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2002 is set to be the year of the finance sector in Korea. Not only do most of the leading banks want to raise fresh capital, but the government also wants to take advantage of positive sentiment to offload state holdings. Consumer finance companies are also preparing for local listings, some of which could include dedicated international placements. KorAm Bank has chosen Goldman Sachs and Citigroup/SSB to lead its planned GDR issue of up to $250m. LG Card, Korea's most profitable credit card company, has received approval from the Korea Stock Exchange for an initial public offering to raise up to W520bn ($395m), although that will be a purely domestic transaction. Korea Deposit Insurance Corp president, Lee In-won, said that the governmnent wants to complete the sale of up to 15% of Cho Hung Bank by the end of May.

Australia The Bank of Queensland launched a A$150m three year floating rate transferable deposit yesterday (Thursday) via Macquarie Bank and UBS Warburg. The transaction secured strong support from onshore and offshore investors and was increased from A$125m. Westpac Institutional Bank was co-manager.

Shinsei Bank this week priced the second issue from its ¥1.4tr collateralised loan obligation (CLO) master trust, which contains 2,300 loans to over 600 Japanese companies. The ¥60bn deal, lead managed by Nomura (books) and Shinsei Securities, had to contend with a marked deterioration in sentiment towards Japan among international investors, as well as coming at a busy time in the domestic capital markets calendar, shortly before the financial year end.

Bangkok Aviation Fuel Services has announced plans for an IPO later this month, continuing the brightening prospects for the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The Thai stock market is buoyant and analysts say the outlook for the market is encouraging for the rest of the year, with some expecting the SET index to rise to 500. As a consequence, the flow of new issues is more encouraging than at any time since the the financial crisis in 1997.

Lehman Brothers, hoping to make its mark in Japan, this week completed the first Euroyen convertible issue of 2002. Lehman Brothers sold ¥17bn of convertible bonds for UMC Japan into the Euromarket and there is also a ¥3bn greenshoe the bank expects to exercise. The five year deal has a zero coupon, was issued at 101.75% with a conversion premium of 16.8% on the previous day's close and 20.85% based on the previous five day average.

South Africa Citigroup/SSB has released the list of banks joining the $80m four year term loan for Harmony Gold Mining.

Hong Kong *CNOOC Finance 2002 Ltd

Australia The A$183.2m 2-1/2 year facility for Baulderstone Hornbrook Pty/240 St George's Terrace has been completed by arrangers BNP Paribas (Australia) and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (Australia). The arrangers provided A$31.6m and A$26.6m, respectively.

*Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz Girozentrale Rating: Aa1/AAA

Banca Agrileasing has increased the size of its euro1.25 billion ($1.10 billion) Euro-MTN programme to euro2.5 billion. The programme was originally signed in March 2000 and its outstandings are approaching $1 billion off 14 trades.