Monday 14 December 2009

Dubai: was it Smiley?


Cheers! Abu Dhabi has ridden to the rescue at the last minute (visualize elegant Arabian thoroughbreds galloping on the air-conditioned beaches of Dubai).
Enough billions have been made available to redeem at full value the Nakheel bond expiring as we speak.
Was it, after all, a clever Smiley-like operation, as we suspected it might be?
We will never know, as we will never know how much of those bonds changed hands at the distressed levels, nor who bought them.
All eyes now on Greece. No, it will not default. Nor leave the EUR. But all kind of poop might hit the ventilators before another cavalry charge resolve the day.

Clearly the Greece situation would warrant dedicated expectorations. But there again, so would High Frequency Trading, which is becoming the next bugbear. No time though.

2 comments:

  1. Ashurst group went from 25% to 40%+ very rapidly, who are the ultimate offshore owners who boosted that?

    There again after the shenanigans in Autumn 2007 when SWF's were lied to by Western Institutions, possibly payback time!

    Will we ever know?

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  2. definetely payback time, as we see with the SWF dumping holdings in western banks over the last few weeks.

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