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Australia Foodland Associated this week announced plans to acquire and expand. Woolworths New Zealand, agreeing to pay NZ$690m plus debt. Foodland is funding the acquisition partly through an accelerated A$295m share issue to institutions, which was due to be completed today (Friday). Foodland also plans to offer about A$30m of new shares to existing shareholders.

PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, the world's largest noodle manufacturer, this week pulled off the biggest international bond issue from Indonesia since the Asian financial crisis began in 1997. Lead managed by Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), the five year deal was increased from $200m to $280m on the back of particularly strong demand from private banks hungry for a well known and stable but relatively high yielding credit.

Construction group United Engineers Malaysia on Monday released the prospectus for its M$2.5bn flotation of toll road subsidiary Plus Expressways. The document confirmed that United is issuing up to 930m Plus shares, of which 300m will be offered to retail investors at an indicative price of M$2.55 each. The roadshows began last Friday and pricing is expected on June 25, with listing on July 15, a week after the debut of Maxis Communications, which set out on its three week roadshow on May 27. The two transactions combined could raise close to $1.6bn from local and international markets.

Goldman Sachs and Nomura are enjoying a positive reception for the sale of 500,000 shares in JR East, Japan's largest railway group, held by government owned Japan Railway Construction Corporation (JRCC). The deal will be priced between tomorrow (Friday) and June 19 and could raise up to ¥300bn in the first state selldown of 2002/03. The stock was yesterday afternoon (Thursday) quoted at ¥594,000, marginally above the ¥593,000 level of May 29, when premarketing began. The stock has also held up well since bookbuilding began on June 10, despite weak global markets and a directionless Tokyo bourse. JRCC hit a high of ¥615,000 earlier this week, signalling strong interest from funds seeking to weight up in the stock.

Macquarie Bank is to sell A$350m of shares in its new communications infrastructure fund, named Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group, according to unconfirmed reports. The placement to institutions is likely to begin later this month, followed by a retail offer and a listing on the Australian Stock Exchange by mid-August.

Malaysia is putting the finishing touches on what will be the first ever international dollar bond issue that is open for purchase by Islamic investors. HSBC is lead managing the $350m-$500m offering, which will probably have a five year bullet structure. The roadshow begins today (Friday) with a lunch presentation in Hong Kong, and will proceed to the Middle East next week (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Jeddah) before ending in London. Launch is expected in the week after.

Orix Jreit, the real estate trust set up by Orix Corp, fell by as much as 4.6% on its first day of trading on Wednesday, but the units had recovered to ¥508,000 by early afternoon yesterday (Thursday). Lead managers Daiwa SMBC and UBS Warburg priced the units at ¥520,000 to yield 6%. That price was at the top end of the indicated price range during what was the first global offering of a Japanese real estate investment trust (J-REIT).

EuroWeek hears that SG has the sole lead arranging mandate for a $110m acquisition financing for Vallourec, a specialist tube company. The firm has made an acquisition in the US.

Friesland Bank has dropped the dealers DG Bank and SG off its euro2 billion ($1.89 billion) debt issuance programme. It has added four names to replace them on the panel. They are Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, DZ Bank and Fortis Bank.

Amount: Eu500m Rating: Moody's/Fitch

Amount: Eu600m Rating: Fitch

With the fall of Enron and the rise of investor awareness, General Electric Capital Corp has been forced to put transparency at the heart of its fundraising, a strategy made more urgent in March when Pimco's Bill Gross launched a damaging attack on the size of its CP programme. In an exclusive interview with EuroWeek, GECC's Kathy Cassidy and Kitty Yoh tell Danielle Robinson how they are adapting to the new corporate climate. Not so long ago, investors hardly gave a second thought to buying GECC bonds. Satisfied with the triple-A rating and impeccable track record of the US conglomerate's funding arm, investors would spend more time analysing the fundamentals of lower rated corporates.