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Australia The Australian debt market was subdued following the news of the terrorist attack, in sympathy with global markets. Trading yesterday (Thursday) was mostly restricted to government debt and a small amount of corporate trading, while the primary market was inactive.

Hong Kong Despite news reports to the contrary, bankers in Hong Kong believe that premarketing for Standard Chartered's planned Hong Kong listing and simultaneous £500m equivalent new share issue will proceed on schedule, although lead manager Goldman Sachs was not available for comment. Cazenove is joint lead manager.

All asset backed deals that were set to be launched in Australia this week have been put on hold following the events in the US. However, two deals did get priced earlier this week before the crisis. The $1.2bn global deal by Macquarie Securitisation Ltd has been postponed, while Adelaide Bank has also withdrawn its A$600m RMBS, which it first announced on Monday, from marketing.

As capital market participants based in Asia Pacific absorb the impact of the week's news, the consensus is that while uncertainty prevails, the equity new issues market will remain quiet. However, deals can be completed, as Macquarie Bank proved with its new share issue in the aftermath of Tuesday's carnage in New York. Macquarie Bank, the only listed investment bank in Australia, raised A$500m in an overnight bookbuild that began after close of trading Sydney time on Tuesday, shortly before the terrorist onslaught in the US.

Dollar denominated Latin bonds lost two to three points yesterday (Thursday) as a shell-shocked market grappled with the devastation at some of the biggest broker-dealer firms making markets in Latin bonds, which were housed in the World Trade Centre. Only Chilean corporate Celulosa Arauco managed to raise funds during a week that had been expected to provide a healthy flow of Latin bonds. Arauco's $400m 7.75% 10 year investment grade deal, which was priced on Monday, was a blowout, as expected. The deal, led by JP Morgan, was increased from $300m and priced at a spread of 295bp over Treasuries, the tight end of the 300bp area guidance.

Australia The Australian government is awaiting final bids for the last airport in its portfolio, Sydney Airport, the crown jewel of the airport privatisation plan.

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) has come to the market with a $2 billion Euro-CP programme. Lehman Brothers is the arranger. The programme replaces the issuer's existing $1 billion Euro-CP programme that was signed under the name of Banco Exterior de Espana. The dealer panel is the arranger, the issuer, Barclays Capital, Citibank, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, The Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS Warburg.

BNP Paribas has neared completion of the build-out of its Indian equities operations with the appointment of Chandrahas Deshpande as chief operating officer (COO) for Indian equities. Deshpande will join on September 17 from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, where he was head of financial control and operations for India. He will be based in Mumbai and will report to Pankaj Talwar, head of Indian equities, and Shefali Shah, head of investment banking, India.

Following months of negotiations, the purchase agreement for the Eu2.6bn acquisition of Cognis by Schroder Ventures and Goldman Sachs Partners was signed on September 12. The banks arranging the debt are Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citibank/SSSB and HypoVereinsbank. As the deal comes so soon after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the two equity sponsors were granted an opt-out clause.

Stephen Hester is to leave Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) at the end of the year. Hester, once thought of as a future leader of the firm, heads the fixed income division, which is being abolished as new CEO John Mack continues his effort to remodel CSFB after Mack's old firm, Morgan Stanley.