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International investors in Polish conglomerate Elektrim have had a rollercoaster ride this year, as the company has striven to ditch a rag-bag of investments and concentrate on the ever popular telecoms market. The strong prospects for telecoms growth in Poland have attracted big foreign competitors and Elektrim has found itself shifting its alliances, first partnering with Deutsche Telekom in mobile telephony, then falling out with the German giant. In the process it came close to financial crisis. But new CEO Barbara Lundberg has struck a deal with Vivendi of France, that seems to have saved the day, for now. Ian Dawson reports

This year's poll of polls reveals a shuffling of the pack among the leading firms in the capital raising, trading, advisory and risk management worlds. A synthesis of all polls run by Euromoney in 1999 evaluates those firms which have real strength across the board.

It's clear why Vodafone conquered Mannesmann. Vodafone won because it paid to win, using its powerful stock. Its shareholders supported its share price and thereby its bid because they believed its story: that big is best in the globalizing telecoms game. And they feared failure might burst the telecoms bubble. What's less understood is how Mannesmann lost. It gave away the early momentum through bungling, suffered splits in its defence advisory team, and came within an inch of winning the hand of a French rescuer, only to hesitate. Klaus Esser made Mannesmann a top company, but his risk-taking triggered this contest and shaped its outcome. We also reveal the battle that raged beneath the surface between Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley during the biggest hostile takeover of all time. Marcus Walker reports

It's been a tough year for many borrowers in the international capital markets. Corporate issuers in particular have fallen quickly from grace, having been the market's darlings a year ago. Now fixed income investors across the world are increasingly risk-averse. Certain sectors of the primary markets, US high yield for example, are very difficult to access. In response to these troubles, many of those borrowers that bankers and investors have nominated to be awarded for their efforts in the past 12 months have reverted to a strategy first made popular by Fannie Mae two years ago. They are striving to produce large, liquid benchmark issues that will at least give investors the comfort that they can easily trade in and out.