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China China's fixed line telephone company, China Telecommunications, is targeting between $6bn and $7bn from its listing planned for next year, making it non-Japan Asia's largest ever IPO. The firm plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange and in Hong Kong. It also wants to draw in strategic partners in a deal similar to the template of the PetroChina and Sinopec deals this year.

Perennial RMBS issuer RAMS Home Loans made its second entry of the year into the domestic market this week, launching a deal of A$600m through Salomon Smith Barney. RAMS Series 9 is due to be priced today (Friday). Most of the deal, A$450m, was placed privately to investors following reverse inquiry. The public tranche totalled A$120m and is structured as a soft bullet, rather than an amortising pass through.

Taiwan Ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) revised its outlook on Taiwan from stable to negative, while affirming its AA+ long term and A-1+ short term credit ratings for the country.

Just a day after arranging its first fixed rate bond issue for five years, Telekom Malaysia saw the spread on its highly acclaimed $300m 10 year Rule 144a Reg S bond issue widen by 10bp and priced at 262.5bp over Treasuries in New York late last Thursday. The poor secondary market performance of the Baa2/BBB deal, which was joint lead managed by Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch and has a coupon of 8%, prompted some bankers to comment that support for the transaction has been lacking and the quality of the original book was not strong enough.

French state-controlled Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) will sign a euro2 billion ($2.19 billion) Euro-MTN programme. A signing date in April has been set and Paribas has won the arrangership mandate. The borrower, formerly Caisse Francaise de Developpement, is unique in that its notes can carry the guarantee of the French government. Notes issued without the guarantee will still attract investors since the long-term debt of AFD is rated triple-A by Standard & Poor's and Aaa by Moody's. AFD funds economic projects in over 80 locations in developing countries and in overseas French territories. It also acts on behalf of various French ministries. It is seen as a borrower of the same calibre as Caisse d'Amortissement de la Dette sociale (Cades) and Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau which both signed programmes in the last year. The funding target for the first year of the programme is planned to be around the euro1 billion mark. The first issue off the facility is expected to be a euro300 million transaction and will come to market shortly after the programme signs. The borrower is a regular issuer in the euromarket but this programme will be used to tap the private placement market on an opportunistic basis. Patrice Mollie, finance manager at AFD, thinks setting up this facility will simplify issuing procedures for the borrower. He says: "We can get good opportunities for medium-sized issues from the MTN programme. This is important for us because AFD will not be making issues of any great amount. This facility makes issuance more convenient for us." When asked how AFD will differentiate itself from Cades, Mollie says: "We don't have the same liquidity as Cades but we have the rarity value." Paribas Luxembourg is the IPA and the borrower has still to make a final decision on the dealer group.

South Africa EuroWeek hears that Fuji Bank is arranging a $100m facility for Rand Merchant Bank International (Dublin) (RMB International). The borrower is an offshore funding subsidiary of the FirstRand Bank group. The facility is guaranteed by FirstRand Bank Ltd.

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.