In 2009, as others retrenched, BlackRock snapped up Barclays' asset-management business, boosting the assets under its control to more than $3 trillion.It looks set to grow further.
By 2012 some Chinese shipyards were sitting totally idle, says Li Sheng of HIT Marine, a Chinese shipbroker.As banks retrenched, private-equity firms such as Apollo Global Management, Blackstone, the Carlyle Group and KKR saw an opportunity in the low valuations of existing ships and in the shipyards begging for work.
Under pressure from Swiss regulators, UBS is closing large parts of its investment bank; the Royal Bank of Scotland has also retrenched sharply.
"But the Europeans have the biggest guns".Slimline in SwitzerlandThe banks that have retrenched most are Switzerland's two big investment banks.
AIG is part way through a tortuous dismemberment.America's financial-services industry has shed record numbers of jobs as firms have failed, been sold or retrenched (see chart 1).
Surviving banks, rather than expanding their deposits and loans to replace those of the banks lost to panics, retrenched sharply.
Demand for loans from creditworthy borrowers has held up even as banks have retrenched in the face of mounting regulation.
Bond insurers, who used to cover roughly half of the market, have retrenched or gone bust after making bad mortgage bets.
And here in Brazil happily we had the BNDES, the Caixa Econômica Federal and the Banco do Brasil [all state banks] because, in the crisis, the private banks retrenched and credit disappeared.
Having been enthusiastic about overseas expansion in the 1980s, many Japanese companies retrenched at home during the dark days of the 1990s.
"Auto spend will be retrenched primarily around new-model introductions," predicts Jon Swallen, TNS's head of research.In this section The Germans are coming Perfecting pitches Still a bumpy ride Could be more resourceful Going for goal Triple therapy ReprintsGiven this belt-tightening, car firms have been revisiting their marketing arrangements in order to save money.
