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The Turkish banking sector's liquidity crisis has resulted in a number of negative credit rating actions affecting the sovereign and the banking sector. The Republic of Turkey's B+ long term and B short term ratings have been taken off positive outlook by Standard and Poor's (S&P). The agency took the position that the liquidity crisis posed a serious threat to the stabilisation programme. The agency announced its move on Tuesday, one day before the IMF made public a $10m rescue package, including a $7.5m Supplemental Reserve Facility, for Turkey - twice as much as the market had anticipated.

The Turkish banking sector's liquidity crisis has resulted in a number of negative credit rating actions affecting the sovereign and the banking sector. The Republic of Turkey's B+ long term and B short term ratings have been taken off positive outlook by Standard and Poor's (S&P). The agency took the position that the liquidity crisis posed a serious threat to the stabilisation programme. The agency announced its move on Tuesday, one day before the IMF made public a $10m rescue package, including a $7.5m Supplemental Reserve Facility, for Turkey - twice as much as the market had anticipated.

Bradford & Bingley (B&B) raised £650m for its customers when it floated this week, but many analysts said investors should wait to see if the company's diversification strategy pays off before buying shares. B&B sold 262.6m shares, representing 38.5% of the company, at an auction managed by ABN Amro and Goldman Sachs on Friday. The highest bidders received allocations, and had to pay the price they bid. The average price of orders receiving allocation was 247.9p, and the bulk of the successful orders were between 240p and 255p.

Transmission company Antenna Hungaria postponed an equity issue for the second time in six months when it delayed its $60m secondary issue this week. Although retail investors will still receive the shares they ordered, the institutional tranche has been delayed. The sale, run by HSBC and CAIB, was due to reduce the stake of privatisation and state holding company APV from 87% to 50%. Of the 5m shares issued, about 1.5m would have been capital increase.

Argentina is locking in commitments from local market makers and pension funds to provide it with about $13bn worth of financing aid in the year ahead in the form of promises to buy new bonds and roll over debt. The commitments are expected to be part of a $20bn-$30bn IMF-led aid package the government hopes to unveil early in the week ahead. Reports varied on the exact size and structure of the various commitments.

ASB Bank has increased the ceiling of its $750 million Euro-MTN programme to $1.5 billion. The New Zealand bank has $620.90 outstanding off 13 trades, all of which are yen-denomoinated and have maturioties of one to three years.

Hong Kong BOCI Capital and HSBC Investment Bank Asia have launched a HK$3.4bn four year fundraising for Kowloon Properties, a joint venture between Harbour Centre Development, New Asia Realty & Trust Co, Realty Development Corp, Wharf (Holdings) and Wheelock & Co.

Asia * HK Synthetic MBS Co Ltd

AssiDoman, Sweden's leading forest products company, is signing a euro1 billion ($1.09 billion) Euro-MTN programme. A launch date at the end of Spring is planned, with an inaugural issue off the facility expected soon after. The aim of the programme is to attract international investors to the credit and to streamline its public and private issuance documentation under one facility. It also gives the issuer the flexibility to access Asian markets. Merrill Lynch has beaten off stiff competition to be chosen as programme arranger. Johan Lagercrantz, group treasurer, AssiDoman, says: "Merrill Lynch is well placed to arrange our programme given its long-established presence in the market. But it was a very close race and a hard decision to make." The borrower promises to be consistently active in the market this year. Its preference initially will be for plain vanilla deals with maturities of between five and 10 years. Although open to a range of currencies, the borrower will predominantly fund itself in euros. AssiDoman, operates over 90 facilities in countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy and France. It is one of the largest pulp and paper companies in Europe. Its quite substantial asset base includes 3.3 million hectares of forest land, which is enough to cover an area the size of Belgium. It joins its rival, Metsa Serla, who signed last year. Standard and Poor's rates AssiDoman's senior long-term debt A- and a senior long-term debt rating is also expected from Moody's in the near future. This rating is a good grading for a borrower in an industry which is known for being cyclical in nature and therefore more open to uncertainty. Lagercrantz, at AssiDoman, says: "Our rating is a very strong one for our industry. On top of that, we have substantial hidden values in our forest land." Dealers off the programme are ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Salomon Smith Barney, SEB, Warburg Dillon Read and the arranger.

Asset-backed Capital, the triple-A Cayman Island vehicle, made its debut in Australian dollars. Since signing, via CSFB in 1996, it has raised $3.27 billion off 85 issues in nine different currencies, but this is its first time in Aussie dollar. The A$20 million note ($10.73 million) note matures on November 14 2001.

* Commerzbank AG Rating: Aa3/AA-/A+