Latin America

  Gol: Planning share buyback   Investment banks say the recent US Fed rate cut, coupled with strong domestic fundamentals, bodes well for Brazilian capital market investors. “Fed easing since mid-August has opened up a new leg of the bull ...

VENEZUELA     Rodrigo Cabezas: New currency will help fight inflation. Venezuela is gearing up for the introduction of a new currency to replace the bolivar, in circulation since 1879, in a move the Hugo Chávez administration hopes will help ...

LATIN AMERICA     Lipsky: Sounds a warning. When the meltdown in US subprime mortgages triggered forecasts of a possible US recession, unleashing global credit and money market volatility, Latin America proved to be relatively insulated from the debacle. Though ...

JAMAICA     Golding: Ambitious economic plans. Newly sworn-in Jamaican prime minister Bruce Golding is seeking ways to kick-start the island’s sluggish economy and tackle mounting social pressures over escalating unemployment and crime rates (his own forecasts predict 1,300 murders ...

COUNTRY REPORT / BRAZIL     Buffeted by the shockwaves from the US subprime mortgage crisis, Brazil has to steer a steady course if it is to keep its economic development on track.     Buffeted by the shockwaves from ...

COLOMBIA     Ecopetrol's Cartagena oil refinery. The Colombian energy sector entered a new investor-friendly era with the late-August IPO of Ecopetrol, the state-owned oil company. Ecopetrol is Colombia’s largest corporation, with income of around $18 billion in 2006. The ...

BRAZIL Some 50% of respondents to a Merrill Lynch emerging market investor survey in August said they were bullish on Brazil. Reaching a similar conclusion, rival Morgan Stanley predicts Brazilian markets will see further upside, despite recent US market turbulence, ...

Argentina       Double act: Nestor Kirchner and the presidential hopeful, Mrs. K. Argentine First Lady and senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is poised to replace her husband, President Nestor Kirchner, in the top post in the October 28 ...

Brazil     Brazil’s strong capital markets recovery and IPO blitz has prompted international investment banks to put the country back on their radars. Lehman Brothers, which exited Brazil in 2003 amid a near market collapse, has reopened its São ...

Corporate financing news / global equity/drs     Latin American equity capital markets had their biggest month ever in July, with $9.6 billion in proceeds from 23 issues, an increase of 48% from the previous record of $6.5 billion set ...

Latin America     There is no longer any doubt that Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez’s “Bolivarian Revolution” is having a significant economic and political impact on Latin America. The question now is, Will it last? It’s 11 o’clock in the ...

Brazil     Beefing up: Brazilian meat producer JBS is set to buy the US's Swift Following a spate of local IPOs by Brazil's main meat processing companies, sector players are now engaged in an acquisitions spree to expand their ...

LATIN AMERICA     Hugo Chávez: Wants to see the World Bank out of Latin America While most media attention on the World Bank recently has focused on a political scandal that could spark the downfall of bank president Paul ...

BRAZIL     Brazil's agricultural output is helping boost its economy Brazil moved closer to a coveted investment-grade rating in May as both Standard & Poor’s and Fitch upgraded the sovereign to BB+ from BB. The rating puts it just ...

DR NEWS     Edenor, a Buenos Aires-based electricity distributor, became the 12th Argentina-based company to trade on the New York Stock Exchange, following its initial public offering in the United States and Argentina. The company, also known as Distribution ...