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The A$50m institutional offer as part of the A$260m GPU GasNet IPO was closed yesterday (Thursday), with bankers working on the deal reporting strong interest. The bulk of the placement will go to retail investors in a public offer that closes on November 28. With its high forecast yield of 11% in the first two years, the issue has been designed to appeal principally to retail investors.

Having moved quickly to roadshow its debut $300m 10 year transaction early last week, Jardine Strategic was forced to negotiate volatile conditions and priced its deal last Friday at a spread wider than expected. The 144a, senior unsecured global issue garnered diverse reactions from the market, with some bankers hailing the deal's success in the less than perfect market conditions even as others criticised the pricing and relatively low level of oversubscription.

Indications during a premarketing lunch on Wednesday that Aluminium Corporation of China (Chalco), China's largest primary aluminium producer, would price its stock in its forthcoming IPO at a p/e multiple of 11.5-12.5 times are exaggerated, according to bankers working on the deal. They said that the p/e multiple would need to be close to five to eight times for the deal to appeal to international fund managers.

Australia SingTel Optus had its rating increased from A- with a positive outlook to A with a stable outlook by Standard & Poor's (S&P) this week. The agency said that following Singapore Telecommunications acquisition of Optus, the rating action reflects Optus's strategic role within the Australian growth plans of its 100% shareholder. The agency noted that the parent's support helped improve the company's outlook.

Dentsu, one of the world's largest advertising agencies, set a tentative price range for an initial public offering last Friday of ¥380,000-¥420,000, giving the company a market capitalisation of up to ¥584bn ($4.8bn). Dentsu management and lead banks Nomura, Merrill Lynch and UBS Warburg set the range last Friday, following an encouraging response from investors.

Deutsche Bank on Monday completed its first ever public debt or equity issue for DBS Group Holdings. The German bank raised S$2.2bn for DBSH in new equity capital through an agreed placement of S$1.15bn of stock to two fund managers and a S$1.05bn bought deal (underwritten by Deutsche) placed to local and international investors. It was the first large capital raising from a bank in Asia since late 1999. The two part offering included a 119.8m share placement to two large US institutional investors - Brandes Investment Partners and Capital Group International - at S$9.50 per share. A sticking point had been the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) rule that no single shareholder should own more than 5%. However, a solution was achieved by the two investment funds taking any shares in excess of 5% in the form of Singapore Depository Receipts and vesting the voting rights with professional proxy firms.

Australia Ainsworth Game Technology plans to sell 44% of its equity in an IPO to raise about A$50m. The company was founded by Les Ainsworth, who earlier founded an Australian company that has become the world's second largest slot machine maker, Aristocrat Leisure. He left Aristocrat in 1993 before it sold shares. Salomon Smith Barney is managing the sale.

BNP Paribas Peregrine scored a surprise success this week with the sale by unlisted China Travel Services (Holdings) Hong Kong of 220m secondary shares in Hong Kong listed China Travel International Investment Hong Kong (CTII). The deal went out as a 200m share placement and the 20m share greenshoe was exercised on Wednesday. BNPPP conducted the placement as an accelerated bookbuild that took place after the close of Hong Kong trading on Monday. The sale secured HK$321.2m at HK$1.46 per share, a 7% discount to Monday's close.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has accessed the markets again, with a $50m tap today (Friday) of its $350m November 2005 bond via the original lead manager, JP Morgan. The bond was priced at par, and carries a 9% coupon. Ba1/BB+ rated BSP already demonstrated surprising investor appeal for the original deal two weeks ago, despite rough market conditions at the time, it having been increased by $150m from the mandated size of $200m.

Australian Mortgage Securities (AMS), ABN Amro's in-house mortgage originator, will next week price its latest international ABS deal, offering $582m to European investors. Lead managed by ABN Amro with Deutsche Bank as co-manager the deal will be the third time AMS has tapped the European markets. It previously launched a $500m piece in July 1999 and in March 2000 it offered a $750m piece in Europe.

With only a few weeks left until the end of year holidays, issuers are looking keenly at opportunities in the Australian market. The elections this weekend do not appear to have diminished the appetite of borrowers, with two different trusts aiming to launch domestic transactions in the next two weeks and international natural resources producer BHP Billiton planning to issue its much delayed bond next week.

* General Electric Capital Corp Rating: Aaa/AAA