Welcome to The EMEA 300, a new initiative from EMEA Finance that highlights the leading public companies across emerging Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Russia’s listed leaders dominate our CEE & CIS rankings – companies in other regions will need to work hard to catch up.

The Middle East relies on oil for its economic prosperity, but the capital markets are helping other industries to thrive.

South Africa towers over other equity markets on the continent, but there are still opportunities elsewhere for canny investors.

Welcome to EMEA Finance’s African Banking Awards 2011. For the fourth year we recognise the achievements of the continent’s retail and investment banks as well as their asset management and brokerage operations.

Qatar hasn’t witnessed a new bond issuance this year. This could soon change, writes Mark Dunne.

International investors already like what they see in Croatia. But the economy will need to demonstrate a further show of strength ahead of the country’s planned European Union accession in 2013.

Innovation in the emerging markets has contributed to a record performance in the depositary receipts market, writes Tim Burke.

Ethiopia has potential and problems. Its government would prefer markets to focus only on the former. Tim Burke reports.

The securitisation industry shouldered part of the blame for the financial crisis. Four years later the business is reviving, in some EMEA quarters. Mark Dunne reports.

Project financings, debt deals, high profile M&As. These and other types of transaction have kept Africa’s capital markets alive during difficult times for many other regions. That’s good news for the international law firms striving to cement their positions as leading advisers on the continent. Tim Burke caught up with three of them to hear about their deal flows and growth strategies.

If you believe the hype, the historic Mayan calendar once used in South America suggests that the world will end in 2012. In keeping with that apocalyptic outlook, syndicated loan bankers at a September breakfast discussion hosted by EMEA Finance gave their own predictions of some cataclysmic events in their market next year, when a wall of refinancing falls due across Europe in the face of limited liquidity.