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SYDNEY, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Index provider MSCI said it has cut the free-float designations of four securities of India's Adani group, a move which analysts have warned could impact their index weightings. MSCI said in a statement it has reduced the free floats of Adani Enterprises (ADEL.NS), Adani Total Gas (ADAG.NS), Adani Transmission (ADAI.NS) and ACC (ACC.NS). The remaining companies' free floats will remain the same. The four companies for which the free float designation change was announced had a combined 0.4% weighting in the MSCI emerging markets index as of Jan. 30. Analysts had said a change in free float status could affect the weightings of MSCI index constituents, possibly triggering a shift by funds as many investments are aligned to such indexes.

The Adani Group has denied any wrongdoing. "Depending on the outcome of the MSCI review, we could see more pressure on select Adani group stocks." "This determination has triggered a free float review of the Adani Group securities." Adani Group did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. They accuse his government of giving undue favours to the Adani Group, a charge denied by the government and the company.

"Depending on the outcome of the MSCI review, we could see more pressure on select Adani group stocks." "MSCI has determined that the characteristics of certain investors have sufficient uncertainty that they should no longer be designated as free float ... This determination has triggered a free float review of the Adani Group securities," it added. Adani group did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Adani Transmission (ADAI.NS), Adani Total Gas (ADAG.NS) and Adani Power (ADAN.NS) were each down 5%, while Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSE.NS) were down nearly 2.9%.

☆ Gautam Adani’s woes were in banks' plain sight
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Una Galani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

MUMBAI, Feb 8 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Gautam Adani’s recent woes have vindicated persistent doubts in India about the tycoon’s rise. The Indian group dismisses those claims as a “malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations”. By contrast, other big Indian groups like Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries (DBKGn.DE) and those carrying the Tata name are more popular with institutional investors. Fee-hungry international banks were much less picky. Deutsche, Barclays and StanChart pocketed $57 million of the $260 million of investment banking revenue generated by the Adani group since Dealogic records began.

☆ Asia stocks steady, dollar firm as investors consider higher rate outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Scott Murdoch | Thomson Reuters | Scott Murdoch Has Been A Journalist For More Than Two Decades Working For Thomson Reuters | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Australia's S&P/ASX200 (.AXJO) was trading higher ahead of the Reserve Bank's decision but slid into negative territory after the official cash rate was raised by 25 basis points. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index (.HSI) was trading 0.67% higher and China's bluechip CSI300 Index (.CSI300) was up 0.07%. The two-year yield , which rises with traders' expectations of higher Fed fund rates, touched 4.4267% compared with a U.S. close of 4.456%. The repricing of higher rates began after strong U.S jobs growth in January, with employment rising 517,000, more than double economists expectations. The dollar index , which tracks the greenback against a basket of major trading partner currencies, was down marginally at 103.45 from its U.S. trading levels.

☆ Asia stocks steady, dollar strong as markets reassess rates outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Scott Murdoch | Thomson Reuters | Scott Murdoch Has Been A Journalist For More Than Two Decades Working For Thomson Reuters | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) bounced slightly 0.4%, after U.S. stocks ended the previous session with mild losses. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index (.HSI) opened up 0.68% and China's bluechip CSI300 Index (.CSI300) was 0.3% higher in early trade. The repricing of higher rates began after strong U.S jobs growth in January, with employment rising 517,000, more than double economists expectations. The dollar index , which tracks the greenback against a basket of major trading partner currencies, was down marginally at 103.47 from its U.S. trading levels. Gold was slightly higher.

It is rare for investors to take short positions in securities of Indian companies. Securities rules in India also make it hard to quietly build short positions. Institutional investors are obliged to disclose their short positions upfront and there are other restrictions and registration requirements on foreign investors. In Adani, for example, Hindenburg held the short positions through U.S.-traded bonds and non-Indian-traded derivatives. China's strict investment rules make it all but impossible to take short positions in domestic-listed Chinese stocks from overseas.

