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Harbourmaster CLO 2 Limited, Euro Capital Structure's Eu603m arbitrage CDO backed by sub-participations in sub-investment grade loans, is preparing to launch next week. Price talk is around 55bp for the triple-A piece, 130bp for the single-A notes, 220bp on the triple-B and 650bp for double-B paper. * BNP Paribas is roadshowing LTR Finance No 3 plc, a Eu202m securitisation of Spanish and Portuguese auto loans and Portuguese long-term rental and commercial finance lease receivables originated by Sofinloc, a finance company owned by Portugal's Banco Finantia.

ABN Amro is preparing to launch the first publicly rated Austrian loan and leasing securitisation, a Eu400m deal backed by assets originated by Porsche Bank AG. Two tranches of floating rate notes will be issued by FACT-2001 Ltd, a special purpose vehicle registered in Jersey. A Eu384m piece rated triple-A by Moody's and Standard & Poor's with an average life of 1.8 years will be issued above a Eu16m single-A tranche with 4.7 year average life. All notes have legal maturity of December 2007 and will begin amortising immediately on closing.

Banco Português de Negócios (BPN) of Portugal last Friday launched its second securitisation backed by a portfolio of consumer loans, leases and long term rentals originated by three of its subsidiaries, BPN Creditus, BPN Rent and BPN Leasing. Lead managed by bookrunner Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, the deal is the first to be launched this year to be backed solely by Portuguese collateral.

The market watched closely as the first equity and equity-linked deal out of non-Japan Asia after September 11 was launched, providing an important gauge of investor sentiment. Pauline Loong finds that institutions are still looking at the same issues: fair pricing and a good credit story.

Meet Minsheng Bank: China's only privately-owned financial institution. If accession to WTO means Chinese entrepreneurs stand to benefit from new opportunities, then Minsheng is in a strong position to gain market share from the vastly bigger state-owned banks. By Pauline Loong

Australian companies' capital management has come along in leaps and bounds. The humble bean counter is fading into the past, as more and more financial officers take their place on boards of directors. Fiona Haddock talks to two of the country's top financial chiefs to see just what fiscal management means to them and the companies they represent.

The latest economic downturn has refocused attention on risk management – and threatens to shift people's interest away from the previous hot topic, corporate governance. It shouldn't, argues Joy Lee, because in fact corporate governance is a key part of risk management, and companies will come out of this downturn in much better shape if they are transparent from the outset.

India's market regulator seems to be battling with phantoms. It is eight months since the Mumbai-based Security and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) began investigating a stock market scandal (see Asiamoney's June 2001 cover story); at the time, the country's finance minister, Yashwant Sinha, promised parliament that the guilty would not be spared. A wave of arrests and interrogations of some of the key players in the financial markets quickly followed, but the market has yet to be told exactly how the scam took place. The investigations have gone far beyond the ambit of the market watchdog, with several other agencies including the income tax and immigration authorities and a joint parliamentary committee working on it. The investigation into the market scam has become interlinked with another probe into the functioning of www.tehelka.com, a web site that exposed an alleged defence scandal and managed to attract the wrath of the central government.

US company Emerson Electric completed a landmark M&A deal in October when it bought Avansys Power, a telecom and data power conversions provider, from Huawei Technologies. This is the largest 100% acquisition ever between a private Chinese company and a foreign investor. Emerson, advised by JPMorgan, paid Huawei Technologies US$750 million in cash, which will use the capital to boost its core business. "The deal fits the company's long-term strategic plan," says Sara Liu, spokeswoman at Huawei Technologies in its Shenzhen head office. "We would like to concentrate on our core business, which is telecom network solutions, and enhance our position in the sector due to the accelerating competition within the industry worldwide." Huawei Technologies is a private hi-tech enterprise fully owned by its employees.

The long-awaited float of the newly merged Bank of China in Hong Kong may have to wait a little longer. It had been expected that the new bank would list in New York and Hong Kong early next year but, following the US terrorist attacks and the continuing deterioration of the global economy, it looks likely to be delayed. The IPO is definitely still on. The question is when to do so and whether new strategies will be needed. Chairman and president Liu Mingkang of the state-owned parent, the Beijing-headquartered Bank of China, hints as much. In an interview with CNBC Asia weeks after the new entity started doing business, he said: "We are closely monitoring the changes in the market. Since September 11 it's being assessed...It's still too early for us to work out the details of how we can successfully float."

Pacific Century CyberWorks, the company that changed everything in the world of Asian finance last year, has been rather quieter in 2001. But in October it became the first Asian company to complete an international bond issue since September 11, with a ¥30 billion (US$250 million) Euroyen placement guaranteed by its PCCW-HKT telecommunications subsidiary. The deal stands out for more than its timing. This was a 30-year issue – only the third ever from Hong Kong – with a five-year call option held by the issuer (reports that lead manager Merrill Lynch holds the call have been stridently denied). It was priced at par with a coupon of 3.65% and reflects a spread of 280bp over treasuries on a swapped basis, considerably cheaper than the US$4.7 billion syndicated loan that PCCW has been attempting to refinance for much of the year.

The default by Singapore-based Asia Pulp and Paper on US$13.4 billion of debt last year was bad enough. But now, after a year of recriminations and investigations, the ripples of the crisis are spreading far and wide. Caught in the net are the Singapore and New York Stock Exchanges, leading financial lights such as Merrill Lynch, Arthur Andersen and Deloitte Touche Tomatsu, offshore havens like the British Virgin and Cook islands, shareholders all over Asia and even workers in the backblocks of the Indonesian rain forest.