By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian financial services company ITI Group has bought out Walbrook Capital Markets, a London-based multi-asset brokerage that provides access to a range of electronic trading platforms and telephone services. Continue Reading
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian financial services company ITI Group has bought out Walbrook Capital Markets, a London-based multi-asset brokerage that provides access to a range of electronic trading platforms and telephone services. Continue Reading
By Andrei Skvarsky. Smurfit Kappa, a Dublin-headquartered multinational packaging manufacturer, has boosted its presence in Russia by buying out a Moscow-based packaging producer, according to British financial adviser Moorgate Capital. Continue Reading
Heads of major US single- and multi-family offices will convene in Las Vegas on December 3-5 for Private Wealth Management Summit Fall 2017 to look at the future of the industry in North America. The Summit, organised by global events management company marcus evans, will bring together senior investment executives responsible for fund management and asset allocation… Continue Reading
By Capitalist Exploits. Hands up if you’ve got kids. Continue Reading
By Jeffrey Kershner, Partner and Chief Operating Officer of Clickinvest, an Illinois-based real estate sourcing platform for investors. Perhaps you have seen one of the dozens of house flipping shows now on TV, or maybe you attended a seminar at the local hotel ballroom. Either way, you’re ready to give real estate investing a try.… Continue Reading
By Andrei Skvarsky. ITI Capital, a London-based brokerage that used to be a British subsidiary of Russian bank Uralsib, has announced it has hired John Barker, a former head of international at New York-headquartered global institutional equities marketplace Liquidnet, as non-executive chairman. Continue Reading
By Andrei Skvarsky. Two financial services firms are launching a $200m fund to provide loans to Russian fintech companies in a bid to help a sector starved of financing because of legal constraints. Continue Reading
“I think you have to learn that there’s a company behind every stock and there’s only one real reason why stocks go up. Companies go from doing poorly to doing well or small companies grow to large companies.” – Peter Lynch AFC Funds Performance Summary Most major equity markets in the world performed well this past… Continue Reading
Top figures in key Latin American single- and multi-family offices are coming together in Cancun, Mexico, on October 9-10, 2017, for a regular Latin Private Wealth Management Summit organised by global business communications company marcus evans. Founders, presidents, chief executives, chief investment officers and other senior managers of family offices will make up the majority… Continue Reading
Event management company Global Leading Conferences (GLC) is organising two-day financial training courses in September – one on blockchain, one on IFRS 9 (the set of international financial reporting standards for financial instruments), and one on over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives. All the courses will be held in Vienna on the same dates, September 21-22. Blockchain 101 MasterClass… Continue Reading
New stricter compliance laws in some Latin American countries confront local net high worth families with serious problems, with offshore assets being their main headache, according to Martin Litwak, founding partner at the Litwak & Partners law firm. Continue Reading
AFC Funds Performance Summary Rallies in frontier markets and emerging markets continued in June 2017 as the MSCI Frontier Markets Asia Net Total Return USD Index added +3.1%, while the global MSCI Frontier Markets Net Total Return USD Index returned +0.6% and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index Net Total Return Index rallied +1.0%. Worldwide, developed… Continue Reading
By Capitalist Exploits. Last Monday the administrators were called into Paladin Energy. Paladin if you’re not familiar is (or should I say was) a uranium producer. Bankruptcies happen all the time, so why should we care? Well, for starters Paladin wasn’t just any company. It was a previous market darling in the last uranium bull… Continue Reading
By Andrei Skvarsky. The former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe showed impressive economic growth in the first quarter of 2017 with an average gross domestic product increase of 3.5 per cent, according to New York-based data provider CEIC. Continue Reading
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has bought an $80m stake in a syndicated mezzanine loan extended to Russian company O1 Group, one of the biggest owners of Russian non-state pension funds and a manager of commercial real estate. Continue Reading
By Capitalist Exploits. In the movie The International Clive Owen plays the part of Louis Salinger, an Interpol agent trying to bring down the world’s largest bank. In this clip a banker explains things to him: Umberto Calvini: [In explaining the “true” nature of banking in the world] “The IBBC is a bank. Their objective isn’t to… Continue Reading
By Capitalist Exploits. Maitre D’: “And finally, monsieur, a wafer-thin mint.” Mr Creosote: “No.” Maitre D’: “Oh, sir! It’s only a tiny little thin one.” Mr Creosote: “No. F**k off. I’m full…” [Belches]Maitre D’: “Oh, sir… it’s only wafer thin.” Mr Creosote: “Look – I couldn’t eat another thing. I’m absolutely stuffed. Bugger off.” Maitre D’: “Oh, sir, just… just one…” Mr… Continue Reading
By Capitalist Exploits. Economists measure economic variables. That’s a problem. Continue Reading
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank’s chief executive recently again excluded the possibility of Russia’s biggest lender establishing any presence in Crimea in the foreseeable future. Continue Reading
“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing. – Warren Buffet AFC Funds Performance Summary May 2017 was characterized by a strong performance for emerging markets and for a number of frontier markets in our universe as well. Developed markets were also mainly positive with the S&P 500 Index up +1.2%, though the Nikkei… Continue Reading
By Joanne Davidson.* Investing your money into real estate could be exciting, but if you’re new to the game, proceed with caution. If you get things right, you could hit the jackpot, but if you don’t think things through, you could face a lot of losses. Properties usually cost around six digits. Before you invest… Continue Reading
By Andrei Skvarsky. CarMoney, a Russian online retail provider of loans secured on motor vehicles, has reported rapid business growth for the little more than a year it has existed as a rebranded company. Continue Reading
By Maise Hunns, a British journalist specialising in business, property and financial advisement.* Investing in property is always a gamble but there are pros and cons to everything. So if you’re thinking of investing in commercial property in Peterborough or anywhere else in the UK, there are a number of things you need to consider first. Continue Reading
In this interview, Veronica Yepez,* founder of Perpetum Consulting, a California-based consultancy serving high net worth families in Latin America and the United States, argues on the basis of her experience of more than 15 years that a child can really never be too young to get involved in a family business. This interview transcript… Continue Reading
Financial technology (fintech) companies, even startups, are a major threat to retail banks as they can lend more cheaply, easily and quickly. Ways for traditional retail lending to keep its ground will be examined at the Lending Products in Retail Banking conference in London on June 19-20, 2017. Continue Reading
By Andrei Skvarsky. deVere Group, a global financial consultancy, has hired Donatas Kontrimas from Barclays as chief executive of the deVere Vault bank, a global e-money app it launched on April 10. Continue Reading
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow Exchange, the company managing Russia’s main securities, money and precious metals exchange, has expressed satisfaction with its own corporate performance last year and with the volumes of trade it hosted in 2016. Continue Reading
With Brexit being a serious challenge to bankers, the extensive agenda of this September’s planned 7th Annual Risk Management Forum in Vienna includes a session on what the conference organisers describe as a “new generation of risks” posed by Britain’s planned 2019 secession from the European Union. Continue Reading
March 2017 was generally a mixed month for world markets with some markets giving back part of their gains from earlier this year, including the Dow Jones Index (−0.7%), the Nikkei 225 (−1.1%), and the Shanghai Composite Index (−0.6%). In contrast, other markets continued ahead, such as the Euro Stoxx 50 Index which rose by… Continue Reading