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Morgan Stanley is leading a refinancing for New World Pasta designed to trim interest costs on the basis of the company's de-leveraging efforts. The existing $150 million "B" term loan is priced at LIBOR plus 4%, but the new loan is being offered at LIBOR plus 31/ 4%. The deal was launched last Thursday. Calls to Morgan Stanley were not returned.

Nextel Communications gave the market the best news it has had in some time with an extremely positive earnings call last Tuesday, which traders described with strongly- worded adjectives such as "heroic." The 9.375% notes of '09 (B3/B) went as high as 72, before settling at 68 by Thursday afternoon. They started the week at 59.5. Other wireless bonds also got a lift on the news. The Airgate PCS 13.5% notes of '09 (Caa1/CCC) were up four points to 28.

Wireless names were the topic of conversation in the secondary market last week, with Nextel Communications leading the pack. "Strong results caused the market to tick up," one investor said, referring to Nextel. Indeed, the name rallied from the high 70s after the company announced promising second quarter results last Tuesday. Some market players claimed that the paper traded as high as 86 after the news, but others said it peaked in the 85-85 1/2 range, trading into retail. The highest Street trade was 84 7/8.

Macquarie Airports (MAp) on Wednesday completed a new equity raising of A$670m ($355m) by selling 429m new shares at a deep discount to its IPO in March and 12.5m new shares to its sponsor, Macquarie Bank. MAp shares had been suspended since last Thursday and the deal was completed at the end of a torrid week on the major US and European bourses.

Transurban started the roadshow for its keenly awaited A$1.02bn multi-tranche bond this week. The deal - which will be launched by subsidiary Transurban Financial - is unusual for its large size and the fact that it will have several tenors, some of which will be credit wrapped. As Transurban is a toll road operator and therefore has predictable revenues, bankers expect a strong response from investors once the issues are priced in the week of July 29.

The government of Indonesia has raised Rph1.13tr ($125m) through the sale of 312m PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) shares at a discount of just 3.1%. UBS Warburg and state owned Bahana Securities completed the deal in under five hours after the close of trading in Jakarta on Monday.

Nomura Securities is next week due to price a ¥50bn domestic convertible bond for Yamada Denki, one of Japan's leading electrical retailers. Yamada will use the proceeds to take over a rival. The deal comprises two tranches, one of five years and one of seven years. The former is fixed at a 31% conversion premium, the latter at 22%. The premiums are the highest ever achieved for a domestic Japanese convertible bond. The issue is also the country's largest convertible this year.

Japan Mizuho International will launch Oscar Funding Corp IX next week, a ¥35.2bn ($302.6m) equivalent securitisation of auto loans for Japanese finance company Orico Corp.

Shinhan Bank was poised to launch a $200m-$300m three year fixed rate issue this morning (Friday), after a day's delay in the London Stock Exchange (LSE) approving the issue. Bankers claimed that a strike on London's underground railway was behind the delay, and leads ABN Amro, BNP Paribas and UBS Warburg expect to price the transaction today.

Indonesia PT Surya Citra Media (SCM), which recently became the first Indonesian IPO since 1997 to include an international tranche, listed on Tuesday and closed yesterday (Thursday) at Rph1,150, up 4.5% from the Rph1,100 issue price.

Early signs indicate that the IPO of the Bank of China's Hong Kong operations has been a great success, with plenty of support from local investors. The public offer closes today (Friday) and is likely to be heavily oversubscribed, which will probably push the retail portion up from 10% to as much as 40% of the allocation.

PT Bank Mandiri completed the Asian leg of a roadshow for its $100m-$150m 10 year lower tier two issue this week, but received a disappointing rating for the deal from Standard & Poor's (S&P). While Moody's and Fitch rated the issue on a par with Mandiri's B3/B- senior ratings, S&P rated the state bank's deal CCC.