Ansher Holding has expanded from its roots as the first western-style investment bank in Uzbekistan, to become a multinational player, with offices in Singapore, UK, Switzerland, UAE and elsewhere, and a diversified pool of product offerings. The chairman of the board of directors of Ansher Holding, Anvar Rasulev, tells us about the company’s plans.

Mohammad El-Erian is co-CEO of Pimco, the largest bond investor in the world. A former deputy director of the IMF, and world expert on emerging markets, El-Erian here writes exclusively for emeafinance on why a reformed IMF has a critical role to play in saving the global economy from its present crisis.

Kazakhstan’s beleaguered banking sector is getting back on its feet, thanks to increased activity by state banks, and growing levels of FDI, report Shayla Walmsley and Julian Evans.

Egypt’s reformist government is grappling with the dilemma of fighting inflation while cutting a growing deficit. However, in the capital markets, Egyptian companies are expanding and becoming MENA regional champions. Julian Evans reports from Cairo.

Ukraine needs to pull out all the stops in its preparations for the Euro 2012 football championship, writes Julian Evans.

As new players enter the Kuwaiti banking market and the central bank tightens lending rules, existing domestic players are increasingly
looking abroad, writes Clare Dunkley.

Boosted by a wave of reforms and foreign investment, Turkish banks are confident that they can weather the current climate of slowing growth and rising interest rates and resume their rapid growth. Of course, there will be winners and losers. And privatisation is still to come, writes Bernard Kennedy in Ankara.

Positive reasons for investing in Turkish sovereign debt are becoming more difficult to find these days. However, yields are on the increase and years of fiscal discipline have greatly reduced the risk of default, writes Bernard Kennedy.

The securitisation market is going through the biggest crisis of its existence, a crisis that potentially even threatens its existence. Heads of state including UK prime minister Gordon Brown are blaming securitisation for the present global financial crisis and demanding that securitised assets are brought back on balance sheet. Will the market survive, and in what form? How has the crisis affected emerging markets like Russia or the Gulf, where securitisation is just beginning to take off? emeafinance gathered some of the top bankers in the market together to discuss what is happening, and where to go from here.

It caused a certain amount of surprise in financial circles when Lado Gurgenidze was made prime minister of Georgia in November 2007. Julian Evans caught up with him recently in Tallinn, Estonia.

Despite the collapse of the ruling coalition, investors are hopeful the Hungarian government can stick to its fiscal austerity plans and weather the global credit crunch, writes Kester Eddy in Budapest.

For decades Libya was a ‘pariah’ state, shunned by the international community. In 2004 the doors were flung open and foreign investors were enticed in, promises were made, contracts signed, hopes raised. Four years on however it appears that inertia and backtracking by the Gaddafi administration has set in. Was it all too good to be true after all, asks Nicholas Noe.