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On June 15, and after months of anticipation, qualified foreign investors were for the first time able to directly invest on the Saudi Stock Exchange. GlobalCapital's Olivier Holmey and Jon Hay sat down with its CEO, Adel Saleh Al-Ghamdi, in London to discuss the reforms that have been introduced, and those still to come.

Northern Rock Asset Management (NRAM) has announced plans to redeem its remaining two covered bonds following a successful buyback in March.

Nokia’s €1.5bn loan refinancing is in syndication and due to close before the end of the month, but opinions remain split among bankers about Nokia's credit and planned merger with Alcatel-Lucent.

Spain’s 10 year borrowing cost reached its highest level at auction in almost a year on Thursday, despite the sovereign’s yields falling in secondaries after hitting a year-to-date high on Monday.

Douglas Holding, the German perfumery chain, received a favourable initial response from investors at its Wednesday bank meeting as it launched the €1bn loan portion of its buyout debt.

Host Europe, the German online hosting provider, has slashed margins on €406m-equivalent of leveraged loans, as an oversubscribed order book showed there was life yet in repricings.

A Cambodian borrowing has hit the offshore syndicated loan market. The $80m deal for Khmer Brewery has three banks at the helm, which are understood to be targeting banks that have an existing presence in the southeast Asian nation.

US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen made comments on Wednesday, which many interpreted as indicating a likely rate increase later this year, but syndicate officials are expecting this to have only a limited effect on EM bond trading and new issue supply.

Moody's has for the first time in seven years raised the outlook of Spain’s banking system to positive from negative as a result of a recovering economy.

Nasdaq-listed Ctrip.com International has opened books on a $1bn dual tranche convertible bond, split into a five put three and a 10 put five, sole bookrun by JP Morgan.

Canadian insurance company and financial services provider Manulife Financial Corp started drumming up interest for its $400m real estate investment trust (Reit) IPO in Singapore on June 15, paving the way for a number of firsts for the city-state — the first sizeable listing this year, the first Reit IPO in 2015, as well as the first Reit with US assets.

Asia ex-Japan's primary dollar bond market was paralysed this week by the twin terrors of a Federal Open Market Committee meeting and an escalation of concern about the Greek economy. The market's usual June exuberance was nowhere to be seen, and many bankers are not expecting activity to resurface until next month at the earliest, writes Narae Kim.