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Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa slashed its stake in Vodafone Airtouch this week with a $3bn exchangeable that was among the largest equity linked issues ever — and by far the largest from Asia.

TWO more banks will add to the large volume of loans from Iceland this year. BGB has launched a $100m term loan for Landsbanki Islands, whilst LB Kiel is moving into the market with a $20m-$25m financing for Reykjavik Savings Bank (Spron).

India The ¥5bn 2-1/2 year fundraising for National Thermal Power Corp, co-ordinated by Sumitomo Bank, was signed yesterday (Thursday). The co-ordinator held ¥1bn.

ING BARINGS completed the largest accelerated global tender ever on Tuesday, with the sale of Eu3.12bn worth of its stake in ABN Amro. ING launched the deal after ABN Amro shares had closed on Monday at Eu27.19. The price came down over the course of the day, closing Tuesday at Eu26.31, but ING managed to price the issue at Eu26, offering a discount of just 1.18%. A slimmer discount was impossible because orders were price sensitive around Eu26.

Banca delle Marche is to sign a euro1 billion ($859.1 million) Euro-MTN programme on September 26. Lehman Brothers is the arranger. The Italian regional bank has already announced its inaugural issue. The three-year euro200 million floating rate note is due on September 29. Lehman Brothers is lead manager. The bank is unrated, although it says it will obtain a rating in the future. Pier Franco Giorgi, chief financial officer at Banca delle Marche, says: "Having a rating is important but we can still enlarge our market base without one. It can't guarantee success and not having one won't stop us from informing investors about our financial status and establishing ourselves in the capital markets." Banca delle Marche has no immediate plans to do a roadshow but will consider it after signing. The issuer previously funded itself through regional loans and will use the MTN shelf to access international funds. Giorgi says: "The programme will finance growth and general banking activity and it will also help to diversify our investor base." The dealer panel is Credit Agricole Indosuez, Deutsche Bank, Istituto Mobiliare Italiano, Merrill Lynch, UniCredito Italiano and the arranger. It is the sixth Italian bank to sign a Euro-MTN programme in 2000. It follows these banks into the Euro-MTN market this year: Banca Agricola Mantovana, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Banca Popolare di Lodi, Banca Agrileasing and Banca Commerciale Italiana, also arranged by Lehman Brothers.

Sporting goods manufacturer Head will be hoping its strong brand name and reputation for innovative products will aid the bookbuild of its $240m-$335m IPO. As a company incorporated in Holland, Head is able to list with two types of fully fungible shares - registered shares in New York and bearer shares in Vienna. The company will issue 23.96m shares. Of these, 14,583,333 will be new, 6,250,000 will be existing shares and 3,125,000 will make up the greenshoe. Assuming the greenshoe is not exercised, the freefloat after the issue will be 52.7%. Johan Eliasch, who bought the company in 1996, will reduce his stake from 96% to 45.5%.

Lehman Brothers completed the Skr700m (Eu83m) IPO of on-line recruitment firm Jobline this week, although the deal was priced in the bottom half of the range. The company sold 10m capital increase shares at Skr70, from a range of Skr64-Skr80. The deal was 2-1/2 to three times covered, and some high quality investors placed orders of a decent size, but two important accounts set a price limit of Skr70. "There were some people," said a banker close to the deal, "who were a little bit wary of the sector."

Argentina The $165m one year L/C facility for Banco de Galicia de Buenos Aires SA has been completed oversubscribed.

* Nordic Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

ABN AMRO appears to be near vindicating its confidence in the power of the Interbrew name after a strong week of selling down the brewing company's Eu5.47bn facility. The loan is the largest sole underwritten credit so far this year and is the largest sole underwriting ABN has ever attempted.

South Africa Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Citibank/SSSB and Dresdner are believed to be launching a $100m loan for a South African bank, possibly BoE. The deal has gone to arrangers and co-arrangers.