Revenues up; costs down; Has autonomy and capital

The IPO market appears to be picking up, yet overall investment banking activity in the kingdom remains subdued, especially for international players. Despite that, the market’s potential means most will stick around.

Lebanon’s banks remain a bastion of stability in a country that hardly has a government and is hurt by regional turmoil. However, in its ventures abroad, the sector has not always had immediate success.

The increasingly litigious Libyan Investment Authority has turned its attention from Goldman Sachs to Société Générale, as it tries to get money back from investment advice it received in 2008. Court documents shed light on a mysterious Panama-based company – whose function for the LIA and the Gaddafi administration has long puzzled observers – which is alleged to have received $58 million in bribes from the French bank.

The mortgage market in Saudi Arabia is about to get a lot better for consumers and a lot more competitive for banks. Since late last year the central bank, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (Sama), has been issuing home-finance licences to banks and non-bank institutions, the latest stage in a long-running effort to implement a mortgage law.

For investors, the continent is not the high-debt, high-distress place it was a decade ago. It has come a long way in a short time. Now it is 54 countries that are generally fast growing and with single-digit inflation.

Gaining diversified access to the African growth story can be difficult when local capital markets are limited and illiquid. Private equity should help fill the gaps.

Ghana's currency and Eurobond yields took a big hit last week as markets continued to take fright over its twin deficits. Here's the sorry tale in pictures.

Goldman’s controversial relationship with the Libyan Investment Authority was brought back into focus this week after a former executive of Palladyne International Asset Management brought a claim against the Dutch firm describing it as a ‘money-laundering operation’ for the former Gaddafi regime.

The founder of the budding Ghana Commodities Exchange, having established the successful Ethiopian platform, reveals the commodity-rich west African country’s grand ambitions and the benefits of a consortium-led model for the new exchange, which is set to launch in 2015.

Nigeria seems to be ripe for mobile money, but the concept has yet to take off compared with Kenya, in part because of bank lobbying. Bob Collymore, Safaricom’s CEO, tells Euromoney why Nigeria is lagging behind.

Rising risk scores since 2013 are providing investors with encouragement that the worst is over for the troubled region. Yet sovereign risk remains heightened in familiar territories, with the Syrian turmoil persisting, leaving Gulf states and Israel as relative oases of safety.

International companies are less likely to invest in India than Iran due to the seemingly more onerous regulatory and tax regime of the world’s largest democracy, according to a pulse survey conducted by Euromoney.

The roller coaster in emerging markets threatens one of the few consistent bright spots for investment banks since the global financial crisis. If the rout spreads, they could be faced with a sharp decline in FICC trading and a collapse in deal flow. But bankers remain remarkably sanguine. Could this be the sell-off that finally proves the EM asset class has come of age?

Pravin Gordhan says that he has given a counter-cyclical boost to South Africa and built up its underlying growth potential. But with capital flowing out, what more can the finance minister do to cut the country’s twin deficits?

Sells London markets business; Africa build-out continues

Bourse set to launch this year; elecoms listings in doubt.

Although market players discern substantial differences between the fragile-five economies – notably in their current-account profiles – they remain, as a group, especially vulnerable to domestic and international market shocks, says bearish analysts.

Nigerian central bank independence passed away this week, according to traders, after a long battle with government officials that culminated in the downfall of the celebrated reformer Lamido Sanusi.

Emerging markets (EMs) are showing greater differentiation in risk correlations, despite the media hype, but notable risk correlations persist elsewhere for currency markets, especially economies tied to the commodities sector.

As market doubts grow over the government’s plan to stem the free fall in the cedi, Ghanaian president John Dramani Mahama defends the actions, pledges reforms to rebalance the economy and sounds the alarm over boom/bust commodity cycles.

Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania – new African producers – should not be complacent on Dutch-disease risks, warns Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development Bank and respected economist.

Investment authority says bank implemented trades that it didn't understand, costing it $1 billion.

The sovereign is now on a par with Botswana, signalling overdue credit-rating action.

With EM currencies and assets remaining highly volatile amid the recent market sell-off, we ask three Euromoney Country Risk experts whether a wider economic crisis is on the horizon.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.