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Royal Bank of Scotland Financial Markets is seeking to hire a salesman to focus on selling interest-rate and foreign exchange risk management products to its corporate clients in the Midlands region of England. The hire would tailor instruments such as interest-rate and fx swaps as well as other risk management tools for corporate treasury departments in and around the Birmingham area, which is where the hire will be based, according to an official.

Bear Stearns has hired Fumio Nashiro, principal of equity financial products at Bank of America in Tokyo, as a senior managing director and head of distribution in Tokyo, according to Michel Péretié, senior managing director and head of fixed-income and derivatives for Europe and Asia in London.

Commerzbank plans to add two professionals to its foreign exchange options team, one in New York and one in Singapore. For New York the bank plans to hire a fx trader to deal in the spot and options market for its global proprietary team, said Edward Voorhees, global head of foreign exchange sales and trading in London.

Market professionals, including officials at Deutsche Bank and HSBC, expect the interest-rate derivatives market in Malaysia to bloom in the coming months, on the back of the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange listing bond futures at the end of March. "This has the potential to double the swap market," noted an official at Deutsche Bank. He noted that average monthly trading volumes now range from USD25-50 million.

Sole bookrunner Nomura set the indicative price for the Daido Life Insurance bookbuild at ¥270,000 per share on Mondayn amid general wariness from fund managers about market conditions in Japan and the performance of many of the smaller IPOs in recent months. The domestic roadshow began in Tokyo and the international leg started on February 25. Following release of the formal indicative price on March 4, the bookbuild began on March 5 and closes on March 13. Pricing is set for March 15 and Daido will list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Osaka Stock Exchange on April 1.

There were growing signs this week that the Indonesian government is pushing through a series of privatisation deals to capitalise on increasing interest from international investors. Indonesia's bank rescue agency has said it plans to sell its 47.5% holding in PT Metropolitan Kencana, a former Salim Group property company that owns some of Jakarta's most exclusive office and retail space.

Joint lead managers Nikko Salomon Smith Barney and UBS Warburg on Monday priced Japan's third real estate investment trust, which is due to list on March 12. Mitsubishi, the diversified Japanese corporation, and UBS are the joint holders of the Japan Retail Fund Investment Corp. The deal will comprise 52,000 units at ¥470,000, almost the mid-point of the ¥450,000-¥500,000 price range set during marketing. The company has a net book value of ¥41.1bn.

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.