For all of the angst that accompanied the global financial crisis, the top international architecture, engineering and construction firms felt little pain. The building market “is like a balloon,” said Ken Fredrickson, president and managing director of Samsung C&T Engineering & Construction Americas, during a webinar by the Engineering News-Record. “When you squeeze it in one place, it pops up in another.”
ENR ranked the top 225 international AEC firms, which had combined revenue of about $1.2 trillion in 2011, up about 12% from 2010. Of that, about $453 billion was earned in countries other than where the firms are headquartered. This is good news; it’s an 18.1% increase compared with 2010.
Fredrickson is one of three executives from major AEC firms who spoke during the webinar. Discussion touched on where the building market was hot and the execs’ concerns moving forward.
Hot markets
Asia, including India and China, and Australia were the top building destinations, making up 24.8% of the market, followed by Europe and the Middle East, accounting for 22.4% and 18.3%, respectively. (read more…)
News and analyses worth a read this weekend …
Sen. Rob Portmann, R-Ohio, wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the “regulatory cliff” facing the business community: “According to a 2011 Gallup survey, overregulation tops the list of ‘most important problems’ facing America’s small-business owners. With our economy stuck in the worst jobs slump since the Great Depression, the pressing need is to build a regulatory climate that encourages investment, growth and job creation. Avoiding the coming regulatory cliff, like the fiscal cliff, will require new leadership at the top.”
Andrew Ross Sorkin discussed in The New York Times’ DealBook what Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., brings to the GOP ticket: Ryan dislikes Dodd-Frank but appears to support breaking up big banks. Ryan talked of how the Troubled Asset Relief Program offended his principles, then voted for it. “So while financiers may cheer Mr. Ryan’s pro-market policies, they may want to reassess just what those policies mean for their businesses.”
Reuters reported on the death of Goldman Sachs’ independent research arm: Some, including former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, blame the failure on investors not wanting to pay for research. (read more…)
The U.S. is on the right track with the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s expected-loss model, Tim Bush of Pensions and Investment Research Consultants writes in Financial News: “It is time for the [International Accounting Standards Board] to match the lead taken by the US and deliver accounting rules which help, not hinder, the accurate reflection of the recoverable amount of loans. The IASB has described its introduction of the incurred loss standard as ‘too little, too late.’ It is, indeed, a master of understatement.”
Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer writes in the Financial Times that allegations over dealings with Iran that hit Standard Chartered this week are an example of a situation that poses a threat for other banks, as well: “Sanctions are a lot less eye-catching than air strikes or a blockade but it is now clearer than ever that they are the primary market risk to watch. (read more…)
News and analyses worth a read this weekend …
A former software engineer wrote in The New York Times about how algorithmic-trading firms could learn a thing or two from credit card companies about merging human intelligence with artificial intelligence to avoid the next Knight Capital Group debacle.
Gillian Tett wrote in the Financial Times about the ebb and flow of financiers demanding this thing silly thing called “collateral” to conduct transactions. “Ever since the western world abandoned the gold standard, there has been a stealthy shift away from the idea that financial transactions needed to be secured on tangible assets. Creating credit flows or deals with the click of a computer button became the norm.” It’s good to see someone pointing out how IOUs pledging the very same — often poorly valued — collateral to multiple counterparties is probably a risky business practice.
Reuters reported that after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and good chunk of the financial-services sector persuaded Congress to kill a bill on cybersecurity, the Obama administration might act on its own. (read more…)
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