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Exchange Fund Investment's landmark $1bn to $2bn Hong Kong equity offering began pre-marketing this week with an institutional roadshow set to begin on October 25. The government will officially announce the new index product - thought to be called the tracker fund of Hong Kong - on Monday, launching a media blitz that will run through to the close of the deal on November 5 with listing on November 8.

Nomura this week launched a ¥300tr 1.7m share offer for Aiful, aiming to replicate the success of its previous issue for the consumer finance company last April. Priced at ¥8,271, the shares now stand at ¥18,100. Of the total 1.7m shares in this issue, 1m will be offered to international investors. There is a 300,000 share greenshoe for the entire offer. Aiful has a 15.5% return on equity, compared to the Japanese average of 3% and existing investors have reacted well to the new share offer, said bankers.

The Republic of the Philippines continued to enhance its status as Asia's most sophisticated and prolific borrower with the launch this week of its most ambitious offering to date. With its exchange of Brady debt for new uncollateralised global bonds, the republic should further distance itself from the ranks of stigmatised debtor nations, ease its current fiscal burden and greatly increase the flexibility of its liability management.

The Korean bank recovery story took a turn for the worse this week with the postponement of Korea Exchange Bank's $1bn GDR recapitalisation issue. The Morgan Stanley Dean Witter-led deal had been hanging in the balance since launch following a steep decline in the underlying stock in the wake of the Daewoo Group crisis.

The launch of China Telecom's (CT) combined equity and debt offering has moved closer following the formal announcement this week of its $6.4bn acquisition of three Mainland cellular operators in Fujian, Henan and Hainan provinces. The company confirmed its intention to launch a $500m five year debt issue, with concurrent debt and equity roadshows scheduled to start the week beginning October 18, and pricing of both offerings to be completed by the end of October. Moody's and Standard & Poor's have also released ratings, with the former placing the company two notches lower than the sovereign at Baa2 and S&P in line with its BBB sovereign ceiling.

n General Electric Capital Corp's ambitions to become the first international credit to access Thailand's domestic bond market appears on track despite prolonged regulatory debate over the merits of allowing in offshore borrowers. Having mandated Citicorp for a Bt4bn ($100m) offering and filing it with the Bank of Thailand, the group is hoping to launch the deal before year end. In line with normal practice in other markets, GECC had proposed using its offshore funding arm as the borrowing vehicle, but retaining proceeds in baht to finance its Thai operations.

First time issuer Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS) attracted a staggering $9bn of orders this week for its $1.5bn first ever public debt offering as US investors, starved of supply, swamped the few new deals available. The global transaction, led by Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith Barney, attracted more than 250 investors and was priced very close to the bid side of comparables with launch spreads of 94bp for a $500m five year tranche, 112.5bp for a $700m 10 year offering and 122bp for a $300m 30 year portion.

Market commentary Compiled by Jim Webber,