☆ Savers poised for 'biggest win' in 2023 as inflation falls. Where to put your cash now
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Xavier Lorenzo | Moment | Getty ImagesAs interest rates go up, 2023 is shaping up to be a good time for savers who stand to earn more money on their cash. As the unemployment rate hit a 53-year low in the latest jobs report, the interest rate increases are expected to keep coming. Online savings accounts tend to pay the highest rates, with rates like 4% or 4.5% becoming more common. Series I bonds have 'become a better deal'Series I bonds are accrual type savings bonds tied to inflation that are issued by the government. If you cash in the I bond in the first five years, you will lose three months' interest, McBride said.

SYDNEY/SINGAPORE, Jan 26 (Reuters) - China's reopened borders and renewed focus on boosting the sagging economy have brightened the deals outlook, with bankers starting to field interest for mergers, acquisitions and fundraising involving the world's second-largest economy. Chinese companies' capital markets deals slipped 44% in the same period, according to Refinitiv data. That slump crimped the fees earned by Wall Street banks and forced some of them to cut jobs, mainly those linked to Chinese deals, in the past few months. Chinese private equity activity was worth $24.1 billion in 2022, down from $57.8 billion a year before, Pitchbook data showed. "Because of opening up, we expect an uptick in overseas disposal of private equity to Chinese buyers."

"2022 saw a material deterioration in global investment banking fee pools and, as a result, we have had to reduce headcount in certain areas," the statement said. The layoffs involve staff across multiple divisions within Nomura's investment banking function, after a year of muted dealmaking activity in the region, one of the two sources said. In each of the bank's business divisions for equities capital markets, debt capital markets, corporate finance and Southeast Asia coverage, two to three workers were made redundant, according to the two sources. Goldman Sachs (GS.N) last week sacked more than 3,000 people in its global workforce, with the investment banking and global markets division the hardest hit. Pretax income for its wholesale division, which houses its trading and investment banking businesses, slid 19% year-on-year in the three months ending in September.

SYDNEY, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Bain Capital said on Monday it is looking to relist Virgin Australia - a move that comes as the domestic aviation market bounces back strongly from its pandemic lows. "In the coming months we will consider how to best position Virgin Australia for continued growth and long term prosperity," Mike Murphy, a Sydney-based partner at the U.S. private equity firm said in a statement. "It is Bain Capital’s current intention to retain a significant shareholding in a future IPO of Virgin Australia." Bain bought Virgin Australia for A$3.5 billion ($2.45 billion) including liabilities in 2020 after the airline was placed in voluntary administration. There were just $614.2 million worth of IPOs in Australia in 2022, down nearly 93% from $8.4 billion a year earlier, according to Refinitiv data.

The company is the property services arm of commercial property developer Dalian Wanda Group. A presentation by Wanda Commercial Management Group seen by Reuters said the book received 3.7 times over-subscription, with $500 million orders from long-only funds, including Blackrock, Fidelity, Pictet AM, Invesco and PAG. "This deal reopened the dormant China property and high-yield bond market, and received an active and positive reaction," it added. Dalian Wanda Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment while its commercial management arm could not be immediately reached. Unlike many other Chinese developers who focus on residential projects, Dalian Wanda Group relies on rental income and has an asset-light model.

☆ Analysis: Investors snap up record $39 bln emerging market sovereign bond splurge
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Jorgelina Do Rosario | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The scale of borrowing dwarfs the previous record of $26 billion raised in the same period in 2018, data from Morgan Stanley shows. ROARING STARTWhile emerging bond markets are off to a roaring start, that might not translate into a bumper year overall. That is well above last year's multi-year low of $95 billion, but well short of 2020's record $233 billion. "The blessing for 2023 is that we haven't got a huge spike in Eurobonds maturities for the frontier," said Gregory Smith, emerging markets fund manager at M&G Investments, referring to what are perceived as the riskiest of emerging markets. "Kenya and Angola will need to tap the market, while South Africa is staying away completely this year," she said.

