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One of my favourite parts of Christmas, other than Tai Tai taking a break from chiding me about my drinking, is the Queen's Speech. I may not hold the same place of importance in the hearts of Brits around the world, but I would like to think that I have similar eloquence — which is why I have composed my own speech for you, dear readers.

GlobalCapital China, previously GlobalRMB, is pleased to announce the winners of its annual capital markets awards, honouring the banks, companies and individuals that have made the biggest contribution to bridging the gap between China’s markets and the rest of the world. In part one of the awards, we reveal the most impressive issuers in the FIG, corporate and SSA categories.

Five years after its launch, GlobalRMB has now rebranded as GlobalCapital China. But while our name has changed, our coverage focus has not.

In part three of GlobalCapital Asia's awards results announcements, we reveal the winning bond deals across a variety of categories. In addition, we also name the Best G3 Bond House, Best High Yield Bond House and the winner of the Best House for SRI Financing.

Amid a grim outlook for their profitability, European banks have been looking at all manner of ways to cut costs. Bank capital investors should not be surprised if their next target is debt interest. That may mean banks cannot be relied on to call bonds as expected, just to maintain good relations with investors.

Capital markets enjoyed a euphoric high after Boris Johnson's Conservative Party won a convincing victory in Thursday's general election, bringing what many hoped would be clarity to the long wrangles over Brexit. It lasted two working days. The hardball approach Johnson is taking to EU trade negotiations is a severe letdown, which is likely to make 2020 as unsettling as the last two years.

Retail investors who bought two minibond issues from Chilango, a London-based Mexican food chain, are set to lose their money, with either a 90% writedown or debt-for-equity swap heading their way. This was grimly predictable, based on a cursory glance at the deal documents, but the issue shows how messed up our investor protection rules are.

Rising defaults by Chinese firms onshore have triggered sell-offs in numerous parts of the dollar bond market over the past few weeks. But international investors appear too complacent about the health of some of the largest debt issuers from the mainland. More scepticism is needed.

In the second part of our results announcements, we reveal the winning equity deals and banks, including the Best Follow-on/Accelerated Bookbuild, Best Equity-Linked Deal, Best IPO, Best ECM Deal and Best ECM House. Our congratulations to all the winners!

In this round-up, the US and China set terms for the phase one trade deal, Chinese industrial production grew more than expected and the People’s Bank of China will sell Rmb10bn ($1.43bn) of bills in Hong Kong this week.

GlobalCapital Asia spent the last two months talking to banks and their clients to determine the most impressive capital markets transactions and advisers across Asia ex-Japan in 2019. We are pleased to begin our awards announcements in the loan market.

There are fundamental reasons for UK assets to be revalued upwards, analysts believe. The powerful majority achieved by Boris Johnson's Conservatives tilts the UK towards a Trump-like market-friendly, fiscally generous patch. But the reality of Brexit cannot be ignored for long.