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Bank of East Asia (BEA) is preparing to open this year's international bond issuance from Hong Kong, initiating a roadshow for a $500m subordinated debt issue on Monday. JP Morgan is bookrunner and lead manager for the Baa2/BBB rated deal from Hong Kong's fourth largest bank. Barclays Capital is co-lead manager in the transaction. BEA's wholly owned subsidiary, East Asia Finance, will launch the deal.

Bankers in Tokyo have confirmed that up to four institutional shareholders want to sell down large blocks of Toyota Motor shares and that the company intends to work with the sellers in a co-ordinated disposal effort similar to the ¥153bn offering of September 1999. The deal could range up to ¥350bn, depending on market conditions. Merrill Lynch, Nomura and UBS Warburg are joint global co-ordinators for the sale. The sellers are, as yet, undisclosed but are known to be large institutional shareholders. The deal, if it proceeds, could follow the format of the last cross-shareholding sale in September 1999, when three institutions sold 47.7m shares in Toyota at ¥3,217. Toyota management participated in the roadshow and the company took the opportunity to list on the New York and London stock exchanges.

Monumental Life Insurance has opened the door for this year's Kangaroo market, launching a A$300m four year bond issue, while Jackson National Life accessed the market for a A$300m five year transaction. The US-based insurance company launched the bond issue through its subsidiary Monumental Global Funding, splitting the transaction between a A$200m fixed rate tranche and a A$100m floating rate note. ABN Amro was sole lead manager for the transaction, with RBC Dominion Securities and National Australia Bank acting as co-managers. Monumental is rated AA+.

India Mascon Global, India's best performing stock in the past 12 months, intends to raise around $32m in fresh capital through the sale of stock to foreign institutional investors. Mascon develops software for Mastercard International. Shares in the company have risen almost 30-fold in the past year.

NTT DoCoMo is today (Friday) due to embark on premarketing for its presaged effort to raise around ¥900bn, the equivalent of around $7.75bn. The company wants to sell 460,000 shares and, as reported in EuroWeek last week, has hired Goldman Sachs and Nikko Salomon Smith Barney to handle the deal. The issue will move to a roadshow and bookbuild between January 22 and February 2, with pricing around February 5 or 6, according to senior bankers. The premarketing begins in the US and Europe today (Friday) and in Tokyo on Monday.

Premarketing of the CNOOC dual listing on the New York Stock Exchange and in Hong Kong began on Monday this week. CNOOC will sell 1.642bn shares of which 88% are new shares and 12% secondary from the government holding. There is also a greenshoe of up to 13.17% of the offer. Bank of China International, Credit Suisse First Boston and Merrill Lynch are jointly handling the transaction.

Crédit Lyonnais Securities Asia (CLSA) got off to a rapid start in 2001 by selling a block of 180m shares in Sino Land to raise HK$783m ($100m). The issue is the first large share sale of the new year and, by most accounts, was not an easy deal. "Several property companies have been feeling out the market to raise money, and we are pleased to have completed the deal in what are still rather volatile conditions," said Adam Moss on the syndicate desk at CLSA.

South Africa The $100m loan for RMB International (Dublin) has been launched to general syndication. Mandated arranger Mizuho Financial Services has been joined by arrangers Bayerische Landesbank, Crédit Agricole Indosuez, HypoVereinsbank, KBC and Standard Chartered. First Union Bank joined as a senior co-arranger.

Akademiska Hus has reopened the Sfr200 million ($124.04 million) bond issue launched in December 2000. The first Sfr200 million tranche goes live on January 19 and the second tranche, announced yesterday, is also for Sfr200 million and will be issued on February 8. The public bond, totalling Sfr400 million, will mature in Janaury 2006 and it pays a final coupon of 3.750%. Credit Suisse First Boston lead managed the bond. Agneta Rodosi, treasurer at Akademiska Hus, says: "We consider Swiss franc very suitable for us and it is a very good complement to the japanese market, so we would like to focus on these two segments. The Japanese market can be quite slow and the funding is often for longer-dated notes. The Swiss market is a bit shorter, but we're also aware it could offer opportunities for longer funding." She adds: "The Sfr400 million bond is a big amount for us, so we have no concrete plans for another public issuance just yet." The borrower signed its $1 billion debt issuance programme in 1998 and this year's issuance has already almost doubled on last year's. In 2000 it issued three notes, totalling $130.09 million.

Hong Kong Co-ordinating arrangers BOCI Capital, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, China Construction Bank (Hong Kong), Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (Hong Kong), Mizuho Financial Group, Sanwa Bank (Hong Kong), Standard Chartered Bank and Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (Hong Kong) have launched a HK$4.25bn dual tranche fundraising for Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals.

Australia SG is inviting banks to join a A$420m five year term loan for HEI Transmission Finance, guaranteed by Hong Kong Electric Co Ltd.

Asia * Alco Japan