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Should an issuer whose shares have crashed nearly 80% in the past year err on the side of caution when raising new funds? The answer is almost certainly yes, but lead manager Merrill Lynch ran into criticism this week that the $500m SEC registered convertible bond it arranged for Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing was far too cheap. Merrill gave investors a pleasant Monday morning surprise when the firm launched a $350m convertible bond for Chartered. By Wednesday the bank had completed the deal at $500m with the books more than 10 times covered. There is also a $75m greenshoe.

Citibank this week priced the fifth and sixth securitisations of its Australian residential mortgages through its Compass Master Trust programme. Each deal was worth A$130m. Orders were strong enough for lead manager Salomon Smith Barney to price the issues inside the anticipated range and one day early.

Following Singapore Telecommunication's (SingTel) successful bid for Cable & Wireless Optus this week, the company stirred market contention when it revealed its plans on payment options to Optus shareholders, including an international bond issue. SingTel's bid, which still depends on minority shareholder approval from Optus, valued the Australian mobile phone operator at about A$17.2bn ($8.4bn). Analysts estimate that the Singapore-based telecoms company has cash of about $3bn on hand, leaving a financing gap for the acquisition. Optus is the second largest mobile telephone operator in Australia.

Hong Kong Pacific Century Cyberworks (PCCW) announced a total

Australia Bankers in Australia were disappointed to learn that the government has decided that a trade sale will achieve more than an IPO for Sydney Airports.

US-based Heller Financial arranged a A$350m bond issue in quiet Australian markets this week, taking advantage of continued good demand. The two tranche deal due in 2003 was split between a A$250m fixed rate tranche and a A$100m floating rate note (FRN) tranche. Due to demand the fixed rate tranche was increased in size from the original size of A$200m.

Deutsche Bank yesterday (Thursday) completed a $180m convertible bond issue for Taiwanese D-ram manufacturer ProMos Technologies, pricing the deal a day earlier than expected following strong demand. There is also a $20m greenshoe. The five year notes carry a zero coupon, a conversion premium of 17.5% (15%-20% indicated) and a two year put at 110.86% (109.22%-110.83% indicated), to yield 100bp over Treasuries. There is also a two year call subject to a 135% trigger. Deutsche estimated the bond floor at around 94.5 and the implied volatility at 23.

The market has reacted negatively to the decision by the UK's Cable & Wireless (C&W) to sell its Australian unit, Optus, to Singapore Telecommunications. At the time of the announcement the stock and cash offer was worth between A$14.9bn and A$16.1bn. But within days, the value of the offer had shrunk to between A$13.5bn and A$14.2bn as SingTel shares plunged 14% to an all-time low of S$1.88. Since the deal was made public - before the market opened on Monday - shares in SingTel plummeted 22%.

Despite lead manager JP Morgan's assertions last week that the S$300m sale of SembCorp Industries stock would go ahead, the deal was scrapped on Wednesday afternoon. The company announced that the fund raising in relation to acquisitions would not go ahead due to adverse global market conditions. Bankers report the book was barely covered when the issue was pulled.

SG this week kept up the busy pace of Australian structured finance business it has set this year with a A$500m issue from its in-house mortgage financing programme, Resimac. Residential Mortgage Acceptance Corp is a trust manager and servicer that funds mortgages for about 40 small originators in Australia, as well as for the larger AIMS Home Loans.

EuroWeek understands that Abbey National Treasury Services and Barclays Capital have won the mandate to arrange and underwrite some £1.45bn in debt facilities to support the politically sensitive acquisition of 46% and the voting rights of the UK’s National Air Traffic System (NATS) by The Airline Group.

EuroWeek understands that Abbey National Treasury Services and Barclays Capital have won the mandate to arrange and underwrite some £1.45bn in debt facilities to support the politically sensitive acquisition of 46% and the voting rights of the UK’s National Air Traffic System (NATS) by The Airline Group.