[1/2] People work on the trading floor at the global headquarters of Goldman Sachs investment banking firm at 200 West Street in New York City, U.S., January 11, 2023. The Wall Street titan's rivals have also started to cut jobs as global banks prepare for recession and broader, deeper cuts are expected across the industry if deal-making activity remains weak. The long-expected jobs cull at Goldman follows a recruitment drive during the pandemic, which saw the bank's total headcount top 49,000. Johnson, who was with Goldman Sachs for more than six years, declined to comment. Oliveira said some bankers who have reached out to recruiters like him are considering ditching investment banking for other positions.

REUTERS/Eva Plevier/File PhotoWINNIPEG, Manitoba, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Netherlands-based Rabobank NA (RABOVR.UL) is aiming to grab 10-15% of the Canadian farm lending market within 15 years, as it aims to shake up a sector dominated by government and domestic banks, its new Canadian agricultural head told Reuters on Wednesday. It took Rabobank a decade before deciding to expand into Canadian farm lending, taking a methodical approach, Lieverse said. Rabobank expects Canadian farm lending to be profitable from the start and plans to announce hiring plans shortly, she said. Rabobank did not release its estimate of the value of the Canadian farm lending market, but government agency Statistics Canada pegged 2021 farm debt at a record-high C$129 billion ($96.1 billion), with chartered banks accounting for 37%. Farm Credit Canada, owned by the Canadian government, is the biggest agricultural lender, controlling a market share of about one-third, Lieverse said.

Parafin, launched in 2020, works with so-called platform partners, or companies that other small businesses sell their products through. All the cofounders knew was that they wanted to build technology that would help small businesses. And they may not get their first contract payment from the government for as long as 120 days," Reed, the startup's CEO, told Insider. Helping small businesses manage their taxesComplYant's founder Shiloh Jackson wants to help people be present in their bookkeeping. HoneyBookWhile countless small businesses have been harmed by the pandemic, self-employment and entrepreneurship have found ways to blossom as Americans started new ventures.

SYDNEY, Jan 9 (Reuters) - A venture headed by China's Tianqi Lithium (002466.SZ) made an A$136 million ($94.07 million) bid to buy Australian lithium developer Essential Metals (ESS.AX), in a big test of Australian regulators' appetite for Chinese-led foreign investment. Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia (TLEA), which is 51% owned by Shenzhen- and Hong Kong-listed Tianqi Lithium Corporation and 49% by Australian miner IGO Ltd (IGO.AX), set the bid at 50 Australian cents per share. The deal requires the approval of Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), with Treasurer Jim Chalmers having the ultimate say. Essential Metals' shares surged as much as 40% on Monday, trading as high as 48.50 Australian cents. It expects the Essential Metals deal to be completed by May 2023.

SYDNEY, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Hong Kong aims to raise up to the equivalent of $5 billion in a dollar, euro and offshore Chinese yuan green bond issuance, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. Hong Kong's government was proposing that the dollar tranche could be spread across three-, five- and 10-year tranches, with a possibility of issuing a 30-year bond, two sources told Reuters. Hong Kong was aiming to raise about $3 billion in dollars, those two sources said. The euro tranche was targeting 1 billion euros in two- and seven-year tenors, they added. The offshore-yuan-deal was intended to be worth about 5 billion yuan and would include a longer tenor of five years, said one of the sources and two others.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Index (.N225) shed 2.2% after trading in positive territory earlier in the day, as stocks resumed trading following the BOJ decision. The dollar dropped 2.43% against the yen to 133.62 after the BOJ decision, hitting a four-month low. In early European futures trading, the pan-region Euro Stoxx 50 futures were down 0.89% at 3,784, German DAX futures were down 0.91% at 13,888, FTSE futures were down 0.63% at 7,321. U.S. stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis , were down 0.52% at 3,825.5. In Asian trading, the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes rose to 3.6752% compared with its U.S. close of 3.583% on Monday.

