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National Power Corp (Napocor), the Philippine power utility, has cancelled its $500m seven year bond issue, after what bankers described as "complete indifference by Asian investors towards the deal as a result of uneconomic pricing levels". And in another twist to the Napocor story, the sovereign is now considering launching a bond in its own name so that it can on-lend the proceeds to the indebted utility. The transaction would probably be the same $500m size.

Goldman Sachs and joint lead manager Merrill Lynch completed the sale of $871m of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) ADRs last Friday morning Hong Kong time, after the close of the New York market on Thursday evening. The deal was oversubscribed by 1.6 times and was a welcome pre-Chinese new year success for the sellers and arrangers alike.

Crédit Lyonnais Securities Asia (CLSA) pulled off a notable coup yesterday (Thursday) by completing a new fund raising for Technology Resources Industries (TRI) despite difficult global market conditions. The deal, which attracted just over $233m from institutions around the world, is part of the recapitalisation and restructuring of TRI, Malaysia's second largest cellular phone company. Bankers close to the deal said the book was of extremely high quality.

Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) tapped into the Asian investor base for a benchmark $500m five year floating rate issue (FRN)this week. The A+/A2/A rated UK issuer became the first building society to deliberately focus on Asian investors, taking advantage of the strong regional demand for US dollar bonds. The transaction was launched after a regional roadshow to familiarise investors.

The Australian primary bond market has picked up pace with three separate bond issues launched over the past week. St George Bank kicked off with a A$200m two tranche subordinated bond issue last Friday, with France's Dexia Municipal Agency (DexMA) following into the market on Wednesday, and Westfield Trust launching a deal yesterday (Thursday). St George Bank's 10 year non-call five tier two deal was lead managed by Macquarie Bank and TD Securities, with ABN Amro and UBS Warburg as co-managers. The transaction, which found strong investor interest, was made up of a A$100m tranche of fixed rate bonds and a A$100m tranche of floating rate notes (FRN).

Eddie Tam, director of equity derivatives sales at Credit Lyonnais in Hong Kong, resigned last Tuesday for what he attributed to personal reasons. "I'm looking for a new challenge." Tam, a seven-year veteran of Lyonnais who previously worked at Merrill Lynch in New York and Hong Kong, said he plans to time off from the industry and do some traveling.

The board of Charter European Trust on Monday emphatically rejected Henderson Global Investors' proposal to break up Charter's trust and in response came up with a proposal of its own. As opposed to Henderson's proposal of a 75% cash exit for investors while rolling the remaining assets into the Henderson EuroTrust, Charter European's counter offer gives shareholders the opportunity of a 100% cash exit and a choice to roll over into a pan-European investment trust managed by Dresdner RCM.