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THE STATE of Qatar this week made a spectacular debut in the international bond markets, with the launch of the largest ever single tranche Eurobond from the Middle East. The Baa2/BBB rated sovereign issued a $1bn 10 year Euro/144A offering via Credit Suisse First Boston and JP Morgan, which placed the issue between them.

LEAD arrangers Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Warburg Dillon Read, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya and La Caixa are looking forward to a generous response to the $16bn jumbo for Spanish oil and gas sector leader, Repsol. Repsol is seeking the funds to support its $13.4bn bid for Argentine YPF. The deal is being presented to arrangers, and there have been four bank meetings in Madrid and London. One London banker called the reaction "overwhelming". Replies are due by May 26. The lead arrangers have fully underwritten the deal, with the two Spanish banks underwriting slightly less.

THE EUROPEAN municipal market deepened further this week with the launch of debut euro transactions for the City of Rome and the Province of Naples. Lead managed by JP Morgan, Rome's Eu133m issue is the first transaction from an Italian city to be launched in the new European currency. The deal was documented under Rome's newly signed Eu500m Euro-MTN programme arranged by JP Morgan, and will finance several infrastructure projects.

BEAR Stearns and Sanwa International have begun marketing a ¥50bn securitisation of Japanese residential mortgages for Sanwa Bank that looks set to be the first successful parcelling of the asset class. Sanwa, Japan's fourth largest bank, intends to securitise ¥200bn of its mortgages, and most of the country's other top banks, including Asahi, Fuji, Sumitomo and Tokyo-Mitsubishi, have announced similar plans.

Norway The Nkr750m five year multicurrency revolver for Merkantildata has closed oversubscribed. Co-arrangers had committed Nkr750m, and general syndication added another Nkr700m. The borrower is considering an increase.

VALENCIANA de Cementos, the European arm of Mexico's Cemex, is tapping the market for a $1bn multicurrency term loan. The deal is being arranged by Argentaria, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, Citibank and SG and has a maturity of seven years. The margin starts at 90bp, and will move between 60bp and 90bp on a pricing grid. The grid has two criteria: a total debt to net worth ratio and a total debt to Ebitda ratio.

PORTUGAL TELECOM and Swiss Re this week reignited a convertible market from which participants expect a busy few months before the summer lull sets in. The Portugal deal in particular had been eagerly anticipated by dedicated convertible and fixed income investors which, despite this week's uptick in bond yields, show little sign of losing interest in the market for equity-linked debt securities.

South Africa Signing takes place today (Friday) for the $130m 364 day term loan for Absa Bank. Demand for the credit was so strong that with $165m in commitments raised the borrower increased the deal from $80m.

AIRPORT Authority's HK$4bn two tranche deal -- due to launch next week -- is set to become one of the lowest pricings for a Hong Kong facility since the onset of the Asia crisis in July 1997. Original discussions started off at 120bp for the first tranche and 100bp for the second. However, the strength of demand from banks hungry for the quasi sovereign status and the non-property oriented core business of the borrower, has pushed the pricing down to 85bp over for the first tranche and 65bp over for the second.

THE REPUBLIC of Argentina will today (Friday) announce the results of its jumbo local debt exchange programme, which is expected to see two new bond issues exceed their original minimum targets. The government has called on holders of a range of local bonds, as well as holders of Brady FRBs, to swap those instruments for two new bond offerings due in 2001 and 2004.

THE REPUBLIC of Argentina this week launched an Eu150m deal fungible with a series of other Eurobonds -- creating the first Eu1bn benchmark in the new sector from an emerging market issuer. The five year deal, led by Paribas, was launched on Wednesday at a fixed re-offer price of 99.05 or 465bp over Treasuries. It is fungible with the Eu250m 2004 bond launched by Paribas two weeks ago at 481bp, which is in turn fungible in 2000 with Argentina's DM1.5bn, Asch1bn and Lit1.125trn issues.

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