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Cheryl Neff started work in loan sales last Monday at Bear Stearns after leaving Bank of America, where she started in 1983. Bankers said Neff moved in order to stay in New York, rather than move to Charlotte, but Neff could not be reached for comment. She reports to Elizabeth Goldstein, head of sales and trading at Bear. While at B of A, Neff worked in U.S. and Canadian sales, reporting most recently to Joe Siman, managing director. Calls to Bear spokesman Russel Sherman were not returned.

Interest rates may be at historic lows and Asian spreads exceptionally tight, but expectations that 2002 would prove to be a bonanza for international bond issues have yet to be fulfilled. Despite the consistent tightening of spreads, bankers said that issuers had been slow to access the bond market. Given that Asian investors are hungry for new issuance and market conditions are so favourable for borrowers, this is a disappointment.

Hong Kong China Light and Power (CLP) is planning to access the global bond market with a $300m 10 year global issue. The plans follow Morgan Stanley's setting up an MTN programme for the A3/A+ rated CLP, which was signed on April 3. HSBC and Citigroup/SSB are thought to have joined the bank on a joint lead mandate for the corporate.

China Speculation was circulating in Hong Kong this week of convertible bond funds snapping up any available stock borrowing capacity in China Unicom. Bankers said they anticipate a convertible bond issue of between $500m and $1bn and that Morgan Stanley is the likely bookrunner.

Goldman Sachs and Citigroup/SSB are due to launch a $200m GDR offering for KorAm Bank on Monday, with pricing tentatively set for April 25. The transaction is the first large bank deal from Korea in a year that promises plenty more action from the Asian financial sector. The transaction is not large, by international standards, and should be relatively straightforward for the two lead managers. It involves the sale of 200m ordinary shares repacked as 20m GDRs.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) has finally entered the home stretch in its bid to launch a cash tender and a new $350m 10 year issue. After several delays, the telecoms group is on the verge of launching the deal, which will help alleviate a $1.6bn debt pile-up that is maturing between 2002 and 2004.

BT Office Trust and Westfield Trust benefited from quiet conditions when they returned to the domestic bond market this week. With the country's primary business pipeline looking slow, more investor attention was focused upon the property trusts' two issues. BT Office Trust launched its A$150m 4-1/2 year transaction on Tuesday, which it comfortably placed with investors. ANZ Investment Bank and Deutsche Bank were joint lead managers for the trust's second foray into the market, with Merrill Lynch and UBS Warburg as co-managers.

Merrill Lynch and client QBE Insurance tried to cover all the angles for QBE stakeholders on Monday night as Australia's leading insurer tapped the global market for $250m in the form of a 20 year zero coupon convertible bond. Not only did Merrill Lynch sell the first zero coupon CB for an Australian company, but the investment bank gave investors and QBE the comfort of underwriting the purchase of underlying shares that is so often associated with equity-linked issues. In so doing, Merrill Lynch introduced to Australia the happy meal concept it first developed in the US - everyone is supposed to leave the table satisfied.

Rating: Aa3/AA Amount: C$50m (fungible with the C$300m issue first launched 08/11/01)

Rating: Aa1/AA-/AA Amount: Eu130m subordinated debt

Türkiye Garanti Bankasi has awarded the mandate to arrange its Eu200m one year bullet facility. Joint mandated arrangers Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Mizuho (DKB) and Deutsche Bank are bookrunners. Sumitomo is facility agent. ING is documentation agent and Standard Chartered is responsible for the information memorandum. The other joint mandated arrangers are Alpha Bank, the Bank of New York, Commerzbank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, HVB Group, RBS, TD Securities and Wachovia Bank.