Despite the eurozone volatility, frontier market bonds could outperform emerging market sovereign credit in hard currency, Exotix, a frontier market boutique, has argued.

Rising unemployment – even from a high base – and growing mortgage default fears have added to market concerns over Spanish solvency.

Opposition from domestic regulators suggests the July target to fully liberalize Russia’s domestic bond market for foreign investors is unlikely to be met, said analysts.

Oaktree struggles in aftermarket; valuation a challenge in volatile environment

Includes Bonds, Equities, Loans, M&A, MTN, Project Finance

Former Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack is to be appointed to the board of Lending Club, a US crowdlending platform that has advanced more than $500 million in loans via its website since its inception

Qatar Petroleum’s finance unit, which plays a key role in overseeing debt raised by the Qatari state, says it is not concerned about overleveraging. But as Qatar embarks on investment in infrastructure and industry, its work is more important than ever.

As alternative managers struggle to make absolute returns in difficult markets, they’re trying to get their investors to judge them on relative performance measures. It’s a fundamental change for the industry, but can it halt an expected flood of redemptions?

It is hard to find an asset class for which equity and debt appetite differ quite so starkly as they do for infrastructure. Only real estate really compares. While projects struggle to raise sufficient debt at any price, equity sponsorship is an embarrassment of riches. “The number of infrastructure equity funds on the road grows each year,” observes Richard Abadie, global head of infrastructure at PwC in London. “Furthermore, funds have significant amounts of dry powder – this is consistently the case in infrastructure.”

The eurozone enjoys its strongest quarter since March 2010 in the latest results of Euromoney’s country risk survey, as European policymakers finally come to grips with the crisis. But lower scores for Greece and France suggest Europe is not out of the woods yet. Andrew Mortimer reports

The agency has hit the headlines with its aggressive ratings actions against western sovereign credits. But those decisions, like the man behind the agency, do not hold up against the simplest scrutiny.

Outstanding bank lending to local government financing vehicles have reached an estimated $1.7 trillion – with up to 40% of the loans at high risk of default. So what’s a panicking Beijing to do? Force the market to pay for the state’s mistakes, of course…

EU leaders have been very good at identifying key infrastructure projects across the region, but less good at coming up with cost-effective ways to fund them. Faced with an unrecognizable bank lending market and the collapse of the monoline guarantors, a structure whereby the debt capital markets can be persuaded to fund these projects is needed more urgently than ever.

In a recent speech, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke delivered a paean to 21st-century central banking. But investors confronted by extreme and unorthodox policy with uncertain outcomes are returning to their own version of the gold standard.

Four heavyweights invest; Experts react with disbelief

Bolivia has mandated Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs as it bids to issue its first international bond in nearly 100 years.

Cleantech offers limited scope for investors; Resource-efficient conventional companies top performers

The world needs a bank with strong backing and a proper network in the frontier markets of Africa and the Arab world.

Clause activation likely to be deemed a credit event; questions over delivery of bonds in auction process

Expansion in the region to take advantage of rapid economic growth and the opening of operations elsewhere in the world are core themes among Latin America’s best-managed companies.

Euromoney’s seventh Latin American company ranking is based on a survey of market analysts at leading banks and research institutes in Latin America. Respondents were asked to nominate the top three companies in each of the countries or sectors they covered, bearing in mind market strength, profitability, growth potential, quality of management and earnings.

Facebook’s pending multi-billion dollar IPO is raising the spectre of a new tech bubble. Bankers argue that today’s tech and social media boom is different to that of the late 1990s. But the competition for mandates is more pressing than ever.

As alternative managers struggle to make absolute returns in difficult markets, they’re trying to get their investors to judge them on relative performance measures. It’s a fundamental change for the industry, but can it halt an expected flood of redemptions?

Private bankers who want the highest level of market intelligence should enquire about our new Global Private Banking Review.

In June, after nearly two years of work, Indonesia-based telecom company PT Natrindo Telepon Seluler (Axis, now known as PT Axis Telekom Indonesia) completed a financing that is notable for the amount raised, its innovative nature and its complexity.