Weekly Investment Banking Scorecard

Deals Intelligence

The pace of worldwide mergers & acquisitions fell to just $11.1 billion through Thursday of this week, marking the slowest week for deal making this year and brings the year to-date total of worldwide M&A to $750.2 billion, a decline of 7% compared to last year at this time. Telecommunications, media & entertainment and consumer staples lead the sectors with strongest year-over-year percentage gains, while materials, energy and power and financials have all registered double-digit declines compared to year-to-date 2012.

Bolstered by this week’s multi-billion dollar offerings from Brazil’s Petrobras ($10.9 billion), US-based Merck Inc ($6.5 billion) and Indonesia’s Pertamina PT ($3.25 billion), the level of US-dollar denominated investment grade corporate debt totals $447.9 billion for year-to-date 2013, a 15% increase compared to the year ago period and the strongest year-todate period for US-dollar denominated investment grade corporate debt since records began in 1980. JP Morgan leads the year-to-date ranking for US-dollar investment grade underwriting with 15.3% share, up 1.7 share points from last year at this time.

Initial public offerings from China’s Sinopec Engineering Group and China Galaxy Securities Co each raised over $1 billion on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange pushing the volume of Asia Pacific IPOs to $9.9 billion for year-to-date 2013, a 15% decline compared to last year at this time. The two offerings rank as the largest Chinese IPOs this year, but fall behind Thailand’s BTS Rail Mass Transit Growth ($2.13 billion) and Singapore’s Mapletree Greater China ($2.06 billion).

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Thomson Reuters Deals Intelligence delivers IB content including quarterly reviews showing trends in M&A and Capital Markets.

Reuters Latin America Investment Summit

REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

After weathering the global financial crisis successfully, what are the risks and the opportunities of investing in Latin America today?

Latin America became the darling of the emerging markets after withstanding the global financial crisis and staying in better shape than the developed world, which is still struggling to get on its feet again.

Now the region faces the challenge of boosting its internal consumption amid declining revenues from its exports, and also dealing with a new wave of capital flows that could strengthen Latin American currencies and diminish the competitiveness of its exporting sector.

This year’s Reuters Latin America Investment Summit will tap interviews with high profile guests across the region, the United States and Europe, to discuss issues from spot events to the future of one of the most promising regions of the world.

Learn more about the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit (Spanish version & Portuguese version).

Click here for the 2013 Reuters Summits Calendar.

Watch the Reuters Summits video.

Check out the Reuters Best website – a dynamic resource that features Reuters biggest news wins by sector and region.

Follow @Reuters_Summits on twitter.

Sneak peek into future United States biosimilar market

The pharmaceutical industry is experiencing change in ways it hasn’t ever before. On the demand side, we are seeing an aging population, increased prevalence of “Western” diseases, and a dramatic growth in global access to pharmaceuticals. On the supply side, we are seeing increased competition from emerging market players, and a shift in the way drugs are being developed, manufactured, and delivered. Meanwhile, policy makers are struggling with an inherent conflict between desire to provide improved access to better medicines and the need to curb the growth of healthcare expenditures.

One topic at the center of all of these changes is the U.S. biosimilars market. Biosimilar products will offer competition to some of the most expensive drugs on the market, but also require high investment. The promise of biosimilars in the U.S. is to provide cost savings, increase patient access, and promote innovation. And despite being a market still void of any entrants, the U.S. biosimilars market continues to attract attention.

The release of An Outlook on U.S. Biosimilar Competition report from the Thomson Reuters IP & Science provides a comprehensive view of the challenges facing companies entering the United States biosimilar market, and the key players predicted to break into this developing pharmaceutical space. The report examines the scientific and quality considerations within the U.S. FDA’s guidance document, as well as exclusivity policies, clinical trial experience, and global regulations to identify the challenges pharmaceutical companies face in establishing a U.S. market for biosimilar drugs.

Read more.

Gundlach on Japan, Apple and bubbles

Find out why investors are ‘drowning’ in central banking and how Apple is the new Microsoft according to Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital and the new so-called ‘bond king.’

Thomson Reuters Newsmaker with Indonesian President a showcase for connecting the global community

Whether in person at the Thomson Reuters auditorium, via live stream on Reuters Insider and Thomson Reuters Eikon or virtually through Eikon Messenger and the Global Markets Forum, Thomson Reuters connected the global financial community our customers with Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of the Republic of Indonesia.

On a three country official tour to Singapore, Brunei and Myanmar, the President of the Republic of Indonesia, stopped by our Singapore offices to join a Thomson Reuters Newsmaker event on Tuesday 23 April, 2013.

The Singapore newsmaker event brought together a 40-member delegation of government officials from Indonesia that included the First Lady, Madame Ani Yudhoyono, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and Indonesia’s Ambassador to Singapore, Andri Hadi. Also in the audience was Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore Minister for Communications and Information and Singapore’s Ambassador to Indonesia, Anil Kumar Nayar. (more…)

Two years on with Eikon – an interview with Philip Brittan

Thomson Reuters Eikon

Global head of Desktop Platform Philip Brittan joined Thomson Reuters on May 2, 2011. Two years on, we catch up with Philip on his journey at Thomson Reuters and of course his thoughts on Thomson Reuters Eikon, our next-generation desktop platform for financial professionals. (more…)

Global life expectancy – graphic of the day

Global life expectancy has increased from 64 years in 1990 to 70 years in 2011, the World Health Organization said at the release of its annual world health statistics reoprt. Below is a chart showing the change in life expectancy for 190 countries over the last 20 years.

life expectancy

Would you like infographics like this on your website, blog or other social media? Contact us and visit our Reuters Agency blog for insights and discussions on the changing media industry.

Legal Solutions blog weekly roundup

REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

Here’s a quick check-in with our friends over at the Legal Solutions blog to see what’s been going on in the legal world this past week: (more…)

Professor and lawyer team up to win 2012 Inventor Award

Congratulations to Frank Schilder, Research Manager, Research & Development and Blake Howald, Research Scientist, Research & Development, winners of the 2012 Thomson Reuters Inventor Award for their patent, Systems and Methods for Natural Language Generation. Their patent was selected from among all patents filed by Thomson Reuters in 2012.

What is the Inventor Awards program?

The annual Thomson Reuters Inventor Awards program recognizes and rewards employees who have submitted patent applications during the past year. Patents are critical to protecting Thomson Reuters intellectual property, including technology solutions and improvements to products or processes.

About the winning patent (more…)

And the winner is: Thomson Reuters Foundation

REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

The Thomson Reuters Foundation won two Communicator Awards for the first Trust Women Conference held last December in London. The Communicator Awards honor excellence in all areas of marketing and communications.

The Trust Women delegate book received the 2013 Gold Award of Excellence, and the conference website was awarded the 2012 Silver Award of Distinction.

“It’s a great achievement,” said Monique Villa, Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO. “The Trust Women Conference was initially a very ambitious idea, but the team embraced the challenge and made the event a tangible success. We are now working towards Trust Women 2, remaining true to our total commitment to action, not just talk.”

The Trust Women conference is dedicated to putting the rule of law behind women’s rights. The inaugural 2012 conference gathered over 350 delegates from around the world to tackle issues such as human trafficking, slavery, child and forced marriage, FGM (female genital mutilation), and the Arab Spring. Opened by two Nobel laureates, Aung San Suu Kyi and Shirin Ebadi, the conference generated tangible commitments to action to help women defend their rights. (more…)