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The Hong Kong government has priced the IPO of Mass Transit Railway Corp at a modest level to ensure both retail and institutional success. The range of HK$8-HK$9.38 per share for the sale of 20% of the company is attracting strong interest from institutions following the official launch of the roadshow yesterday (Thursday).

ABN Amro's mortgage funding company, Australian Mortgage Securities Ltd, this week priced one of the largest domestic MBS issues with a A$750m issue, ARMS II Fund VIII. ABN Amro was sole manager for the deal, which offered two tranches rated triple-A by all three agencies and a subordinated piece rated AA- by Fitch and Standard & Poor's.

The announcement that Chase Manhattan would be taking over JP Morgan has prompted a diverse response in the Asia Pacific region. In particular opinion has been markedly divided about how the banks will deal with the overlap between the two debt capital market divisions. Chase and JP Morgan have been keen to put a positive spin on the potential synergies and co-operation that could be achieved following Chase's takeover.

Asia Global Crossing initiated its much anticipated global roadshow for an estimated $400m high yield senior notes issue this week, one of the few high yield transactions from the region this year. The B2/B rated holding company - the Asia based partnership between US fibre-optics network company Global Crossing, Microsoft and Softbank - is combining the global bond offering with an IPO for roughly 10% of the company. The roadshow began this week in Tokyo, before moving to Singapore and then Hong Kong. Next week, the roadshow goes to Europe, according to officials at lead managers Chase Securities and Merrill Lynch. The transaction is expected to be for about $400m, with a 10 year maturity, and prices on October 2.

* Nordic Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

* Rising oil prices could turn wind-power industries into gold mines. Like its German peer Energiekontor, Gamesa, a Spanish aeronautics and windfarm equipment maker is planning to float 30%, or Eu218m, of its capital on Madrid's Bolsa in October. BBVA and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney will be global co-ordinators.

Standard Chartered has added Credit Suisse First Boston as a dealer to its $3 billion debt issuance programme.

* Abbey National plc Rating: Aa3/A+

The bulging pipeline of debt that had been spectacularly growing for the past four weeks finally broke over the global capital markets this week. On Tuesday alone, $5bn of new debt was printed in the US high grade sector. There has been prodigious issuance in both the dollar and euro markets with more to come. Ten year dollar swap spreads fell to 124bp over the 5.75% August 2010 Treasury by yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, about 3bp tighter than a week ago. The five year mid-market came to 94.5bp over the 6.75% May 2005 Treasury, almost 2bp tighter on the week.

Supranationals have been rushed off their feet this quarter. Strong investor demand from Japan means printing tickets has never been easier and sterling has provided opportunities too, particularly with reopenings. But some dealers say this high will not last. Some supranationals are even hoping the pace will slow down to let them breathe. The third quarter of 2000 is not over yet but issuance from supranationals already stands at $5.37 billion, compared with $3.06 billion in the second quarter (see graph). One supranational that has been particularly busy is International Finance Corp (IFC). It has raised $930.98 million off private trades (MTNWeek criteria) this quarter. IFC has never issued this much in one quarter before. John Borthwick, IFC's chief financial officer, says private placements have taken off in the past year. He says: "Until about a year ago we weren't prepared to look at smaller trades, because it wasn't economic for us, but we are issuing more now. All our small MTN trades are reverse enquiry, and have been structured to meet the needs of particular investors. We are certainly doing more trades than before, including lots of structures into Japan." And issuance into Japan is mainly investor driven. Japanese buyers like issuers with low credit risk, and the triple-A supranationals have good name recognition as well as being first-rate credits. DKB International (DKB) has been the bookrunner off 26 yen issues for supranational borrowers this year. An official at DKB says: "We have seen a few new investors coming into the market that want strong credit but also want a higher yield from well-known names. The supranational issuers are perfect for these investors, especially as they will normally give liquidity and buy back their own paper if there is no market bid. Selling a structured note by IFC to this investor group is a lot easier than lesser known triple-A rated issuers." Other supranationals agree that issuance has increased. Danielle Coolen-Prentice, African Development Bank's head of funding, says that the last few weeks have been exceptionally busy. So far this year the bank has issued 40 trades, all in yen. But Coolen-Prentice suggests there are other reasons for the strong investor demand. She says: "The first five months of 2000 have been quiet mainly for two reasons: there was an overall slowdown because of low interest rates, and Japanese investors closed their books early for Japan's fiscal year end on March 31. And mark-to-market policies were introduced at the end of March. The investors were very cautious early in the new fiscal year since they needed to analyse the impact of this new rule before buying new structured bonds." But yen is not the only currency to attract supranationals. Sterling tops the currency league for trades issued by supranationals in 2000, with $3.42 billion-worth (MTNWeek criteria). Yen comes second with $3.39 billion. Nordic Investment Bank (Nordic) has issued $1.11 billion-worth of sterling trades in 2000. And it issued more this quarter than in any previous quarter. Kari Kukka, head of funding at Nordic, says: "We have been unusually busy and the reason for this activity is the good opportunities, especially in sterling. That market has been nicely alive and we've done two inflation-linked notes, but mostly plain vanilla." Many trades in sterling have been fungible with trades and bonds issued earlier in the year, or even last year. These are very attractive to investors and IFC has issued three such trades this year. Borthwick, at IFC, explains that they give liquidity to buyers. He says: "There have been opportunities in sterling, particularly fungible trades, because it can raise significant volumes in one issue and the costs are good. There's value for investors in having large trades as it provides them with greater liquidity." Gavin Eddy, head of Euro-MTN trading at UBS Warburg, explains why these are so popular: "Sterling trades by supranationals are mainly reopenings. This is driven by the widening of the swap spread." And there are other reasons why supranationals have been busy. Sovereign issuers are generally borrowing less and the triple-A rated landesbanks are fending off threats to their guarantee system. This may push triple-A investors to alternative issuers. Merrill Lynch has been lead dealer off 13 supranational issues this year, according to MTNWare. Dean Fogg, Euro-MTNs at the bank, says: "Strong demand for supranational and sovereign issuers in sterling is due mainly to the lack of issuance from the UK government - due to revenue from the UK telecom auctions, coupled with growth in the economy. And the need from the pension funds for sovereign paper is forcing spreads ever wider." The question now is whether or not the high level of issuance will continue. Some dealers think it is bound to slow down. Eddy, at UBS Warburg, says: "As long as the swap spread remains wide, investor appetite in the UK will be high. But as soon as spreads come back in, this is likely to disappear." And Coolen-Prentice, at African Development Bank, says: "Issuance might drop off a bit. Even if the fourth quarter only sees half the activity I would still be very happy."

Over $4bn of subordinated debt hit the international markets this week as a broad array of financials tapped into several investor bases to take advantage of investors' growing appetite for bank capital. SanPaolo IMI issued the largest ever lower tier two floater, selling Eu1bn via Banca IMI, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. The issue, which was accompanied by a Eu100m tap of the bank's Eu400m 10 year fixed rate bond sold in March, was priced at the tight end of the spread talk at Euribor plus 70bp.