Bahrain has issued a defiant response to the downgrades of its sovereign debt by a leading credit ratings agency and the decision by the International Monetary Fund to forecast a slowdown in economic growth.
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The Development Bank of Kazakhstan (DBK) took a novel step when it went to the international bond markets for tenge debt at the beginning of December, in a trade that is expected to kick start a wave of similar transactions in 2018.
The Dutch bank has made significant strides in realising its blockchain agenda, as its distributed ledger technologies near commercial readiness.
Emaar Development priced the largest initial public offering the Dubai exchange has hosted for three years, but some are warning that the global equity markets are being driven by investors’ fear of missing out rather than faith in strong fundamentals.
The Dutch bank, which was nationalised in the wake of the financial crisis, is now 44% privately owned, with insurer ASR Nederland now privatised entirely.
Middle Eastern sovereigns have swarmed the bond market since the start of autumn, raising US$23.5bn of debt in the space of two weeks and helping make September the highest month on record for emerging market issuance.
Off-grid power and captive energy projects are taking up some of the slack as big infrastructure deals stall, says Standard Bank.
The World Bank’s private investment arm signed a US$500m deal with Eastspring Investments in July.
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.
Société Générale’s senior debt capital markets team has undergone an overhaul in the wake of co-global head Brendan Moran moving to another part of the bank
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.