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THE SALE of stock in Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) has been launched, with CSFB and the Italian bank itself acting as global co-ordinators. The deal, which could raise Lit1.13bn in new equity for the bank, is Italy's first privatisation sale this year. Its success will be closely followed by the savings foundations which are planning to sell stock in UniCredito.

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* Following its decision last week to allow the tenge to float freely, the Kazakh government this week launched the first in a series of foreign currency denominated T-bills designed to help investors to hedge their currency exposure after last week's de facto devaluation. Two issues of three and six months duration were launched, with nine and 12 month paper set to follow. The dollar paper paid a 7% yield versus the 20%-25% levels offered by similarly dated, tenge denominated securities.

* Lead manager HypoVereinsbank and co-managers Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank have completed the sale of 800,000 primary shares in Odeon Film, the German TV and film group. The deal, which resulted in the stock obtaining a Neuer Markt listing, was well oversubscribed and this allowed the lead firm to price the stock at the top end of the range -- Eu32. The deal raised Eu28.16m and marks one of the few listings of a film group on the Neuer Markt.

* Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG Rating: Aa2/AA-

CITIBANK and National Bank of Greece (NBG) have won the mandate to arrange a Eu1bn five year revolving credit for the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE). The award of the mandate closes an intensive bidding process where many of the Euroloan's top arrangers were pitching for top position.

Nick Gardiner has joined MeesPierson in London as a manager in the energy finance team. Gardiner joins from Greenwich NatWest where he was associate director in syndications. Charlotte Seagrave has joined Chase Manhattan in London where she will take up the position of vice president in the loan distribution team that is headed by Simon Treacy.

UK MORTGAGE lender Southern Pacific Mortgage Ltd this week launched its first securitisation of non-conforming and sub-prime home loans since its US parent filed for self-liquidation last October. Sole manager Barclays Capital structured the £66m deal under the anonymous name of Non-Conforming Mortgages 1 plc, since Southern Pacific's liquidators plan to sell SPML, and the company's name may disappear from the UK scene.

* Warburg Dillon Read this week launched an A$160m domestic mortgage backed issue for Bank of Queensland. REDS Trust Series 1999-1 offers A$155.6m of bonds rated AAA by Standard & Poor's with a three year average life, and A$4.4m of subordinated notes rated AA- with a 5.3 year average life. The pricing ranges are 36bp to 38bp over the one month bank bills swap rate and 75bp area.

PARIBAS this week brought a Eu321m securitisation of French consumer loans originated by Cetelem, a subsidiary of Paribas Retail Financial Services. MasterNoria 1999-1 is the second issue from the first French master trust structure, which allows multiple issues of bonds to share a single pool of collateral. The structure saves on transaction costs, and allows risk and gain to be shared across all transactions issued under the programme. There is a single reserve fund to gather excess spread -- conversely, should the assets underperform beyond a certain trigger, all deals will amortise early.

AUSTRALIAN non-bank mortgage lender RAMS Home Loans Pty Ltd returned to the Euromarkets this week with a $500m securitisation, lead managed by JP Morgan. RAMS made its international debut last September with a $400m deal just after the Russian default. JP Morgan had to reduce the issue from $450m, but still managed to price the senior bonds at 14bp and 17bp over three month Libor with average lives of 2.7 and 5.3 years.

BILBAO Bizkaia Kutxa, Spain's third largest savings bank, issued its first securitisation this week -- with a Eu150.2m mortgage backed deal structured by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. At the equivalent of Pta25bn, the transaction is on the small side for the Spanish market, and BBK already has a return on equity of 20.4%, more than 4% higher than the average for the savings bank sector.