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Hong Kong The deadline for the HK$3.3bn, 15 year project financing for Hong Kong International Theme Park, arranged by Chase Manhattan Asia, is October 27.

Despite looking into the abyss on Wednesday, when stock markets looked set to plunge the financial world into a desperate October to match those of the Russian and Asian crises, fixed income players can look forward to the coming week with a hint of optimism. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened sharply lower, hitting levels not reached since March 1999. Depressed by earnings warnings and missed forecasts from both old and new economy stocks, and few signs of peace in the Middle East, investors panicked.

Australia A railway project connecting central and northern Australia, the Darwin-to-Alice Springs Rail, has received government approval.

Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter managed to complete the Eu535m IPO of financial advisory group AWD yesterday (Thursday) despite having to delay the end of the subscription period because the prospectus had been incorrectly amended. The company also had to price the shares at the bottom of the Eu54-Eu62 range as investors shied away from a falling market in Germany.

Our moles down at the Dead Bond Trader public house in the fetid swamps of Canary Wharf (we are already receiving complaints from the Salomon Smith Barney new arrivals), say that the DLJ bondies who passed the CSFB smell test were chained to the galley oars at 1, Cabot Square on Monday this week. The new oar pullers totalled around 60 out of the 110 who formerly led a blissful life at DLJ. That is quite a respectable retention ratio and supports the CSFB view that the firm is far more user friendly than we have recently been suggesting. The new global fixed income supremo at CSFB, the supremely artful Stephen Hester, has clearly been very successful at pouring oil on troubled waters. We would expect nothing less and let us be the first to congratulate Hester on his decision to promote John Walsh in New York. In the recent CSFB bond reshuffle, a friend at Goldman Sachs had suggested that Walsh "would be turned into a spam sandwich". Our response, mentioned in these columns last week, was that the ebullient Walsh had more lives than a cat and could teach survival in the jungle to Dr Livingston and Henry Morton Stanley. We are delighted to say that our Goldman pal now owes us $100.

Baltimore Technologies completed a £167m fundraising and sell-down by venture capital firms this week, despite the stock falling 13% on the day of placing, in what bankers described as a "struggle in the face of immense adversity". The total raised in the deal, which was lead managed by Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, was sharply down from the £200m plus expected last week and the £290m expected when the deal was announced in September. Bankers said the deal was 1.5 times covered.

Baltimore Technologies completed a £167m fundraising and sell-down by venture capital firms this week, despite the stock falling 13% on the day of placing, in what bankers described as a "struggle in the face of immense adversity". The total raised in the deal, which was lead managed by Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, was sharply down from the £200m plus expected last week and the £290m expected when the deal was announced in September. Bankers said the deal was 1.5 times covered.

Banco di Napoli has put a fresh foot forward in the international capital markets by signing a euro2 billion ($2.16 billion) Euro-MTN programme on Tuesday, October 19. One market participant says: "This is the last of the big important Italian banks to sign." The signing highlights the bank's return to international capital markets following its two public transactions earlier this year. It hopes that having a Euro-MTN programme in place will give it the chance to regenerate market interest in its name, as well as giving it efficient funding opportunities. The number of Italian borrowers to join the market this year stands at 12, following Banco di Napoli's signing. Seven of these are banks. And this is the fourth time that Merrill Lynch has been chosen by an Italian borrower to be programme arranger. Banco di Napoli is the eighth largest bank in Italy with consolidated assets of L63 trillion ($35.18 billion). Its network of 731 branches, mostly in southern regions, is one of the largest in the country. The bank has almost 20% of the southern Italian banking market. The dealer group is made up of Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse First Boston, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Paribas, Warburg Dillon Read and the issuer itself. The programme is rated Baa1 by Moody's and triple-B by Standard & Poor's for its senior unsecured debt.

Bladex has added Barclays Capital, HSBC and Nomura as dealers off its $2.25 billion Euro-MTN facility. The programme, signed in 1994, now has a 20-strong dealer panel.

BNP Paribas has released further details about its internet platform for Euro-MTNs, MTNMaster. The system was announced last week at the global medium term note market conference. And Daniel Cogoi, BNP Paribas' head of Euro-MTNs, is confident the site improves on UBS Warburg's system, which is its only rival in the market. "MTNMaster puts the whole cycle of buying an MTN, from A to Z, online," he says. Investors can type in exactly what sort of trade they are looking for in the Project Monitor section of the site. The system then informs all issuers that are looking to launch a similar trade. But though MTNMaster can match issuers and investors, even for structured trades, the telephone will remain central to trading. "We feel issuers are not yet ready to go for a full trading system," says Cogoi. He admits that the most important short-term benefits of the site are that links between the MTN desk and the sales team will be much improved. His priority is to get the sales team onto the system before persuading investors to register.