Merchant bankers

This one is not written up yet

The definition above is the short version. A full explanation — how it works, a worked example and the exam traps — is still being written. In the meantime the chapter below covers it in context.

Written up from the same chapter

• ADR, GDR and IDRDepository receipts represent shares of a company in one country but trade on an exchange in another — American inside the US, Global outside it, Indian for foreign shares listed here.
• Business riskThe variability of a firm's income flows caused by the nature of its business — driven by how volatile its sales are and how much of its cost base is fixed.
• Capital appreciationThe gain made when the market value of an investment rises above what you paid for it — as distinct from income, which is the interest or dividend the investment pays you along the way.
• Clearing corporationThe entity that steps between every buyer and seller in the derivatives segment by novation, becoming the counterparty to both sides and guaranteeing that the trade settles.
• Country Risk PremiumThe extra return an investor demands for putting money into one country rather than another, added to the required rate of return to pay for that country's political and macroeconomic risk.
• CustodianThe SEBI-registered entity that holds a fund's securities in accounts of its own and settles its trades, so the assets sit somewhere other than with the manager who decides what to buy.