Euromoney’s annual Asia company ranking is based on a survey of market analysts at leading banks and research institutes in Asia.

Pony Ma has built a Chinese internet company that competes on a global scale. It is no wonder that analysts rate it and its management so highly.

"When you have so much money, you can buy everything. But you cannot buy the French justice system. You will have to submit to its rules. The budget of the French justice system is less than the sum diverted by Mr Ablyazov from the Russian Federation alone."

What is the truth about Mukhtar Ablyazov? Is the former head of Kazakh bank BTA a fraudster on a par with Madoff and Stanford, as prosecutors from Russia and Ukraine to England and France claim? Or is he the persecuted victim of his home country’s political elite? One thing is for sure: the hunt for Ablyazov, and billions of dollars in assets he is alleged to have illegally appropriated, is one of the great sagas of our time.

Africa’s growth is one tribute to the former president’s legacy.

The development of the cerrado into arable land will benefit Brazil far more than its oil discoveries.

The country faces many problems in banking, real estate, consumption and demographics that cannot be quickly solved.

Asia Pacific’s moribund M&A market needs promised reforms in China to be effected as soon as possible.

Regulatory pressures mean private banking is less and less lucrative; the bigger players will benefit.

Fed tapering will prompt rises in yields for African hard-currency debt, but this doesn’t mean that countries with strong economic fundamentals should hold off issuing.

"What’s the future for dealer-to-client platforms? They’re going to go the same way as dealer chatrooms"

Small and medium-sized enterprises are meant to be the machine that drives Europe’s growth-free markets to recovery. But each country’s environment for SME funding remains even more disparate than their economies.

EBRD suggests bad-banks solution; Could help recapitalize weakest lenders

Allegations against RBS’s treatment of struggling small and medium-sized enterprises have once again cast a harsh light on banks’ treatment of these companies. While banks deal with zombie borrowers and tout loans at fat margins to stellar SME credits that don’t want them, it is SMEs in the middle ground that need more help.

Internationals take a majority of Energa; IPO slides in secondary market

US claims that Germany’s external surpluses are hindering global recovery are inaccurate and unjustified

Fiscal slippage, less FDI and lower export prices make Ghana among most vulnerable; Eurobond access still cheap

Transport costs have made the country’s agriculture industry uncompetitive. But new infrastructure projects should transform the opportunities some have seen in land values.

BNP Paribas beats Italian and Spanish banks for; Rabobank Polish unit; Commits to third-biggest bank in Ukraine

New financial services law on the way; Will constrain bank profits

Foreign buyers are attracted by news of an export-led recovery and privatizations. Getting them hitched for the long term, however, will require a boost in local macroeconomic demand, including dealing with banks’ residual bad debts.

China drives capital markets; Convertible bond issues stage a return

In 2008, Kuwait’s Gulf Bank was near death. Propped up by the state, it underwent repair and a refocus under a new CEO, Michel Accad. Job done, Accad is leaving. Analysts are on the alert for new strategies that undermine his good work.

A flurry of strategic sales by western investors and private equity firms kept corporate financiers busy last year. But these deals mask a problem: while financing is plentiful, sellers can’t bring themselves to be realistic on pricing.

Russian and western firms have shovelled millions into investment banks in Russia. Although their ranks are much diminished, they remain dug in: doggedly hopeful, despite little chance of a change in their prospects.

VTB’s chief executive likens his role in Russian banking to that of a surgeon in a state-owned clinic. He’s certainly carved out a strong position in corporate and investment banking. He insists he can operate successfully in Russia’s new state-controlled capitalism, while resisting political pressure. Can he make what critics call his ‘grandiose scheme’ for VTB work?

M&A looks set to grow in Europe; Citi hopes to build on a breakthrough year

If convention becomes the rule, then the long, boozy business lunch in banking and financial markets reached outlaw status some time ago.

In one of the many rather surreal consequences of the financial crisis, banks are taking advantage of the QE-driven chase for yield among investors to sell off the very assets that caused all the chaos in the first place. The latest example of this is the public auction by the Dutch state of part of the ING Illiquid Assets Back-up Facility (IABF) that was put in place in 2009.

Concerns for mid-tier banks as AQR looms; Likely that additional provisioning needed