After spending more than two years as Wall Street's basket case, investors appeared to acknowledge last week that Citigroup is a very different company today than it was in 2008. With the stock starting to rise strongly – albeit from a very low base – the question is: Has Citigroup got its mojo back? Christian Murray reports.

The market for hybrid capital reopened with a vengeance last week, with significant deals from Rabobank and Citigroup. The surge of hybrid issuance puts paid to worries that the market would languish while the Basel Committee deliberated over how to treat such instruments. Investors don't much care what the regulators decide, they just want the yield on offer. Matthew Attwood and Timothy Sifert report.

Regulators have finally realised that the disappearance of a large part of the structured finance investor base leaves the European banking system facing a huge funding shortfall. As a result, they are casting round for ideas that might help fill the gap and encourage investors back to securitisations, with the FSB taking a lead. Jean-Marc Poilpre and William Thornhill report.

Sovereign CDS positions are being unwound amid attempts to curb trading, causing some contracts to trade through comparable bond benchmarks for the first time. Despite the new opportunities associated with a shift in pricing dynamics, investors remain cautious of a market that is facing an uncertain future and warn that a ban could create volatility spikes in other asset classes. Helen Bartholomew reports.

After months of negotiations, AIG has finally agreed to sell Alico, its international business, to MetLife. Given the number of parties involved and the intricacies of the business, the process was far from easy. But with relationship lender support and five banks backing the deal with a US$5bn bridge loan, the transaction is expected to close smoothly. Michelle Sierra Laffitte reports.

A rising default rate and a break-up of telecoms provider Willcom after lenders failed to agree an out of court deal are the latest evidence that Japan is moving from a tradition of indulgent banks supporting stressed debtors to a more aggressive and radical restructuring environment. Mia Stubbs reports.

In a year that had previously seen just five EEMEA sovereigns come to market, three arrived within a few hours last Thursday. Israel, Romania and Turkey offered varied concessions as they raised almost US$4.5bn from cash-rich investors that confirmed their appetite for dollar and euro government paper. John Weavers reports.

The Indian government is notoriously stingy when it comes to the fees it pays on privatisations. But it excelled itself last week by setting aside just US$2,500 to pay six banks to arrange a sell-down of NMDC stock worth up to US$2.5bn. Few will have sympathy for banks that agreed to work for what is in effect a loss, but the government's low-balling has a real effect on the quality of its deals. Shankar Ramakrishnan reports.

For many real estate investment trusts, the past year has resembled guerrilla warfare: attack the capital structure wherever possible, retreat, and re-engage at a later date. More recently, some have been beginning to reap the benefits of taking a frontal assault to term out the maturities. Notably, convertible bonds, a source of cheap capital the industry once feasted upon, have returned as a solution. Stephen Lacey reports.