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Goldman Sachs this week raised $634m through the partial sale of the stake held by the firm's private equity arm in Kookmin Bank. Before exercise of the 15% greenshoe, the bank has sold a 3.46% holding. The firm bought the stake in 1999. If the shoe is exercised, the Goldman stake will drop to 5.3%.

Global co-ordinators Goldman Sachs and UBS Warburg are premarketing the sale of 14% of stae owned Korea Tobacco & Ginseng. The GDR deal will start officially on July 1, with pricing slated for July 12. Dongwon and Hyundai Securities are joint bookrunners. Deutsche Bank, ING, LG and Samsung Securities are co-leads.

The Federation of Malaysia is poised to launch the first ever Islamic law-compliant international dollar deal and bankers at lead manager HSBC said the signs are looking good for the $500m five year 144A Reg S transaction. "We have covered the planned $500m issue size through investor orders so far and there are still roadshows to be held in London and orders still to come from the Middle East," said a banker at HSBC. "So far there has been enthusiasm for the issue." The transaction is expected to be launched and priced on Tuesday.

Maxis Communications, Malaysia's largest mobile phone company, raised M$3.05bn ($803m) through the sale of 420m shares to institutional investors at M$4.85 each and 232.3m shares to individual investors at a 10% discount of M$4.36. The deal is a vote of confidence in both Malaysia and in Ananda Krishnan, considered one of the most transparent and investor-sensitive emerging Asia corporate leaders.

Moody's Investors Service has raised the debt and deposit ratings of seven Korean banks, following an extensive investigation of the Korean banking sector and its decision to raise its rating for the Republic of Korea from Baa2 to A3 in March. Following the Moody's ratings upgrades bankers are hoping to see some activity from Korean borrowers. Recently the ministry of finance and economy (MoFE) has stifled international deals from Korea Electric Power Corp (Kepco) and Industrial Bank of Korea due to the effect on the Korean won were the banks to have swapped the proceeds.

Australia Broadcast Australia is planning to debut in the domestic Australian bond market with a A$650m three tranche issue via Macquarie Bank. The transaction will consist of a A$250m tranche with a five year tenor, a A$250m piece with a seven year maturity and a A$150m 10 year portion. The issue is being credit wrapped by AMBAC.

Against a background of political unease and hostility, Indian petrochemicals company Reliance Industries has decided to launch a cash tender offer for several of its remaining international bonds. The corporate is looking to retire its 2005, 2027 put 2007 and 2026 put 2008 bonds, which total $341m. UBS Warburg has been appointed to arrange the tender.

Guarantor: Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA Rating: AA-/AA (S&P/Fitch)

Sole mandated arranger SG has signed banks into the Eu200m four year term loan for real estate investment trust Befimmo. Royal Bank of Scotland, KBC, BBL, Deutsche Bank, Dexia, Fortis Bank and NIB committed as co-arrangers.

Bertelsmann has signed a euro3 billion ($2.87 billion) Euro-MTN programme with Deutsche Bank in the arranger's seat. The programme replaces a euro750 million debt issuance programme that was signed in 1996, also via Deutsche Bank. The old programme has $593.40 million-worth outstanding off three trades. The dealers off the programme are ABN Amro, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Schroder Salomon Smith Barney and UBS Warburg. Bertelsmann is rated Baa1 by Moody's and Standard & Poor's has assigned the company a BBB+ long-term rating. The company is planning a seven-year bond off the programme for approximately euro1 billion. Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and JPMorgan are the lead managers off the bond. Reuters reports it is expected to be priced at between 120 and 140 basis points over the swaps curve.

Barclays Global Investors has launched two actively managed corporate bond funds: the Ascent UK All Stocks Corporate Bond Fund and the Ascent UK Long Corporate Bond Fund. The long fund, investing in bonds with maturities of over 15 years, has proved the more popular so far, attracting £139m compared with £38m for the all stocks fund since opening to investors on April 10. Partha Dasgupta, head of fixed income strategies at BGI, told EuroWeek that the asset mix of the funds was weighted towards the lower investment grade of single-A and triple-B credits. "That is where we see more value over the longer term," he said.