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Hong Kong might have cause to celebrate the PWC report: 97% of the funds raised in the Greater China region were raised in the SAR. Yet it also has much to fear. Always an emotional and volatile market, the Hang Seng Index whipsawed its way through early May after global market wobbles.

At the end of May, representatives of many of the quasi-independent agencies set up to manage the government debts of OECD and emerging market sovereigns gathered in St Petersburg to compare experiences. There was much to discuss: the meeting came just as diverse pressures are building up on the debt management offices (DMOs).

The Italian bank has issued across all asset classes and is regarded as a significant and still progressive issuer.

Here are the bond issuers that have taken the market by storm over the past 12 months: from the IFC, punching above its weight within the World Bank group with its pioneering work in developing local bond markets, to Bayer’s use of innovative methods to maintain its credit profile while making acquisitions.

KBC Alternative Investment Management has suffered redemptions in its hedge fund assets that reportedly amount to 80%. The Belgian bank says the redemptions were made predominantly in 2005 by large institutional investors that were “no longer entirely satisfied with the performance of the hedge funds they had invested in, and decided to move out of convertible arbitrage and other relative value arbitrage strategies”. It says that the alternatives business had €2 billion in assets at the end of last year.

The ability of the CDO bid to distort the wider capital markets is significant – and growing.

Venezuela’s president continues to be a big fan of Argentine debt. Last month his government bought $239 million in 2012 dollar-denominated Boden bonds to take its investment in Argentine debt to more than $2.5 billion over the past two years. Argentina has relied heavily on Venezuela to help fund its financing needs and turned to its favourite creditor again. Recently Argentina has sold its debt through open sales but, following a spike in emerging market bond yields in mid-May, was unwilling to pay the higher rates. For Chávez, the purchases help boost his image as the strong man of Latin America.

The listed infrastructure fund, which is common in Australia, is gaining traction in Asia, with two new structures hitting the market in recent weeks.

The International Finance Corporation is only a small part of the World Bank organization, with a modest annual financing requirement. But it does pioneering work in developing local bond markets and its own benchmark dollar deals are of high quality.

“It’s so bloody liquid, it’s not even funny.”

Andy Abrahams, you’re rubbish...

Overvalued IPOs give cause for concern. Some bankers are becoming wary of damaging their reputation with rushed or over-valued Russian IPOs. Two banks dropped out of a deal last month and some analysts urge that caution be exercised in further IPOs.