Investment banking faces a shakeout and only large commercial players and boutiques offering outstanding service will survive and prosper, the head of emerging markets banking specialist Renaissance Group told Reuters.

Mergers and acquisitions activity fell 25 percent worldwide in the first half of 2012 as global economic uncertainty reined in companies' expansion plans.

Retail companies are proving to be a bright spot in a gloomy market for private-equity backed mergers and acquisitions.

Major private equity and sovereign wealth funds on Thursday took tentative first steps to invest in Russia.

According to a report from Federal Reserve, total corporate cash stored at the end of last year declined nearly $500 billion.

China's National Social Security Fund (NSSF) saw its annual investment return tumble to 0.8 percent last year, from 4.2 percent in 2010.

Private equity investors have found another way to get into the growing U.S. exchange traded fund (ETF) market: investing in firms that manage ETF portfolios.

Starved of finance from hard-pressed banks, private equity firms in Europe are sounding out yield-hungry pension funds, insurers and sovereign wealth funds as alternative sources of the finance they need to do deals.

U.S. private equity investments outperformed the stock market in 2011 and distributions to investors reached a record as fund managers seized on an opportunity to sell long-held assets.

China's energy giants are slowing their purchases of overseas unconventional oil and gas assets following two years of aggressive investment.