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Kenneth Lay, deputy treasurer and director

Korea Electric Power Corp (Kepco) and the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) are set to be the first Asian borrowers to arrange deals from a revitalised Asian bond pipeline. Kepco embarked on the roadshow for its highly anticipated $650m three and five year global issue yesterday (Thursday), while IBK waits in the wings with its own $350m-$500m transaction.

Australia Several Australian equity and hybrid transactions are in the pipeline. The long awaited IPO of Laminex may emerge in the coming weeks. UBS Warburg is arranging that deal, which could be worth around A$300m and give Laminex a market capitalisation of roughly A$450m.

The Australian securitisation pipeline was dominated by domestic issues this week, as three residential mortgage deals and one agricultural loan transaction hit the market. Suncorp Metway, Australia's sixth largest bank, will on Monday price a A$750m ($413.55m) domestic issue of first lien residential mortgages.

The forthcoming 707m share Bank Thai privatisation issue promises to serve as an appetiser for the far larger issue from Krung Thai Bank, due in November. The Bank Thai offer will include an international offer as part of the institutional bookbuild. ING will act as the sole international selling agent, under the overall direction of the two joint lead managers, Siam Commercial Bank and Bank Thai Securities.

Matthew Perrin, the 30 year old head of Billabong International, on Wednesday evening sold more than half his stake in the Australian surfwear maker for A$66.4m ($36m). The move caused the shares yesterday (Thursday) to register their biggest single day drop since listing in 2000. The 8m share sale was handled by Macquarie Bank, which was not available for comment yesterday. The placement is understood to have been launched after the market close on Wednesday and priced at A$8.30 per share, a 7% discount to the market close of A$8.92 that day.

AMP Diversified Property Trust is set to open the doors of Australia's domestically focused trust bond market to offshore investors by launching the first ever Australian property trust issue that will gain withholding tax exemption. The A1/A rated A$140m October 2007 deal will be priced on Monday. Bankers at joint lead managers Deutsche Bank and UBS Warburg said that AMP is looking to target offshore investors because a glut of property trust issuance this year has saturated domestic investor portfolios.

Arranger Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp has completed the ¥10bn 365 day revolving credit for Kohnan Shoji. The borrower specialises in the sale of lifestyle goods. Among the participants are Sumitomo Trust, Senshu Bank and Kiyo Bank, with a number of other undisclosed banks also joining the deal. Proceeds are for general corporate purposes. Signing was in Tokyo on August 26.

In a direct swap, JP Morgan's Sjoerd Leenart and Michael Ridley are exchanging jobs on Monday, with Ridley taking over EMEA investment grade syndicate and Leenart becoming co-head of corporate debt capital markets origination. They will be based in London. For Ridley, it is a return to a business he knows well - he joined Chase Manhattan in 1998 and by April of that year was made head of international syndicate.

JP Morgan and Bank One have clinched the mandate to arrange a jumbo plain vanilla loan for the world's second largest reinsurer Swiss Re. The triple-A rated company has mandated the two banks to arrange its $3bn 364 day revolver. Swiss Re will use funds to issue standby letters of credit.

Mandated arranger KBC Bank has completed a $65m three year pre-export finance facility for crude oil for OJSC Karazhanbasmunai. Hypovereinsbank and BayernLB have joined as co-arrangers and Credit Suisse First Boston is a lead manager. Glencore International is the offtaker for the deal.