Nigeria made a barn-storming return to the US dollar bond market when it defied expectations and shaky fundamentals to print below 8% yield on a book that almost hit US$8bn.
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Romania placed its lowest yielding 10-year bond ever in early April, and the sovereign was rewarded for holding off from printing immediately after its mid-February budget.
The banking system in Cyprus was plunged into chaos at the beginning of the decade, but heavy restructuring and aggressively tackling non-performing loans is helping lead the country’s lenders out of the wilderness.
Off-grid power and captive energy projects are taking up some of the slack as big infrastructure deals stall, says Standard Bank.
Venture capital and private equity firm BlackFin Capital Partners has completed a more than €100mn first closing for a European business technology fund, with the fund’s founding partner telling EMEA Finance that the aim is to become a leading investor on the continent.
The Gulf was plunged into crisis in early June after Qatar came under a wave of sanctions led by Saudi Arabia that has already led to heavy selling in Qatari assets, as the crisis enters its fourth month, market analysts are trying to decipher when events may normalize.
African sovereign issuance is way down from its peak, but recent eurobonds have been oversubscribed as investors search for yield.
Russia’s PIK Group has plans to ramp up capital markets activity in the coming years, as the firm announces a consolidation of its shareholder structure with company president Sergei Gordeev buying out two minority holders.
IBA has finally received investor approval to restructure US$3.3bn of debt after months of wrangling.