☆ Asian markets mostly weaker as investors question China reopening
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Scott Murdoch | Thomson Reuters | Scott Murdoch Has Been A Journalist For More Than Two Decades Working For Thomson Reuters | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

China is pushing on with easing restrictions after three years of COVID-19 lockdowns which is leaving to investors to question how financial markets will react to the reopening. "Once they do reopen, there will be positive sentiment and China will become a growth story for the world again." Australian shares (.AXJO) on Tuesday were down 0.72%, while Japan's Nikkei stock index (.N225) rose 0.34%. In Asian trading, the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes rose to 3.5993% compared with its U.S. close of 3.583% on Monday. "The subsequent hawkish Fed policy update remains fresh in the minds of investors," NAB analyst wrote on Tuesday.

☆ China's re-opening to lift Asia equity capital market volumes from 3-year lows
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Scott Murdoch | Thomson Reuters | Scott Murdoch Has Been A Journalist For More Than Two Decades Working For Thomson Reuters | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

SYDNEY, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Asian equity capital markets activity, languishing at three-year lows now, is set to get a much needed boost in 2023 from China's expected re-opening to the rest of the world after a spate of COVID-19 lockdowns, dealmakers said. "As China's re-opening happens, market activity will come in stages," said Edward Byun, Goldman Sachs' co-head of equity capital markets in Asia ex-Japan, adding that secondary market trading and follow-on capital raisings would benefit first. IPOs in Asia Pacific, including Japan, fell by 43.3% this year in value terms, while total equity capital market deals plunged 52%, according to Refinitiv data. New share sales in Hong Kong plunged 74% to $7.4 billion this year from $28.17 billion in 2021, Refinitiv data showed. In India, IPOs were down nearly 60% to $7.13 billion from $17.05 billion, the Refinitiv data showed.

☆ Who will be Wall Street’s un-American idol?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Europeans have been losing the battle against Wall Street’s cozy club for a decade. Deutsche Bank has done the former. BNP has made smaller steps, buying Bank of America’s prime broking business in 2008, then Deutsche Bank’s in 2019. Even with the best intentions, European banks must contend with their own regulators, which affects their ability to take risk elsewhere. JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs together took the top five slots for debt capital markets and merger advisory, as they also did in 2021.

☆ Fed rate hike pushes small business loan interest over 10% for first time in nearly a generation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Eric Rosenbaum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Many business owners have never seen double-digits," said Rohit Arora, co-founder and CEO of small business lending platform Biz2Credit. Almost a quarter of small business owners said they are paying a higher rate on their most recent loan, and the highest since 2008. The latest CNBC Fed Survey shows the market forecasting a peak Fed rate around 5% in March 2023 and the rate being held there for nine months. "Talking to small business owners looking for financing, it's starting to slow things down," Hurn said. Small business loan approval percentages at big banks dropped in November to the second lowest total in 2022 (14.6%), according to the latest Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index released this week; and also dropped at small banks (21.1%).

That compares with a valuation of about $9 billion in its maiden external fundraising last year. In doing so, it joins a growing list of Chinese automakers looking to launch or expand sales of EVs in the region. The automotive group led by founder Li Shufu now houses seven brands manufacturing electric vehicles, of which three are high-end brands. According to two of the sources, Zeekr also considered Hong Kong as its listing venue but picked New York in the hope of achieving a higher valuation. Zeekr was established by Geely, formally known as Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (GEELY.UL), in April 2021 to tap into increasing Chinese demand for premium EVs.

Bonus payout discussions are currently underway at Morgan Stanley globally, they said. Morgan Stanley, which does not disclose details of bonus payouts, declined to comment. Wall Street investment bankers can expect much smaller bonuses this year as the economy slows, according to projections published last month by Johnson Associates Inc, a compensation consultant in New York. This year's bonus discussions are taking place after Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said earlier this month that the bank was making "modest job cuts" worldwide. Morgan Stanley reported a 30% slump in third-quarter profit in October, missing analysts' estimate as a slowdown in global dealmaking hurt its investment banking business.

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