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Premarketing began this week for the forthcoming initial public offerings of Maxis and PLUS, which market watchers hope will propel Malaysia to the forefront of emerging economy capital markets. Ananda Krishnan-controlled Maxis is due to set out on its roadshow on May 27, and the PLUS (Projek Lebuhraya Utara Selatan) IPO is set to be roadshowed 11 days afterwards. The two transactions combined could raise close to $1.6bn from the local and international markets.

Guarantor: Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale Rating: Aa1/AA+/AAA

South Korean finance company Samsung Capital Co launched its $296m auto loans securitisation this week to a blowout reception from investors spying the advent of a new market. Now that triple-A rated monoline insurers - in this case Financial Security Assurance (FSA) - will guarantee international securitisations of Korean domestic assets, the country's fast-growing consumer finance companies have the opportunity, as well as the motive, to sell ABS to overseas investors. The flow of deals is therefore expected to accelerate.

In a spate of rare high grade activity, GE Capital Australia Funding was the first of three new issues in the Singapore market this week. Allstate Funding and Freddie Mac quickly followed the subsidiary of the US electric capital company, providing domestic investors with a choice of senior offshore names. GE Capital Australia Funding's new S$300m two tranche deal offered investors an opportunity to benefit from the volatility surrounding GE's bonds in the wake of Enron's collapse. The Aaa/AAA rated corporate was forced to bring the issue to market at much wider levels than it would have liked. Citigroup/SSB said the pricing of the issue was in line with the widening of its bond spreads globally.

Lead manager Goldman Sachs on Wednesday priced a $700m convertible for Cathay Financial Holdings on terms that many competitors and investors said were more of a victory for the issuer than for Goldman Sachs and investors. Nevertheless, it is the largest CB by far from Taiwan and sets a new benchmark, at least in size.

Guarantor: Abbey National plc Rating: Aa2/AA

ABB this week overcame challenging market conditions and investor concerns about its restructuring plans and asbestos litigation to launch a $750m equivalent bond in euros and sterling, but reduced the size from the planned $1bn equivalent and paid an extra 20bp in spread. The deal, led by Barclays, Citigroup/SSSB and Credit Suisse First Boston, was reduced from planned Eu1bn and £300m tranches to Eu500m and £200m deals respectively - the euro maturing in January 2008 and the sterling in May 2009. Both tranches paid 470bp over mid-swaps and gave investors hefty coupons, 9.5% in euros and 10% in sterling.

ABB this week overcame challenging market conditions and investor concerns about its restructuring plans and asbestos litigation to launch a $750m equivalent bond in euros and sterling, but reduced the size from the planned $1bn equivalent and paid an extra 20bp in spread. The deal, led by Barclays, Citigroup/SSSB and Credit Suisse First Boston, was reduced from planned Eu1bn and £300m tranches to Eu500m and £200m deals respectively - the euro maturing in January 2008 and the sterling in May 2009. Both tranches paid 470bp over mid-swaps and gave investors hefty coupons, 9.5% in euros and 10% in sterling.

ABN Amro has won the mandate to arrange the debt facilities backing the buy-out of six retail chains from Dutch retailer Koninklijke Vendex by CVC. The six businesses being sold are the Hans Anders opticians group, Siebel jewellers, Kijkshop, Perry Sport, Prénatal and Scapino.

Rating: Aaa/AAA Amount: $850m

Alfa Laval, the Swedish specialist engineering firm, finally priced its troubled Skr5.1bn (Eu558m) IPO today (Friday), having been forced to revise the price range and cut the number of shares offered in the deal. According to a banker close to the transaction, investors reacted well to the revised offering, which saw the price range lowered from Skr108-Skr140 to Skr90-Skr95 and the number of shares on offer reduced from 65m to 57m. The deal was finally priced at Skr91 per share.

Rating: A1/A+/AA- Amount: £200m