vistra, a leading global trust, fund administration and corporate services provider, reveals that the trend toward onshore and mid-shore jurisdiction for doing business is continuing with Hong Kong topping the list, being...
Is China about to change the shape of global trade… again?
For much of 2018, China’s tariff wars with the US dominated media headlines. In 2019 so far, investors are also witnessing increasing signs of a Chinese slowdown, and with it a new approach to economic stimulus by Chinese policymakers. What does this mean for global trade and investment? A potted history: China’s role in the world economy After...
Cabe Malaysia Conference addresses shared global challenges
A number of issues facing the construction industry – the impact of the Hackitt report and future directives of UK legislation; the true value of sustainable buildings and standardisation of contracts – have been debated at a conference in Malaysia, illustrating the fact that many issues are not restricted by geography, but indeed are shared...
Vistra appoints Michael Sheahan as Alternative Investments Global Lead for Real Estate
Vistra, a leading global fund administration, trust and corporate services provider, today announced the appointment of Michael Sheahan as Alternative Investments Global Lead for Real Estate, effective immediately. In this role, Michael will lead the company’s global real estate (RE) business with responsibility for the development and execution...
HSA Advocates expands its Regulatory & Policy and Disputes Practice with new additions in the partnership collegium
HSA Advocates (“HSA”) is pleased to announce the appointment of Apoorva Misra as Partner and Shreshth Sharma and Nitish Gupta as Associate Partners in the Regulatory & Policy and Disputes practice. While the three partners will be based out of the firm’s New Delhi office, however, their responsibilities will not be restricted by geography. Apoorva...
Europe
Riverside promotes Karsten Langer to Managing Partner
Langer will lead Riverside Europe Fund The Riverside Company, a global private equity firm, has named Karsten Langer as its new Managing Partner for the Riverside Europe Fund (REF). Langer will lead the management of 30 professionals across Europe as Riverside continues to look for internationally growing entrepreneurial companies. Langer...
YFM Equity Partners supports significant investment into Frescobol Carioca, the luxury men’s resort wear and lifestyle brand
Funds advised and managed by YFM Equity Partners (“YFM”), the specialist private equity fund manager have backed a significant investment into Frescobol Carioca Limited (“Frescobol”). YFM’s investment comes from its two advised VCTs, British Smaller Companies VCT plc and British Smaller Companies VCT2 plc. Founded in 2013 as the brainchild...
Trio of funding specialists joins the BTG Advisory team
BTG Advisory, a division of Begbies Traynor Group plc, has appointed experienced funding experts David Smithies, Stephen Couldwell and Andy Chaffer to its corporate solutions team. David, Stephen and Andy will work with banks and professionals to help businesses across the North to access unsecured lending, in partnership with European credit...
Beechbrook Capital establishes German presence with new hire
Beechbrook Capital, the specialist direct lender, has appointed Peter Gottron as Investment Director, DACH, covering Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Mr Gottron will be based in Frankfurt, establishing Beechbrook’s first office in Germany. Mr Gottron, 49, was previously head of corporate banking for Mainzer Volksbank and before that a director...
Mayfair-based alternative finance house IW Capital announces the launch of their new debt fund
A £10,000 entry point opens up small business investment to retail investors Debt finance availability is the biggest concern for business investors Debt finance could help bridge the funding gap for growing SMEs SME growth will be key to financially future-proofing the private sector As we struggle to purchase homes could British business...
Mena
Fighting Ebola When Mourners Fight the Responders
BENI, Democratic Republic of Congo — When Ebola came to this city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Janvier Muhindo Mandefu quit farming and got work burying the highly contagious bodies of Ebola victims.But Mr. Muhindo is less afraid of Ebola than of the mourners he encounters at funerals. He and his burial team have been attacked by relatives...
Burkina Faso Wracked by Escalating Violence
DAKAR, Senegal — A mission to rescue kidnapped tourists that went fatally awry. A church burned to the ground, the priest shot at Sunday Mass. A day later, another attack; four more Christians dead.The fury that hit Burkina Faso this month left a dozen people dead and laid bare the yearslong unraveling of a once-stable country.It is now wracked with...
Navy SEAL Pleads Guilty in Case of Strangled Green Beret
NORFOLK, Va. — A Navy SEAL pleaded guilty on Thursday to restraining an Army Green Beret with duct tape before he died in a June 2017 struggle with other commandos who were deployed on a secret mission in Bamako, Mali.Chief Petty Officer Adam C. Matthews told a military court that he had agreed to help “remediate” Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar...
36 Hours in Dakar
The westernmost point of continental Africa, Dakar is a cosmopolitan desert landscape that juts into the emerald Atlantic. With it’s brightly painted minibuses, wooden boats and a flair for colorful fashion, the capital of Senegal is a paradise of cool. Men waddle down the road in wetsuits pulled to their waists and surfboards tucked under their arms....
Sudan Talks Collapse Amid Clashes in Khartoum
CAIRO — Power-sharing talks in Sudan between the ruling military junta and the leaders of a powerful protest movement collapsed on Wednesday after violent clashes erupted in the capital, Khartoum, for the second time this week.The ruling Military Transitional Council said it was indefinitely suspending the talks, which only hours earlier appeared...
International
America still leads in technology, but China is catching up fast
A RARE THING happened in an industrial park near Washington, DC, last November. Construction began on a $3bn extension to a semiconductor foundry owned by Micron Technologies, a maker of advanced memory chips, based in Idaho. “A few years ago, opening that sort of extension would have people saying, well, that is going to be moving to China soon,...
Approach Art Investment like a VC to make a profit
If you decided at this very moment to invest in your first work of art, how would you start? You might begin by walking into a gallery in search of an expert, or you might go online to gain an understanding of the kind of works that are appreciating in value. Yet for all that you might research, art is still seen by many as an emotional investment,...
“Flanker” banks are seeking to combine the old and new
AT THE ENTRANCE of the glass-and-chrome headquarters of Bank Leumi in Tel Aviv, look left and you will see Mani House, one of the city’s oldest buildings. From a balcony peers a statue of Theodor Herzl, the Zionist leader known as the Father of Israel. The marriage of historical and modern is fitting for Israel’s oldest bank, established before...
How Singapore’s incumbent banks are preparing for competition
IN 2014, AS ALIBABA was preparing to list in New York, Piyush Gupta, the chief executive of DBS, Singapore’s biggest bank, was watching with growing alarm. Together with his bank’s chairman, Peter Seah, he arranged a meeting with Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder, and Joseph Tsai, then its chief financial officer. “I walked away scared out of my wits...
In South-East Asia, Grab and Gojek bring banking to the masses
BOTH WERE founded by Harvard Business School graduates, from the same year. Both have apps that have been downloaded more than 100m times. Both started with ride-hailing and expanded into other logistics businesses, such as deliveries and food-ordering. The story of two South-East Asian “deca-unicorns”—fintechs valued above $10bn—is usually...