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China BP Amoco is in discussions to invest about $200m in China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) as a precursor to the planned IPO of CNOOC, set for February next year. The investment would follow a purchase by Royal Dutch Shell, of between $200m and $400m of CNOOC shares as part of the IPO.

Unconfirmed newspaper reports appeared in Australia this week indicating that Foster's Brewing Group may move its A$700m hotel assets off balance sheet. If the deal takes place, bankers in Sydney believe the transaction will be through a listed property trust structure, although they have not discounted the possibility of an asset backed securities transaction.

The planned $3.5bn NYSE listing and American Depository Receipt (ADR) issue for Chunghwa Telecom has been greeted with market scepticism. "We are amazed the Taiwan government wants to proceed with a deal of this size when the market has been so weak and when the whole investment community is winding down for the year end," said a syndicate head in Hong Kong. "The whole float exercise to date has been a failure and an offer of this size at this time would be a Herculean task." The Taiwan government is under intense pressure at home and also from mainland China. Many believe the government will not last many more months as the pressure builds to restore political stability. The government appears adamant that it wants to secure roughly $3.5bn this year, rather than wait until 2001.

Monumental Global Funding was the major interest in the domestic Australian debt market this week, launching and then enlarging its debut Kangaroo bond. The issue proves the continuing appetite for foreign corporate names by the domestic investor base.

Abbey National's merger approach to the Bank of Scotland (BoS) last week has rekindled takeover speculation in the UK banking sector and underlined the positive event risk that accompanies borrowers from the sector. Last Friday (November 3), the Bank of Scotland (Aa3/A+/AA) issued a terse statement confirming that Abbey National (Aa2/AA/ AA) had contacted it with a view to reopening merger talks.

Altitude Software, a Portuguese based software firm, which was due to list on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange on Wednesday, has extended the order taking period, reduced the number of shares on offer and lowered the price from Eu15-Eu19 to Eu12. The company had to extend the offering period for regulatory reasons. "Because we did not have advertisements in the newspapers long enough to comply with regulations, we had to extend the offering period," said a banker involved in the sale.

Spreads on the bonds of Invensys, the controls and automation group, look set to recover after several weeks of turmoil following the company's acquisition of Baan and subsequent profits warning in September. Speculation over a bid for the company and news that the company may spin-off its power systems division more recently had caused further uncertainty, but Invensys maintains that investors' fears are overplayed.

Brazil's planned Samurai bond remains on track for issuance this month as Japanese retail investors continue to scramble for high yielding emerging market bonds, despite the turmoil Argentina's problems are causing in the dollar and euro denominated emerging markets. "The bond issue in Japan should come out by the end of the month," said Daniel Gleizer, the Brazilian central bank director of international affairs.

The announcement by British Telecom that it intends to float four of its businesses by the end of next year has added further to the packed pipeline of issues due from the telecoms related market during the first quarter of 2001. ABN Amro Rothschild and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter have been mandated for the first of the IPOs, directories business Yell, which could raise up to £2.5bn when it lists through a sale of 25% of the company toward the end of the first quarter.

Banco Santander Central Hispano's plan to issue £250m of 10 year lower tier two debt was disturbed this week as, despite solid earnings and an impressive management record, the Spanish bank's spreads widened relative to its sector on the back of negative sentiment towards Argentina. BSCH (Aa3/A+) was formed by last year's merger between Santander and Banco Central Hispanoamericano. The bank's asset quality is said by analysts to be solid, and it has a well developed network of European cross-holdings, but its Latin American operations constitute greater risk exposure than its European holdings.

The long awaited restructuring plans announced by BT this week were welcomed by bondholders, even if the company faces several obstacles to fully achieving its ambitions. The company detailed plans to create a new BT Group holding company, which it claims, will provide a more flexible operating structure and substantial revenue synergies from greater decentralisation. BT also believes that the new company can provide scope for further listings which would be advantageous to shareholders and customers.