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When ASR Bank launched its latest Dutch residential mortgage securitisation, the deal met with overwhelming demand. Pricing was tight and investors were queuing up to participate in Delphinus 2002-1, lead managed by Fortis Bank (books), Merrill Lynch and Rabobank. "There were well over 100 orders and every single tranche was significantly oversubscribed," said Ashley Kibblewhite, director of ABS syndicate at Merrill Lynch in London. "ASR Bank did an extremely good job roadshowing and the tight pricing reflects the performance of their portfolio and of the Dutch mortgage market."

WestLB is expecting to launch and price Residential Mortgage Securities 12 plc on Monday. Final tranche sizes have still not been confirmed for the Kensington Group transaction. Price talk is the 3bp area over Libor on the short dated dollar notes. The remaining notes have a legal maturity of July 2036 with price talk of the low 30s on the sterling triple-A tranche, the high 20s on the dollar triple-A notes, 60bp over on the double-A rated sterling tranche, 100bp over on the sterling single-A notes and 250bp over on the sterling layer rated BBB+. * Credit Suisse First Boston is continuing the marketing of its collateralised fund obligation (CFO) for Investcorp Man-agement Services. Price guidance on the $365m deal is in the 60bp area over six month Libor on the $250m triple-A notes, 150bp-160bp over on the $65m single-A tranche and 280bp over on the $50m triple-B layer.

The securitisation market saw more activity this week from the insurance sector, when insurer Hiscox Syndicates 33 became the first Lloyd's syndicate to issue a catastrophe bond. Hiscox sold a $33m catastrophe bond via Aon Capital Markets conveying earthquake risk in the California and New Madrid, Missouri seismic regions in the US. Aon believes that the transaction represents both continued growth in the sophistication of the Lloyd's market and a step towards a standardised and simple cat bond structure.

Issuers tested demand for Italian consumer loan and lease backed paper this week as repeat issuers Italease and Compass, a consumer finance arm of Mediobanca, came to market. Even as they launched, investors were preparing for a Eu600m debut issue from Centro Leasing, via BNP Paribas and IntesaBci, with further consumer loan deals from Linea and a rumoured Eu1.7bn transaction from Fineco Banca, via Morgan Stanley.

The Japanese government is supporting a scheme to encourage companies to use intellectual property (IP) as a financing tool by securitising their patent rights. For several years the ABS market has struggled with the challenge of securitising IP. Popstar David Bowie securitised his back catalogue of songs in a $55m deal in 1997 and since then the market has been looking for more activity. The difficulty lies both in valuing the assets and in calculating the reliability of cashflows. IP securitisations have not got very far beyond the artistic sphere, where a unique product is offered.

Eircom, the Irish fixed line telecoms group, is set to be the next telecoms group to adopt securitisation. Lead managers Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs are preparing a deal. Although the structure is being kept tightly under wraps, a banker close to the issue said that it would be a large transaction slated for launch later this year.

This week saw another flurry of activity in the UK pub sector and the capital markets are set to take the strain again, with a planned securitisation from Pubmaster, a flotation by Punch (see Equities section), and another acquisition by Enterprise Inns. More acquisitions and possible securitisations are rumoured.

Credit Suisse First Boston has promoted Chris Carter, head of equity trading, equity derivatives and convertible sales and trading for the Asia Pacific region in Hong Kong, to global head of equity options. Carter, who will work from the firm's New York office, replaces Maurits Schouten, who resigned about three weeks ago, according to a firm official. Carter reports to Phil Vasan and Paul Calello, co-heads of CSFB's global equity derivatives and convertibles group. Calls to Carter, Vasan and Calello were referred to CSFB spokeswoman Victoria Harmon, who declined to comment.

Roughly $15 million of Exide Technologies' bank debt traded up to the 69-70 level from 62-64 on Tuesday following the company's bankruptcy filing. The real driving force behind the trades was the timing of the filing and not the actual filing itself, which had been expected for months. Dealers explained that bank lenders would be entitled to collateral in certain foreign and U.S. subsidiaries if the company filed after April 12. By mid week, the market for the name rose as high as the 70-73 level. Calls to company officials were not returned by press time.

David Charles, head of risk management at Gen Re Securities in Tokyo, has joined Deutsche Bank's group market risk management team in London. A Deutsche Bank official in London said there is ongoing movement in and out of the group, declining to specify whether this is a new position. The group is responsible for managing all market risk across the bank's activities, of which the largest component is trading, the official added. Charles could not be reached for comment. The group is headed by Richard Evans, chief risk officer. Evans was traveling last week and could not be reached.

APS Asset Management, an asset manager in Singapore with USD500 million under management, launched its first hedge fund earlier this month. The fund will use over-the-counter equity puts and swaps. "It's a real long/short fund. We're not going to make big directional bets," said Wong Kok Hoi, cio and founder of the firm. The fund, dubbed APS Asia Pacific Hedge Fund, with USD10 million under management, will primarily focus on the cash equity market in Asia, especially Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, but will buy puts for Korea and Taiwan. "We'll create synthetic short positions," said Wong, noting that regulations in Korea and Taiwan restrict offshore players from borrowing stocks, therefore hindering short cash equity plays. "We'll start small," noted Wong, adding that it will invest in up to USD2-3 million in OTC products.

New York-based MBIA Asset Management, a subsidiary of MBIA Inc. with over USD40 billion in assets, plans to begin investing in synthetic collateralized debt obligations for the first time, according to a market official familiar with the firm's plans. MBIA Asset Management, which has been investing in cash CDOs for several years, is considering pulling the trigger on its first investment in a synthetic CDO by the fourth quarter, the official said. "They've been taking a close look at the synthetic market for quite some time. The banks are constantly marketing their new products to them. It's only a matter of time before they make the move," another market official noted. Cliff Corso, president of MBIA Asset Management, did not return calls by press time.