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National Australia Bank (NAB) has launched the largest deal in the Australian bond market so far this year, a self-led A$500m five year transaction that attracted robust demand. The reception to the deal was bolstered by strong domestic investor demand for familiar onshore credits. Investor sentiment towards offshore issues has, in the last few weeks, become very cautious in light of the negative news about US corporates, and this week Pacific Life of the US postponed its planned deal.

Nikko Salomon Smith Barney and UBS Warburg are jointly leading the third listing of a Japanese real estate investment trust (REIT), the Japan Retail Fund Investment Corp, on March 12. UBS and Mitsubishi, the diversified Japanese corporation, are the joint holders of the REIT. The deal will comprise 52,000 units and the company has a net book value of ¥41.1bn.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) this week launched the first international Australian securitisation of 2002, offering $1bn of global bonds as part of a A$2.5bn mortgage backed deal. Lead managed by Deutsche Bank, the global bonds were priced yesterday (Thursday) at 17bp over three month Libor, with an average life of 3.14 years. (See International Bond Issues for further details.)

Daido Life's planned IPO could top ¥160bn, according to preliminary price indications filed in Japan, which would make it larger than last year's biggest deal, Nomura Research Institute's ¥149bn IPO of December. But given the precarious state of Japan's economy and stock markets, many market participants hope that the deal will be priced to give investors plenty of upside. Nomura is sole bookrunner for the domestic and international tranches, with Merrill Lynch joint lead for the offshore portion, which is slated to account for around one-third of placement. Goldman Sachs and UBS Warburg are senior co-lead managers of the international tranche.

Cantor Fitzgerald plans to transfer two or three credit derivatives brokers to New York from London and will hire others, according to Harry Fry, senior managing director of North American derivatives in New York. Fry said it is too early to determine who will head the new group. Cantor is rebuilding the desk after its 10-strong team was killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

CDC Ixis Capital Markets is launching a convertible arbitrage trading book and plans to begin trading within the next three months, according to a firm official. The firm plans to set aside USD250-300 million of capital for the trading book. The desk will use credit derivatives, interest-rate swaps and equity options.

Despite market grumbles about tight pricing, over Eu1.4bn has been raised from the market for the Eu750m refinancing and CP backstop facility for Swedish lock and security firm Assa Abloy. The deal was increased to Eu825m. Arrangers ABN Amro, BNP Paribas and SEB Merchant Bank signed banks into the deal yesterday (Thursday) in Geneva.

South Africa The list of banks joining the $600m debt facility for AngloGold has been released.

Reserve capital instruments (RCIs) are to be treated as liabilities, the UK's Accounting Standards Board (ASB) confirmed yesterday (Thursday). As the EU directive on capital instruments does not allow liabilities to count as tier one, the board's pronouncement, on the surface at least, may create a problem for the RCI structure. Last October, the urgent issues task force (UITF) of the ASB issued a preliminary assessment of the direct issue tier one structure, which recommended that it be treated as a liability, rather than as shareholder funds. Now the ASB has issued an "abstract", to confirm the UITF's initial analysis.

Qantas Airways is believed to be looking to tap the market for a dollar aircraft financing. The borrower recently completed a similar deal to finance the purchase of four aircraft and the new facility will finance the delivery of a further five planes from a total consignment of 15 the borrower ordered last year. The planes are to fill the gap created by the collapse of Ansett Airlines last year and most will be used for domestic flights serving Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Adelaide, Cairns and Ayres Rock (Uluru).

Just six trades were announced in US dollar, as Monday saw the US market go quiet for the Presidents' Day holiday. Landesbank Sachsen issued a $45 million one-year FRN. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein was the bookrunner and the note pays a monthly coupon linked to $Libor flat. It is the issuer's ninth dollar trade of 2002. Other notes for amounts between $1 million and $35 million were issued by HSBC Investment Bank (a $20 million six-week trade), Unibanco - Uniao de Bancos Brasileiros (a $1 million six-month note) and UBS (Jersey), which issued a $5.40 million 10-year trade.