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DZ Bank, the central bank of Germany's cooperative banking sector, is preparing two securitisations for member institutions. Both deals are small but innovative - one pools residential mortgages from six banks, the other is the country's first synthetic leasing deal. Provide-VR 2002-1 is a synthetic residential mortgage backed deal from DG Hypo and five other cooperative banks. The transaction will total only around Eu600m, which is relatively small for this well known programme sponsored by Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau. Only a small number of banks were interested in this first multi-seller Provide deal.

WestHyp this week became the latest German mortgage lender to finance its commercial loan portfolio through securitisation, with a 90% funded synthetic transaction. The German market has traditionally been dominated by synthetic structures, of which funded notes usually form a small part. But while promises of true sale structures are yet to bear fruit, structurers have responded to increased demand for credit linked notes from investors.

The bank debt of Encompass Services was said to have traded at 27 this week, down from the 35 level where traders had quoted the paper last week. The trade comes as the company announced that a rights offering, which incorporated a $35 million equity investment from Apollo Management, is not likely to be completed. In exchange for a second amendment to its bank loan, the company had pledged $31 million from the equity injection to bank debt holders. Encompass, which would have been in default under its bank agreement because the conditions were not met, has received a waiver until Oct. 15. Calls to Darren Miller, cfo, were not returned by press time.

Collateralized debt obligations take another big step forward in Asia with the launch of a synthetic portfolio for on-sale to investors, with reports from the Asiamoney team.

HSBC

Poaching alone will no longer meet the anticipated boom in demand for executive talent in post-WTO China. And as compensation packages shrink, headhunters are trawling further afield for rainmakers and pathfinders. Pauline Loong reports.

Dr Michael Cullen is New Zealand's finance minister and, following the Labour party's re-election in August, the country's new deputy prime minister. When Asiamoney met with him in Hong Kong, he appeared content with his party's win and well aware of the challenges ahead. Certainly, Cullen is talking big – from the rate of New Zealand's economic growth to the filming of the award winning film, The Lord of the Rings, in the country. (He is keen to note that the pint-sized hobbits were the result of special effects, rather than a surplus of short people in New Zealand: “Most of those people are [really] front row forwards,” he quips.)

Transparency and accountability have become wordwide corporate mantras post-Enron. But Asia has seen it all before. Five years after the 1997 financial crisis, many countries and their companies have realized that good corporate governance makes good financial sense. Poll compiled by Olivia Chow and Robert Law. Report by Fiona Haddock.

Banking on Japan

The trouble with financial acquisitions is that the major assets of target institutions – the people – have two legs and will walk out if they do not like the new set-up. This happened on a big scale at Taiwan brokerage Grand Cathay, which was bought by China Development Industrial Bank some months ago. It was the latest in a wave of industry consolidation triggered by new government legislation that allows the setting up of financial holding companies.

Dr Kongkiat Opaswongkarn, veteran investment banker and collector of fine antiques is in an ebullient mood. That's because Asset Plus, the merchant bank which he founded almost 10 years ago has just raised Bt375 million (approximately US$8.7 million) on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). Despite the downturn in share prices caused by widespread fears of war in Iraq and a slowdown in the US economy, shares in Asset Plus closed up by 14% on the opening day of trading, although they have since fallen back. “Given the circumstances, we are very satisfied,” he says from his plush 27th floor office offering magnificent views over Bangkok's sprawling skyline “Book building took place on August 28 when the index was 10% higher. And yet our stock continues to trade around the IPO level.”