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UK pub company Punch Group has delayed the £250m tap of its first securitisation until next week. The issue, lead managed by Chase Manhattan and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, will finance the addition of 754 pubs to the portfolio backing Punch Taverns Finance Plc, a deal originally launched in March 1998.

Valtion asuntorahasto, the Housing Fund of Finland, priced its fifth and largest securitisation of loans to social housing providers last Friday to overwhelming demand from investors eager for an asset with an almost perfect credit record. BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse First Boston and Leonia Corporate Bank were joint bookrunners for the Eu800m deal, backed by loans that the Housing Fund (ARA) extends to local institutions that build, buy and refurbish housing to rent out at below market rates.

First Active Financial plc, the UK arm of Irish bank First Active, will today (Friday) launch its £500m securitisation of flexible residential mortgages backed by owner occupied properties. Led by JP Morgan, First Flexible No 3 plc will offer £460m of senior notes rated triple-A by Moody's and Standard and Poor's and a £40m 'B' piece rated A1/A.

Hedging volatility skew in equity derivative markets is non-trivial in that the delta calculation is subject to assumptions made on volatility surface dynamics.

China Mobile (Hong Kong), China's largest wireless telecommunications company, is forging ahead with a jumbo share offering to partly finance the purchase of seven cellular franchises from its parent company, China Mobile Communications Corp, for around $32.84bn. The company is seeking $4.1bn from a placement to institutions around the world. UK-based Vodafone Airtouch will take $2.5bn of the issue at the price determined by the bookbuild. This makes the equity issue $6.6bn in total. On top of that, there is also a greenshoe of 15%, in which Vodafone will not participate. If the greenshoe is exercised, the issue could add up to as much as $7.6bn.

Korea The Korean ministry of finance and economy announced that it would begin issuing seven year bonds in October to boost domestic liquidity.

Asia Asia Global Crossing was forced to scale back its IPO, slashing the price range of its American Depository Receipt (ADR) offering to $9-$11 from the original $14-$16, and cutting the shares on offer to 53m from 62.2m.

European investors will be offered a rare chance to buy Japanese ABS later this month when Hitachi Shinpan, the Japanese consumer finance company, launches a $120m securitisation of revolving consumer loans. Sole managed by ING Barings-BBL, the deal will use a master trust structure - only the second time the technique has been used in Japan, and the first time such a deal has been offered in Europe.

With the Olympics over, the Australian domestic debt issuance pipeline is rapidly filling up again. A new slew of issues will be offered by US consumer finance company Household Finance which is holding a roadshow next week to launch its medium term note programme for between A$1bn and A$2bn. The company will also be joined by domestic gas company Envestra Victoria, which is also holding a roadshow in the coming week.

The Korean government last Friday completed the sale of two-thirds of the remaining 6.84% stake it held through Korea Development Bank (KDB) in Pohang Iron & Steel (Posco). Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith Barney completed an accelerated bookbuild to sell 4.64% of Posco at $18.9375 per American Depository Receipt (ADR). But the proceeds were far below those the government might have achieved in June, when it was forced to postpone the sale.

The Korean government scored a major success with the sale of $1bn of exchangeable bonds by Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC). Bankers reported that the deal sold out in hours as it was cheap. The notes are exchangeable into 32.4m ordinary shares of Korea Electric Power Corporation, owned by KDIC.

Mass Transit Rapid Corporation (MTRC) shares surged almost 40% in early trading yesterday (Thursday) as retail and institutional investors that were disappointed with their allocations weighted up in the subway company's stock. By late morning, the shares were trading at HK$12.50, up 33% from their HK$9.38 offer price and up over 40% from the discounted price of HK$8.88 at which retail buyers were able to buy in the public offer.