January 2019

In 2018, Montenegro was named as one of the countries most at risk from over-indebtedness to China for the €809 million Bar-Boljare highway, dubbed a ‘road to nowhere’, but in Podgorica, enthusiasm for the project is still running high.

After a few years of underperformance, India’s property market is back on form. Prices are rising in commercial and residential real estate, with demand driven in large part by inward investment from blue-chip US corporates. The next big step is listed onshore real estate investment trusts, set to hit the market in 2019.

The opening up of central Asia’s largest market after a decade of isolation has sparked intense interest in its underdeveloped banking sector among fund managers and regional groups alike.

When Sri Lanka, a key link in the Belt and Road Initiative, sold China a deep-water port in exchange for debt alleviation, it raised eyebrows around the world – yet Colombo continues to borrow from Beijing even as its fiscal situation worsens.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative is trumpeted as a ‘win-win’ for all, but is it everything it’s cracked up to be? Or are countries on its route, wary of Beijing’s motives and fearful of being trapped by debt to China’s big development banks, losing faith in the plan?

Warning sirens are sounding about the level of debt Djibouti owes to China for Belt and Road projects. The local view is that they need the money and China is the country that is offering it. But the fate of the Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway represents the financial challenges of BRI in a 756-kilometre microcosm.

January 2019

In each month of our anniversary coverage, we highlight the themes and markets that have defined the past five decades

To bring about fundamental change and to find long-lasting solutions, isn’t always pretty and it is certainly not always a win-win in the financial sense.

Getting it wrong and eventually getting it right

A front-row seat to a time of turmoil

When Euromoney interviewed a Communist icon

Tearing the mask away

March of the heavyweights

A man of words who transformed Euromoney

Storm in a Scandinavian teacup

A trip east highlights the hubris of western capital

The successor to Mario Draghi as president of the European Central Bank (ECB) may provide more support than expected to corporate credit markets if borrowing conditions deteriorate.

As Mario Draghi begins his victory lap before stepping down as president of the ECB in October 2019 and his colleagues get down to the serious business of competing for the succession, they will no doubt give thanks that they do not face trial by Twitter in the same way as Federal Reserve chairman Jay Powell.

It’s that time of year when Euromoney doles out the awards that no one in the industry wants to win.

European capital markets bankers’ fortunes in 2019 will turn on how quickly the withdrawal of the central bank bid can be offset by the return of a real market.

Santander’s Brazilian bank took lots of deserved acclaim when Santander released its global third-quarter results, but keep an eye on Mexico.

Judge throws out claim in English court; lender on track for first full-year profit since nationalization.

Frequent issuers on both sides of the Atlantic are exploring new ways to concentrate their high-quality liabilities into fewer more-liquid bonds to avoid paying a premium as markets sell off.

Bankers are nothing if not excellent at spinning events to their advantage: 2018 was no exception…

Financial Conduct Authority lady sings the blues as RBS's GRG reality revealed.

The damage done to mid-cap equities coverage by unbundling research is ever harder to ignore. It will not be easy to lower this self-imposed barrier to improved capital-markets access for fast-growing businesses in Europe.

The decision of Singapore regulators not to allow Noble to re-list wrecks a 19-month restructuring process and points towards insolvency.

The utility’s sustainability performance will partly determine the cost of servicing its new bank credit line, with any savings going to charity.