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Paul Greenberg, the head of high-yield research at Bear Stearns and a 10-year veteran of the firm, as well as a multi-year member through 1999 of the Institutional Investor fixed-income All America team in forest and paper products, has announced his retirement, according to a Bear Stearns executive. He says that Greenberg gave his departure date as "mid-July at the latest." While Greenberg did not indicate why he made this choice, he said little about his future plans to his colleague, other than to note "that he would take some time off, and then probably wind up on the buy-side."

Henry Schmeltzer, executive director of structured credit trading, has joined Merrill Lynch as head of structured credit products for Europe, Middle East and Africa in London. The position is part of an expansion to the team, according to a spokesman, who declined further comment.

Australia Envestra Victoria plans a roadshow next week to market a A$250m issue of capital indexed bonds and floating rate notes credit wrapped by monoline insurer Financial Security Assurance (FSA). Fitch, Moody's and Standard & Poor's have rated the issue triple-A.

Argentina * Telecom Argentina STET - France Télécom SA

Household Finance has returned to the Japanese debt market for the third time in 12 months, raising ¥40bn through a two tranche Samurai bond issue this week. Strong demand prompted an increase from the originally planned size of ¥20bn. Joint lead managed by Merrill Lynch and Mizuho Securities, the ¥20bn two year tranche of the deal was priced at a spread of 20bp over yen Libor, while the ¥20bn five year issue was priced with a coupon of 0.88%, to give a coupon of 45bp over yen Libor.

Australian non-bank mortgage lender RAMS Home Loans Pty Ltd achieved tight pricing on its 14th domestic securitisation and its third this year, when it launched its A$550m transaction last week. Salomon Smith Barney was arranger and CIBC World Market Asset Securitisation was co-arranger.

RoadShow Holdings has completed its 240m share offering at HK$2.25 per share, at the top end of the HK$1.69-HK$2.25 price range indicated during marketing. The advertising unit of Hong Kong's Kowloon Motor Bus Holdings raised HK$540m ($69m). Retail demand was so strong that there was a clawback from the institutional placement, with local investors taking 53% of the offering (including 3% to KMB shareholders) and the institutional placement taking the rest.

YTL Power yesterday (Thursday) completed the first equity-linked bond issue from Malaysia for four years. The deal, issued through YTL Power Finance (Cayman) Limited but guaranteed by YTL Power International, was priced at the wide end of the indicated range, and sold mainly to convertible funds and fixed income investors. The bonds are exchangeable into YTL Power ordinary stock.

After several weeks of anticipation, Citic Ka Wah Bank launched its lower tier two subordinated debt issue this week to solid market interest, underpinned by a healthy Asian bid. The global sub debt deal, launched through offshore vehicle CKWB (Cayman Islands), is part of the Hong Kong banks' effort to increase its capital adequacy ratio, in preparation, it is believed, for an acquisition in Hong Kong's financial sector.

McDonald's Japan and its shareholders will sell 26.2m shares before listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's over the counter (OTC) market on July 26. The pricing indication in regulatory filing is ¥3,500, indicating a placement of around ¥92bn, but bankers believe the final price could be as much as ¥5,000 per share, giving a size of more than ¥130bn.

Korea Telecom, the country's largest fixed line telephone company, sold a 17.8% government stake to overseas investors yesterday (Thursday), raising $2.24bn before fees in American Depository Receipts (ADRs). The Korean government sold 111m shares at $20.20 each, reducing its stake in Korea Telecom (KT) to 40.1% from 57.9%. The final $20.20 price was at a marginal discount to Wednesday's $20.35 New York closing price and a slight premium to the W52,300 closing price of the underlying stock in Seoul on Wednesday.

The Japanese government again indicated this week that it might not proceed with the next NTT privatisation tranche, hinting that it would consider other ways of selling down the stock. A group of banks - Daiwa SMBC, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Nikko Salomon Smith Barney, Nomura Securities and UBS Warburg - was assembled to discuss the alternatives.