In 2010, with questions surrounding how Rwanda could fund costly, large-scale projects including a convention centre and national carrier RwandAir, policymakers were forced to look for innovative ways to raise cash.

As one of the region’s most dynamic sectors, the telecommunications industry in Africa is highly competitive. But in Nigeria – the continent’s second-largest economy – MTN Nigeria’s recent syndicated deal has given the telecommunications giant the edge over its peers.

There was no shortage of bond issuance from emerging Europe in the early part of 2013 before tapering fears set in. While deal sizes and volumes hit record levels, however, innovation was thin on the ground.

The sale of HSBC Bank Panama to Bancolombia was one of the largest M&A deals of the year and was transformative to the financial services industry in the fastest-growing economy in Latin America. The deal value was $2.1 billion based on estimated 2012 price to book value of 3.0x and 2012 estimated P/E of 16.9x. HSBC Panama was the second-largest bank in Panama, with a 17% market share in loans, 16% in deposits and 5% in insurance premiums. With the acquisition, Bancolombia adds total assets of $7.6 billion, deposits of $5.8 billion and shareholder’ equity of $800 million to its Panamanian operations to create a presence in a very attractive economy and banking industry. It also further enhances the movement of Colombia’s biggest banks northwards as they seek regional expansion and diversification. Bancolombia becomes the largest bank in Panama and central America and is expected to double the contribution of international earnings to about 20% of total.

Vedanta and its bookrunners gave the market a lesson in how to get a deal done in volatile times both through its opportunistic timing and the deal’s execution.

Euromoney’s deals of the year for 2013 show that, despite prolonged periods of market uncertainty, smart issuers and their advisers managed to get some remarkable things done.

Twitter set an IPO landmark.

EdF changed the hybrid game.

The head of Nigeria’s Dangote Industries, Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, signed a $3.3 billion deal on September 4 2013 to finance the building of the largest oil refinery in Nigeria.

Frontier markets are in vogue and there are few markets less tapped than Iraq. It is perhaps fitting, then, that in February 2013 Iraq produced the biggest IPO in the Gulf region since the 2008 global financial crisis: the $1.2 billion listing of mobile phone firm Asiacell.

When it launched in March, this was the largest equity sale of the year, popping healthily on its first day.

On top of the Aldar-Sorouh merger, the financing of the second phase of Emirates Aluminium (Emal) added to Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s resurgent confidence in 2013.

The largest integrated oil and gas producer in Indonesia is government owned and is also the de facto owner of all oil and gas reserves across the country.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy is never a cheering experience, but in Arcapita’s case it has created an important precedent for the Middle East, where – even after the crises of 2008 and 2009 – restructurings have been extensions of loans, largely because of undeveloped local bankruptcy laws.

Another year of volatility and underperformance in equity markets kept the majority of IPO candidates from emerging Europe on the sidelines in 2013. Of the few that did venture out, Turkey’s Pegasus Airlines caught the eye for its ability to negotiate a fragile market environment and resilient aftermarket performance.

In a lacklustre year for dealmaking in emerging Europe, the acquisition of Czech gas transmission firm Net4Gas by German insurer Allianz and the infrastructure arm of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System stood out by virtue of its complexity and the competitiveness of the bidding process.

Despite the emergence of signs of recovery across the region, central and eastern Europe saw surprisingly little in the way of eye-catching deal flow in 2013. Activity in both M&A and equity capital markets remained subdued. The bond market feeding frenzy in the first half of the year produced some big transactions, but was short on innovation and complexity.

This deal – led by BTG Pactual after an aborted attempt by Barclays the year before – was the first truly project finance structured bond issued in Brazil. It was also the first debenture to be distributed pursuant to rule 144a/RegS in the international market and the first with a final maturity of 15 years (the previous maximum tenor was 12 years). Despite facing strong volatility and sharp deterioration in market conditions (rise in interest rates, change in Brazil’s rating outlook and the prospect of Fed stimulus tapering), Rodovias do Tiete was able to place fully the R$1.065 billion ($440 million) transaction – facilitated by the firm underwriting commitment provided by the lead and co-bookrunners. The volatility in the markets was of consequence: in the same week BNDESPar and Iguatemi cancelled their debenture and real-estate asset-backed securities (CRI) transactions, respectively.

In a landmark deal on November 6 2013, Transnet, a state-owned freight-logistics company, became the first South African company to issue a rand-denominated bond on the international capital markets.

While the Twitter float was news across the world, another of Euromoney’s deals of the year took place in a far more esoteric corner of the market. It is not often that a structured-finance transaction attracts almost universal praise from competitors across the market, but Freddie Mac’s Structured Agency Credit Risk (STACR) did just this in June last year. And in many ways its impact is far greater than that of the much more discussed Twitter deal.

Liberty Global now dominates cable with takeover of Virgin Media.

After a lousy 2012 for Brazilian equities, followed by an unpromising start to 2013 and a deterioration in investor sentiment towards Brazil’s macroeconomic environment, it was perhaps surprising that the world’s biggest IPO of the year was from Brazil. And the spin-off of BB Seguridade – Banco do Brasil’s insurance division – was also one of the best-performing IPOs. Proof, if it were needed, that deals that are priced and marketed well succeed in Latin America’s largest market.

Initial public offerings in Hong Kong during the first half of last year were something of a novelty.

Abu Dhabi has regained confidence since Aldar and Sorouh’s merger. Real estate and equity indices have risen. There has been a surge in new deals from state investment fund Mubadala, the biggest Aldar shareholder (a position that in part led Mubadala to a loss in 2010, because of fair-value write-downs).

Announced in July 2012, this high-profile deal by CNOOC, the world’s largest independent oil exploration and production company, to acquire Nexen closed in February last year. The deal is the largest ever acquisition of a foreign target by a Chinese company and was three times oversubscribed, with over $18.1 billion of commitments received. Citi advised CNOOC, acting as sole coordinating bank on the $6 billion term loan facility, while Goldman Sachs and RBC advised Nexen.

Wall Street traders typically believe that the business of profiting from capital flows works best with minimal interference, but given the impact that the US government, in the form of the Federal Reserve, had on the structured finance market last year their perceptions might well have changed.

Moving to north Africa, debt was again the most interesting area of the capital markets, and nowhere more so than in the Kingdom of Morocco’s extraordinary $1.5 billion 10- and 30-year dollar debut in December.

In July, Takeda, Japan’s largest pharmaceutical company, successfully priced its first $3 billion, two-tranche, 144a/RegS benchmark offering. The transaction was split into a $1.5 billion three-year and a $1.5 billion five-year tranche. The deal stood out not least because it was the first time in more than 20 years that Takeda had accessed the public debt markets. It was also the first global issuance for a Japanese corporate since NTT’s global dollar bond offering in 1999. Takeda was introduced to institutional investors in Asia and north America via a non-deal roadshow in late May and early June. Despite the generally weaker market tone globally, the offering received strong initial demand from Asia accounts. The scarcity of dollar-denominated issuance by Japan’s corporations was not the sole distinguishing factor of the deal. Takeda’s relative financial stability and rating strength compared with its global peer group meant that the deal attracted several global investors. The offering was oversubscribed, with demand reaching almost $7 billion, according to bankers on the deal.

PICC’s December IPO in Hong Kong was the largest IPO to come out of the special administrative region in nearly two years.

Global capital markets underwent a remarkable recovery last year as bond and equity markets soared, creating a fertile dealmaking environment that few had foreseen at the start of the year. By the end, an impressive volume and variety of capital raisings had hit the markets, highlighting a voracious appetite for risk and complexity that bankers were only too happy to satisfy. Even in M&A.