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UBS Warburg has underwritten and placed A$300m of new units in Westfield Trust (WST), Australia's largest listed property trust. The bank distributed the units on Wednesday while WST's shares were suspended. The placement took place at A$2.95 per unit, a discount of 5.75% to the closing price on May 30. The funds will finance the purchase of the 54% that WST does not own of New Zealand listed St Luke's, for which WST has made a general offer. St Luke's is New Zealand's largest shopping mall operator.

Weak US manufacturing data released on Thursday finally signalled that the US economy may be slowing down, reinforcing a feeling of cautious optimism among bankers and investors. Government bond markets rallied following the NAPM report and today's (Friday's) non-farm payroll data are anxiously awaited by bankers looking for further confirmation that the heat has been taken out of the US economy.

* Bremer Landesbank Capital Markets plc Guarantor: Bremer Landesbank Kreditanstalt Oldenburg Girozentrale

DaimlerChrysler this week launched the first US corporate bond investors can trade over the internet, a $2bn global transaction that could pave the way for greater liquidity in the corporate market. While several corporate issuers, including the financing arms of Ford Motor Co and General Motors, have marketed and sold deals over the internet, DaimlerChrysler took electronic bond issuance one stage further.

DaimlerChrysler entered the market on Tuesday with a $1bn five year and a $1bn 10 year. During the price discovery stage, these tranches were talked at a spread against swaps rather than Treasuries. This strategy was adopted to minimize volatility during the early stages of marketing. For the past year, and particularly since the full extent of the Treasury buyback became clear in February, government bonds have been imperfectly correlated with corporate bonds. Treasuries now trade more like a commodity, since liquidity in certain key areas of the curve has been diminished. Consequently, an underwriter pricing debt against Treasuries faces unwelcome spread fluctuations.

DaimlerChrysler this week launched the first US corporate bond investors can trade over the internet, a $2bn global transaction that could pave the way for greater liquidity in the corporate market. While several corporate issuers, including the financing arms of Ford Motor Co and General Motors, have marketed and sold deals over the internet, DaimlerChrysler took electronic bond issuance one stage further.

THE Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) launched a R1bn 16 year bond issue this week through lead managers JP Morgan and Standard Bank of South Africa, establishing the longest tenor in the domestic market this year and achieving benchmark pricing inside DBSA's own existing 10 year bond. The new deal was priced at 70bp over the R157, the benchmark government bond, for a yield of 15.08%.

Nomura International's principal finance group (PFG) has made one of its most senior and high profile hires to date by recruiting Michael Johnson, formerly managing director and head of European leveraged finance at DLJ. Reporting to PFG chief Guy Hands, Johnson will be transaction director, overseeing the execution of the group's financial transactions, whether acquisitions, refinancings or exits.

SHARES in Deutsche Telecom (DT) gained 23% this week as the market prepared for the company's Eu14bn third equity offering, in which government holding company Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) will sell 6.6% of its stake. Dr Günther Bräunig, a spokesman for KfW, told Euroweek that the shares' strong performance showed that the size of the issue, which was at one time predicted to be as much as Eu20m, was well received. "It seems that the decision on size has been right," he said.

SHARES in Deutsche Telecom (DT) gained 23% this week as the market prepared for the company's Eu14bn third equity offering, in which government holding company Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) will sell 6.6% of its stake. Dr Günther Bräunig, a spokesman for KfW, told Euroweek that the shares' strong performance showed that the size of the issue, which was at one time predicted to be as much as Eu20m, was well received. "It seems that the decision on size has been right," he said.

Czech Republic Arrangers Chase Manhattan and CIBC are holding a bank meeting today (Friday) in Prague for the $450m facility for Cesky Mobil. A Czech bank, thought to be Investicni Postovni Banka, has joined these two banks at the arranging level. Full details should follow next week.

Argentina * Republic of Argentina