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Bank Austria this week closed a second innovative securitisation of its ABS investment portfolio, transferring $650m of triple-A rated bonds off balance sheet in a deal arranged by Citigroup. In December 1998, the London branch of Bank Austria Creditanstalt International, the overseas banking arm of Bank Austria, became only the second institution to publicly issue a leveraged collateralised debt obligation.

The opening up of the Indian markets has been accompanied by the liberalization of regulations relating to the Indian foreign exchange and money markets.

KERRY PACKER'S Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL) is likely to bring Australia's first straight domestic corporate bond of the year to market at the beginning of next week with the launch of an A$200m offering. Led by ANZ, the Baa1/A- rated issue will either have a four or five year maturity, with indicative pricing suggesting a 10bp-15bp new issue spread over Broken Hill Proprietary's (BHP) July 2005 paper, trading around 55bp over swaps.

YET MORE feverish demand for Taiwanese technology stocks is expected later this month with the IPO on Nasdaq of GigaMedia Ltd. Goldman Sachs is sole lead manager and bookrunner for the placement. The issue is expected to record stellar demand. There has been a clamour for Taiwanese technology companies so far this year, and the Taipei bourse has surged since the new year. Bankers polled by Euroweek consider GigaMedia the ideal Asian conduit for global investors to take a slice of the broadband internet access market.

Beijing Capital International Airport shares fell on launch on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this week. The stock dropped from the issue price of HK$1.87 to HK$1.79 by the end of the first day's trading as 111.7m shares changed hands. Bankers in Hong Kong believe that ABN Amro was active in the market this week trying to mop up the selling pressure.

PROOF THAT global demand for CBs from Taiwan technology companies is far from exhausted came earlier this week with the speedy and successful completion of the $200m Delta Electronics convertible. Lead manager and bookrunner Warburg Dillon Read launched the issue on Monday at 3pm and completed the deal within eight hours. Warburg received more than $1bn of orders for the bonds. The Delta bonds are zero coupon and zero yield to maturity. Like the FET and Acer SIZes structures, investors enjoy put options at par at the end of each of the first four years, thereby providing the principal protection that Asian CB investors lacked before the Asian crisis.

China The long awaited sale by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) of 15% of its PetroChina unit will be premarketed next week. The roadshow will start in the third week of February. Goldman Sachs is joint lead with China International Capital Corporation.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) is finalising plans for its debut euro transaction, set to be a Eu500m-Eu1bn five year fixed rate issue via Deutsche and Merrill Lynch priced in the high teens over Euribor. Long a presence in the dollar floater market, the bank has mostly shied away from the euro and tributary markets. But Peter Marriott, ANZ's chief financial officer, hopes that the benchmark will establish the bank's name in Europe as the borrower aims to raise 60% of its A$6bn 2000 funding in the Euromarkets.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) is finalising plans for its debut euro transaction, set to be a Eu500m-Eu1bn five year fixed rate issue via Deutsche and Merrill Lynch priced in the high teens over Euribor. Long a presence in the dollar floater market, the bank has mostly shied away from the euro and tributary markets. But Peter Marriott, ANZ's chief financial officer, hopes that the benchmark will establish the bank's name in Europe as the borrower aims to raise 60% of its A$6bn 2000 funding in the Euromarkets.

ARGENTINA plans to launch a domestic bond debt swap on February 10 of at least $1.75bn in size. The deal will involve the issue of two local bonds, called Bontes, maturing in 2003 and 2005, in exchange for a series of local bonds and the FRB Brady bond. Up to 30% of the total size of each bond can be bought for cash.

Hong Kong BA Asia has been mandated by Florens Container Inc to arrange the extension of the company's $120m two year letter of credit facility signed in May 1998. That deal was also arranged by BA Asia and paid an L/C fee of 100bp and a 25bp extension fee.

Europe * Owengate Keele Plc