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Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, is confident that its exceptional financial position will allow its IPO to withstand geopolitical shocks such as the drone attack on the company’s oil facilities last Saturday, write Sam Kerr, Mariam Meskin and Francesca Young.

The renewed dovishness of the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB) may consign both Europe and the US to the same fate as Japan when it experienced its lost decades of stagnant growth. Central banks will find the tools they’ve used since the financial crisis have simply worn out when the next one hits.

Site visits for loan deals are often a bit of a bore. Unless the site was a brewery or distillery where we could sample the product, myself and my peers usually sent minions on the tour instead.

GlobalCapital has revealed the results of its Sustainable and Responsible Capital Markets Awards 2019. The Awards gave honours to three debut sovereign issuers: the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Chile, investment firm Amundi, and banks including Crédit Agricole, HSBC and ING.

Ukraine’s wildcard new president Volodymyr Zelensky has been making all the market-friendly noises investors could wish to hear, turning the country into a darling of emerging market portfolio managers. But there’s a wasp at the picnic: one oligarch's quest to regain his former bank is threatening the country’s economic future.

Sirius Minerals is in big trouble, and that means big losses ahead for the mainly retail investor base, who saw their shares dive 50% on Tuesday morning. Since the crisis, regulators have strained every nerve to keep complex, risky products out of retail hands — while retail investors have merrily piled into loss-making tech stocks and cryptocurrencies, and gambled on extractive industries. How much protection do they need?

The public is increasingly conscious of environmental challenges facing the ocean economy, and the capital markets are taking note. Industries using the oceans are numerous and fragmented, making allocating money in a sustainable way challenging. But some routes are open for investors looking to improve activities involving plastics, shipping and fishing. Jasper Cox reports.

China’s move to remove the quota limits on the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) and renminbi QFII (RQFII) schemes could help in the long-term development of the country’s financial market. But this is not nearly enough. If the regulators want to see some serious change, they need to tackle two key hurdles facing foreign investors.

The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s (HKEX’s) proposition to acquire the London Stock Exchange Group last week was nothing short of bewildering. Instead of showcasing the HKEX’s ambition with such a bid, the move has only served as an embarrassing reminder of the bourse’s shortfalls.

In this round-up, China’s industrial profit growth further declined, Chinese state media has hinted at more peacemaking gestures to the US and the London Stock Exchange (LSE) rejected the Hong Kong bourse’s acquisition offer in a strongly worded letter.

GlobalCapital Asia is pleased to invite pitches for our annual capital markets and investment banking awards, which reward the most impressive transactions and investment banks of 2019.

Congratulations to the winners of GlobalCapital's Covered Bond Awards 2019.