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Investors are gobbling up the bank debt backing Del Monte's acquisition of certain businesses from H.J. Heinz, and they're especially fond of a $300 million senior secured floating rate note being syndicated to buysiders. "It looks like a bond, but is priced at LIBOR plus 41/ 4%, has the same collateral package as the bank debt and is noncallable for five years," said one buysider. This is 1/4% higher than the $500 million "B" piece, which had already gained between $200 and $300 million of commitments a day after launching last Thursday, said a banker familiar with the deal. The investor said institutions taking the "B" would also probably be eligible for the note.

The Italian small cap market is leading a recovery in marketed transactions, with one IPO closing this week and two more set to launch next week. Fiera Milano, Europe's second largest conference centre, will next week launch an IPO which should raise Eu200m-Eu300m. On Wednesday the company received approval for its listing from Consob, the Italian regulator.

The Republic of the Philippines struggled but closed its $500m February 2013 deal on Monday, after political farce at the end of last week nearly destroyed the issue. The sovereign had announced the swiftly arranged SEC registered bond issue last Thursday. But its plans almost collapsed when reports surfaced last Friday evening that four members of the cabinet, including secretary of finance Jose Camacho, had tendered their resignations to president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Swiss Life's share price leapt 7% after a firm timetable and underwriting agreement for its Sfr1.1bn recapitalisation was announced this week. The Swiss insurer now has guaranteed funds of Sfr856m from a fully underwritten rights issue, and it has the potential to raise a further Sfr250m depending on the success of a mandatory convertible that is being sold alongside the rights offering.

Russian investment bank United Financial Group has created an asset management team headed by Florian Fenner, who has been named managing partner of UFG Asset Management. Fenner joins from Unifund (Ireland) where he was an investment manager with responsibility for a Russian portfolio exceeding several hundred million dollars. Before coming to Russia in 1996, Fenner worked for German investment bank Schröder Münchmeyer Hengst.

Australia As the Australian securitisation market begins to wind down for the year end after a hectic few months, CMBS issuance is taking over from residential mortgage activity. Three deals should be priced over the next seven days.

Lead managers ABN Amro Rothschild and UBS Warburg are due to price the 600m-638m share initial public offering for Singapore's MobileOne (M1) on Monday. Syndicate members in Hong Kong predict a final issue price of S$1.30-S$1.35, versus a marketing range of S$1.25-S$1.52 per share.

Shares in newly listed China Oilfield Services (COS) rose as much as 14% at one point on Wednesday, when the stock began trading in Hong Kong. Investors had applied for many times the stock on offer in the relatively small Chinese privatisation, leading to strong follow-on demand in the secondary market. The shares closed yesterday (Thursday) at HK$1.87, up 12% from the final price of HK$1.68 set following the bookbuild.

Asia's story as a defensive investment choice continues to build momentum into the end of the year, spurred by a set of rating outlook improvements by Moody's early in the week. The agency improved the outlooks of the foreign currency ratings of India (Baa2/BB), Korea (A3/A-) Pakistan (B3/B-) and Thailand (Baa3/BBB-) from stable to positive, as part of its developing strategy that countries with strong foreign currency reserves could see their foreign currency ratings raised above their local currency ratings.

Vivendi Universal this week exercised the extension clause and the greenshoe on its mandatory convertible to raise Eu1bn from what has turned out to be a highly controversial deal. Vivendi managed to raise the money to shore up its balance sheet and fund its planned bid for Cegetel, an impressive feat considering how close it came to bankruptcy just a few months ago.

Envestra and Insurance Australia Group (IAG) demonstrated how tough Australia's market conditions are becoming as they struggled to get new issues away this week. Envestra, an Australian power utility, managed to arrange an Excel wrapped A$175m seven year deal on Monday. IAG followed, after having widened the pricing of its A$300m 10 year non-call five subordinated issue. The bond is Australia's first such sub debt deal from an insurance company.

China Hainan Meilan Airport made a solid debut in Hong Kong this week, with its shares rising 4.5% on their first day of trading on Monday. The stock closed at HK$3.90 yesterday (Thursday), having reached HK$4.15 on Tuesday.