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When Ric Smith, Australia's ambassador to Indonesia, regretfully told Jakarta-based Australians at the end of September that he was leaving his post early to take up a new position at home, the envoy could only find a couple of minor irritants to point to in his farewell speech. Some Indonesians were worried that a plan by Australia to use Christmas Island – an isolated spot close to Java – as a launch pad for commercial satellites could result in rockets or other space junk falling on their country. No chance of that, he said. Other Indonesians had claimed that international lobbying by Australia to reduce unfair agricultural subsidies was aimed at Indonesian rice farmers. Not at all, Smith said. Europe, the US and Japan were the guilty parties.

China's domestic institutions have five years to prepare for the opening of the country's financial markets to foreign competition. It's a daunting task, and a large part of it will be shouldered by Wu Xiaoling – the assistant governor at China's central bank and a leading advocate of financial reform. She spoke to Asiamoney's Pauline Loong.

A dearth of deals is pitting the region's lawyers against one another – especially in Korea and China, where the bulk of new deals are arising. In the tug-of-war for business are standards slipping? Fiona Haddock reports.

Korea Development Bank is preparing to bring a $750m two tranche issue into the market, which will include the first senior 10 year bonds from a Korean state borrower since 1998. The bank's issue could be followed by a spate of subordinated deals from other financial institutions. KDB mandated Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and JP Morgan as joint lead managers on the 144A Reg S transaction last Friday.

In a surprise move, China Telecom yesterday (Thursday) delayed setting the price for its 16.8bn share IPO sale until next week. The news has prompted speculation that either the size of the deal will be reduced or that it will be postponed for some months. However, the company said that it has a feasible transaction structure, but that it needs regulatory clearance for the new transaction from Hong Kong, Beijing and the US SEC. It hopes to re-launch the deal in the next few days.

Merrill Lynch and Nomura on Monday priced the sale of ¥58.5bn of Dentsu shares disposed of by five core shareholders. The deal was priced at a slim 2% discount amid uncertain market conditions in Japan and for advertising and media companies worldwide. Japan's largest advertising company spent two weeks on a roadshow to help the sale of 145,000 shares by Kyodo News, Jiji Press, Mitsubishi Trust & Banking, UFJ Bank/UJF Trust Bank and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

Australia The fate of the Australian government bond market is in the balance. At the launch of a paper about the future of the bond market, treasurer Peter Costello said the decision on whether to shut it down will be made early in 2003. At the same time he reiterated his opinion that the government should pay all of its outstanding debt if it is able to do so.

Australia UBS Warburg on Wednesday night (Sydney time) completed a A$161.1m bookbuild placement for Centro Properties Group, selling 45m stapled securities at A$3.58.

National Power Corp (Napocor) was left struggling to keep its plans to raise $750m in dollar and yen bonds intact after the World Bank's decision to let Argentina delay payments on its guaranteed bonds caused Standard & Poor's (S&P) to cut its ratings on supranational-backed deals. Following the World Bank's decision, Filipino government officials said that they are considering concentrating on the yen deal because the pricing has not been affected.

Standard Chartered completed its dual primary listing with placement yesterday (Thursday), raising the equivalent of $327m. The stock rose by more than 3.5% in morning trading. Goldman Sachs and Cazenove arranged the listing and placement. However, the deal could hardly be described as a blockbuster. The stock was priced at HK$84 per share, a discount of 2% to last Friday's London close of £7.08.

Australia Westpac last Friday (October 25) priced a A$313m RMBS for Australian lender Homeloans Ltd.

Metropolitan Bank & Trust (Metrobank) this week awarded UBS Warburg the mandate to lead manage a new $100m-$150m subordinated bond issue, as Bank Negara Indonesia launched a roadshow for its own $75m sub debt deal. The transactions will have a 10 year non-call five structure, and are the first deals to emerge from southeast Asia since the terrorist attacks on Bali two weeks ago. As such, bankers said that the international bid for each issue is likely to be fairly limited.