The investment arm of the world's largest insurer, Allianz, is stepping up its efforts to arrange infrastructure financing deals in the UK for distribution to itself and other institutional investors.

Vietnam’s third trip to the international bond markets in a decade became one of the most oversubscribed Asian bond offerings ever.

Santander's UK operation successfully launched its euro unsecured bond at a time when other banks were looking at covered bonds.

Daiwa's European mergers and acquisitions arm, DC Advisory, enabled the private equity owners of media and PR monitoring service Gorkana to find the ideal industry buyer.

JP Morgan provided Chinese private equity fund Hony with advice on its first foray into the UK market and a financing package that did not rely on Chinese banks, to become preferred bidder for the Pizza Express restaurant chain.

Investors are willing to diversify into African corporate debt, despite emerging market volatility, as was proved by Goldman Sachs' $400m Tier 2 transaction for Access Bank.

The first Italian initial public offering of 2014 cemented confidence in UniCredit's unusual partnership model with Kepler Cheuvreux in equity capital markets.

When fears over a Chinese slowdown and the US interest rate cycle coupled with domestic political uncertainty to hit the Turkish lira, BNP Paribas proposed a long-term bond to re-establish the sovereign's credentials.

Tighter secondary market liquidity and more volatile interest rates make for a more challenging environment for the highest-rated issuers, but that has not stopped Deutsche Bank from leading two milestone deals already in 2014.