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Life Co, an independent Japanese consumer finance company, is to launch its first international auto loan securitisation through Warburg Dillon Read in the next two weeks. The transaction, known as Freya Funding Corp after the Norse goddess of life, will be worth between $200m and $220m, and will be wrapped by triple-A rated monoline insurer FSA. With a one year average life and five year legal final maturity, the deal is expected to be priced in the low 40s over one month Libor.

Paramount Hotels of the UK this week launched Europe's first securitisation of hotel revenues, sole managed by Greenwich NatWest. The £52m deal, Hotel Securitisation No 1, parcels cashflow from eight hotels in regional UK towns, and opens a new asset class in the fast developing market for securitisations of non-contractual revenues.

The UK government this week sold £1.02bn of student loans to Deutsche Bank and Nationwide Building Society, in the second such privatisation. A special purpose company, HONOURS Trustee Ltd, has bought the assets with bridge finance from the winning bidders, who plan to securitise the loans in mid-April.

FCE Bank, the European arm of Ford Motor Credit Co, this week launched the long awaited second issue from Ford's international securitisation programme Globaldrive BV. The Eu511.25m transaction, lead managed by Deutsche Bank, parcelled 108,000 car loans to German individuals and companies, originated by Ford Bank, FCE Bank's German branch.

Recently there has been lots of reported interest in the interest rate model of Brace, Gatarek, and Musiela (1997) (BGM), but anecdotal evidence suggests that it is proving difficult to implement.

Salomon Smith Barney and Macquarie Bank enjoyed a successful first week of roadshows in Europe marketing the A$150m equity issue for AAP Telecommunications, which is hoping to lure investors with news of its recent internet acquisitions and new internet focused strategy. A final size has yet to be set for the deal; as with all Australian issues that will depend on the bookbuild which will not officially start until the final days of roadshowing. Pricing is expected on March 10 at a slight discount to the share's market price.

The Republic of Argentina is considering an issue of $500m-plus five year bonds, possibly as early as today (Friday). Investors in the US said yesterday they had been approached by a number of underwriters with proposals this week and believed a deal of at least $500m in size was imminent.

Macquarie Securitisation, the unit of Macquarie Bank which finances mortgages for Australian non-bank lenders, returned to the Euromarkets this week with its first term securitisation since the Russian default, and its largest since December 1997. Lead managed by Deutsche Bank, the $800m issue for Puma blew out, as dollar based investors in Europe leapt at a credit story they know well, and which offers diversification away from US, European and Japanese assets.

Sumisho Lease, an affiliate of Sumitomo Corp, this week launched a $290m securitisation of Japanese equipment leases through Goldman Sachs. With an average life around two years and a five year maturity, Cygnus Funding Corp was rated triple-A by Moody's and Standard & Poor's. The deal's coupon of one month Libor plus 70bp and issue price of 99.90 give an effective spread of 75bp over Libor.

A A$100m two year deal for Ford Motor Credit is expected to be priced today (Friday) by lead manager Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Launched off the group's MTN programme, the issue is expected to have a semi-annual coupon of 5.5% to yield about 50bp over Commonwealth Government bonds. A A$100m issue for Schroders Property Trust Pty Ltd has been launched by Deutsche Bank. With a three year maturity, the A- rated issue was priced with a semi-annual coupon of 6% to yield 97bp over government bonds, or 62bp over swaps, against an indicative range of 60bp to 63bp.

The Hong Kong government budget this week heralded a number of capital markets friendly measures including the HK$30bn ($3.8bn) privatisation of metro system MTRC, a reduction in the government's blue chip share portfolio and the merger and listing of the Hong Kong stock and futures exchanges as measures to boost the flagging economy. Most equity capital markets bankers saw the steps as positive. Said one: "These are a series of bold moves and what is more important is that the timetable for most of the measures looks to be fairly rapid." The decision to improve the speed and accuracy of the clearing system was singled out by a number of bankers as a positive move for primary market offerings.

The Republic of the Philippines completed Asia's first sovereign euro transaction yesterday (Thursday), kicking into touch doubts over its determination to complete a deal in the face of worsened market conditions. The combined impact of the poor secondary market trading spreads of recent emerging market deals, disappointment with the performance of the euro and a lack of familiarity with the Philippines as a credit, made the selling job of bookrunners Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Warburg Dillon Read extremely difficult.