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Amid the coverage of sluggish domestic issuance and prolonged economic gloom in Japan, there is one feelgood story in Tokyo: the continued strength of the Samurai bond market, which has regained the support of heavyweight offshore issuers. Apart from a stutter in confidence in the first quarter of this year, the demand from Japan's investors for the yield that Samurai bonds can offer is growing. Richard Morrow reports.

The Samurai bond market is not the only market that foreign companies have sought to take advantage of to raise yen financing. Many international corporates have looked to either Euroyen issues, which exclude US investor participation, or global yen bond issues as well. In total, public Euroyen issuance has reached about ¥3tr this year, well above the total for Samurai bond issuance.

Bulent Osman, head of the U.S. dollar interest-rate options desk at J.P. Morgan in New York, has been made redundant. An official familiar with the departure said Osman was let go as part of the firm's efforts to cut costs. Osman could not be reached for comment. Sara Strang, head of Bermudan options in New York, has been promoted to fill Osman's position. She confirmed her appointment and said the two positions have been merged, but declined to comment further.

National Australia Bank this week priced a A$110m securitisation of Australian industrial properties for AMP Industrial Trust, a property trust. The AMP group has set up a special purpose vehicle, Quay 62 Pty Ltd, which can be used to securitise assets from any of the property trusts that AMP controls.

Credit Suisse First Boston and SG, together with their South Korean partners Daewoo Securities and Hyundai Securities, this week began marketing the first securitisation for the Korea Deposit Insurance Corp (KDIC). The deal is smaller than was originally mandated, and will be wrapped by triple-A rated monoline insurer Ambac.

Australia National Australia Bank and US-based subsidiary HomeSide Lending were dealt a blow by Moody's this week, with the bank having the outlook on its Aa3 senior rating decreased to stable from positive and the subsidiary unit's long term A1 rating being dropped to A2.

Australia The A$1.7bn funding package for Australian Magnesium Corp (AMC), which was recently pulled following a lack of interest from equity investors, has again been postponed. Bankers had hoped to resurrect the equity placement before the end of August.

Premier Image Technology, the Taiwanese compact camera manufacturer, found solid demand for Asian equity-linked issues as it completed an $85m convertible issue yesterday (Thursday). The deal, which will help to fund Premier's move to new and cheaper facilities in China, was launched on Wednesday and by the time the books closed yesterday afternoon the deal was well covered.

Bankers close to the forthcoming A$2.45bn IPO of Switzerland-based Glencore International's Enex Resources said they are confident that the deal will be completed and that suggestions of a downwards repricing of the issue should be dismissed. Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank are arranging the sale. Bankers told EuroWeek that the price of the Enex offer will not be adjusted from the original A$4-A$5 range. Market talk in Sydney indicates that some of the largest Australian funds are demanding that the deal is re-offered at a new range of A$3.80-A$4.20.

Toyota Motor Finance (Netherlands) has added Goldman Sachs and RBC Dominion Securities to the dealer panel off its $7 billion Euro-MTN programme. Lehman Brothers has been dropped as a dealer.

Tyco International Group (Tyco), the US electronics and security systems maker, has signed a euro2 billion ($1.77 billion) Euro-MTN programme at the same time as overhauling its Euro-CP facility. The funding strategy is part of Tyco's new marketing approach, which will segregate the US and European markets depending on which currency is needed. Deutsche Bank arranged the MTN shelf, and Barclays Capital arranged the CP facility. Michael Robinson, treasurer at Tyco, explains the MTN signing: "We did an inaugural stand-alone euro trade in March 2000 and the European markets have developed very nicely since then. We are also interested in expanding our investor-base, and with 25% of Tyco's sales coming out of Europe, we thought it was a good time to sign." No roadshow is planned and no debut trade has been decided yet. Robinson says: "We will use the programme opportunistically as we see rates go in our direction. We will be interested in an array of maturities between three and 10 years, and will specifically target euro vanilla deals." The success of the inaugural bond means Robinson expects investors to receive the new programme well. He hopes that a euro1 billion Euro-CP facility will also help market the Tyco name. Tyco signed a euro300 million commercial paper programme focused on the Belgian market in June last year (see MTNWeek, issue 188) with ING Barings/BBL as arranger and sole dealer. Robinson says: "This new facility is not really an update, but more an additional programme. The Belgian shelf will not necessarily be cancelled, but I expect to do most of our future issuance off the new Euro-CP programme." The issuer is rated Baa1 by Moody's and A by Standard & Poor's. The Euro-CP dealer panel includes the arranger, Deutsche Bank and HSBC. The Euro-MTN dealer panel consists of the arranger, ABN Amro, Banca IMI, Barclays Capital, BBVA, BNP Paribas, Credit Lyonnais, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse First Boston, HSBC, HypoVereinsbank, Schroder Salomon Smith Barney and Westdeutsche Landesbank.