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Wireless names have firmed up in the secondary loan market in the path of industry-bellwether Nextel Communications, which crawled up roughly 10 points over the last month and was trading at 88 1/4 last week. Traders said a study by the Yankee Group that claimed cell phone usage would double by 2006 also contributed to the positive run.

Jackson Chou, credit derivatives trader at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo, has left the firm, according to market officials. The reasons for his departure could not be determined by press time but officials noted that Chou has relocated to the U.S. At Goldman, he reported to Can Uran, executive director of global credit derivatives in Tokyo. Uran did not return calls and Chou could not be reached for comment.

Hermann Watzinger, former managing director and head of securitization and portfolio credit derivatives at Merrill Lynch in London, has joined ABN AMRO as German head of fixed income in Frankfurt. Watzinger said ABN is also planning to combine its fixed income and loan teams and he will become the German head for both desks after the merger. Watzinger, who left Merrill Lynch in July after the firm reorganized its credit department, will start next month.

Australia TXU Holdings has delayed a A$600m-A$700m multi-tranche deal due to illiquid secondary markets and limited demand.

Australia Newcrest Mining shares slumped on Tuesday after the Australian gold miner sold A$216m ($118m) of new stock at 7.5% below Monday's closing price.

New Zealand's Fletcher Building has snatched the Laminex share sale away from the stock market. Citigroup/SSB and UBS Warburg were on the verge of launching the Laminex IPO, when the Kiwi building products company agreed to buy Laminex at a price precisely in the middle of the anticipated bookbuild range of A$2.00-A$2.30 per share. A domestic and international roadshow was due to begin on October 7. Laminex, which markets and distributes laminated particle board for kitchens, office furniture and other applications, was formed from assets acquired from BTR Nylex by venture capital funds in 1997. Major shareholder CVC sold 80% of its holding.

New Asian equity deals look set to come to market soon despite a difficult launch environment. China Telecom is moving towards premarketing its Hong Kong and New York IPO early next week, while Bank Thai is hoping to complete a $200m-plus share placement. Singapore's MobileOne could be the region's next jumbo float.

HBOS Treasury Services made a debut in fixed rate dollars and introduced itself to a new investor base when it launched a $1.25bn two tranche Asia targeted benchmark this week. The treasury arm of the Bank of Scotland decided to diversify from its usual funding source of UK and European investors and targeted the liquid Asian markets for its dollar debut.

Lead manager Daiwa SMBC Securities priced the IPO of NEC Fielding at the bottom end of a price range but still saw the stock fall 4% in its first day of trading on Wednesday. The price range itself was 15%-20% below the price indicated in initial regulatory filings in Japan.

KorAm Bank and Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) opened up the pipeline of Korean bank deals this week by launching two contrasting issues within a day of each other. The two borrowers adopted different strategies in launching the deals. KorAm Bank relied on domestic demand to prop up its Reg S 10 year subordinated bond issue. IBK looked to international investor demand for a new $500m three year benchmark Reg S transaction.

AMP has launched Australia's largest ever hybrid reset preference share issue. The company is seeking up to A$1bn to shore up a balance sheet suffering from an erosion of capital at UK subsidiary Pearl Assurance. The Australian investment community believes that the issue could make AMP a takeover target.

Chartered Semiconductor's $634m deep discount rights issue was rocked this week by a profit warning made by the company. The deal is being underwritten by Merrill Lynch and sub-underwritten by DBS Bank, United Overseas Bank and OCBC Bank.