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Argentine bond prices plunged to levels not seen since the Tequila crisis yesterday (Thursday) as the government formally announced a restructuring of its $132bn of debt, a move that many analysts argued effectively adds up to a forced exchange.

Argentine bond prices plunged to levels not seen since the Tequila crisis yesterday (Thursday) as the government formally announced a restructuring of its $132bn of debt, a move that many analysts argued effectively adds up to a forced exchange.

Hong Kong Arrangers Tokyo-Mitsubishi International HK, BOCI Capital and HSBC have launched a HK$750m two year FRCD for the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (Hong Kong).

Asia * Macquarie Goodman Industrial Finance Pty Limited

AT&T is likely to be faced with wider launch spreads than lesser rated telcos in the week of November 12, when it should come to the market with $5bn-$7bn of five, 10 and 30 year bonds. The new transaction has been mandated to Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs and Salomon Smith Barney. The telco announced this week that it will turn to the fixed income markets to refinance about $6.5bn of short term paper maturing in the next three months, now that it has lost its top ratings in the commercial paper market.

Banco Itau Europa has set up a $500 million global CP and Euro-CD programme. Citibank is the arranger. Banco Itau Europa is the Portuguese subsidiary of Brazil's Banco Itau and is rated A1 by Companhia Portuguesa de Rating. The Euro-CP and CD dealers are Barclays Capital, BIE-Bank & Trust, Citibank and Invercaixa Valores. The US CP dealers are Merrill Lynch Money Markets and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith. A euro1 billion ($899.81 million) asset-backed Euro-CP programme has been signed under the name Premier Cru Funding Corporation. The sponsor of the facility is Rothschild. ABN Amro was the arranger of the vehicle, but Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch are the only two dealers on the programme.

Australia JP Morgan has been mandated to arrange the Australian dollar debt portion of the LBO for Bradken, the heavy engineering division of Smorgon Steel Group, by Castle Harlan Australian Mezzanine Partners. The deal will be launched in the next two weeks.

* Rabobank Australia Ltd Guarantor: Rabobank Nederland BV

We were genuinely sad to read the internal memo to Merrill Lynch staff asking whether some people would like to hold their hands up and take early retirement, take a sabbatical or find a comfortable berth with the opposition. As an inducement, Merrill would hand every volunteer leaver a large bag of swag as they filed through the exit. The memo was from the human resources department (not a proper job really is it?) but, unless you urgently require the services of a guide dog, the thumbprints of chairman David Komansky and president Stan O'Neal were clearly visible. Our long term respect for Merrill is beyond dispute but this memo, which should never have been distributed, marks a new psychological low in the company's fortunes. We say this for a number of reasons. First, the press immediately implied that it had been sent to every employee. We would bet you sixpence to a cheek-to-cheek dance with Liz Hurley or Elle Macpherson that Messrs Komansky and O'Neal were not asked to make up their minds. However, on the wire services appeared bold statements such as "Merrill Lynch is offering a severance package to all of its 65,900 staff to resign". What was your reaction when you saw a headline like that? We wondered, "what would happen if all 65,900 employees said "thanks a bunch Dave and Stan", and then ran for the hills. At a single stroke the world's best known securities house would disappear.

Pinault Printemps-Redoute (PPR), the French retailer, breathed some much needed life into the European equity capital markets this week as it completed a Eu1.4bn convertible, the first euro denominated issue since September. The deal has laid down a marker for other banks to show what can be achieved with a sensibly priced issue. The books opened on Tuesday morning at 8.15am Paris time and by midday they were eight times covered. The issue, excluding a Eu500m order from Artemis, the French holding company, generated Eu7.4bn worth of demand in four hours.