Amid a trade slowdown, IPOs, the issuance of convertible bonds, and cross-border M&A, including in the Middle East, are set to continue.

Philippines’ Aboitiz Equity Ventures has agreed for BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners to take a 40% stake in Aboitiz InfraCapital; the Philippines government is ramping up infrastructure investment.

The Chinese AI chip maker soared on its debut as the Hong Kong banking and law firm communities expect another busy ECM year in the Special Administrative Region.

Sydney-based Ellis has been leading the Australia & New Zealand rates sales franchise and will continue in this role.

The Standard Chartered supported issuance follows the Qatar National Bank’s $500m offering in November.

FinanceAsia's editorial team picks five of the biggest stories from the year across M&A, ECM, digital assets and Trump's tariffs.

DK Bank in Gelephu Mindfulness City will commence trading of the gold tokens on December 17. A second phase will see a listing of the tokens, which are backed by Bhutan's reserves, on more exchanges and venues for secondary trading.

The benchmark will track the performance of 100 of the largest Hong Kong-listed companies across six themes. In another move, China's E Fund Management is set to launch an ETF for the index.

The Astana International Financial Centre was established to support a modernised finance sector and capital market in central Asia’s largest economy. AIFC’s governor Renat Bekturov spoke to FA about the financial hub's progress, challenges and ambition.

Soonwook Kwon was most recently managing director and branch manager at UBS in Seoul.