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LEHMAN Brothers' $51m IPO for Pacific Internet had a positive, if volatile, first week after being priced at the top of a raised range. Shares were priced at $17 from an original range of $13 to $15 and a revised range announced Friday (Hong Kong time) of $15 to $17. By the close of trading on Wednesday the stock was priced at $35, having reached a high of $88 briefly in a flurry of activity characteristic of Internet plays.

THE SINGAPORE government suffered an unusual and embarrassing setback this week when it was forced to almost halve its planned $1.3bn divestment of Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) shares through Finlayson Global Corp. As the first deal from an Asian issuer to have a euro component bankers said it was an inauspicious start to the Chinese New Year. The Goldman Sachs-led multi-currency exchangeable issue was cut to $765m after investors questioned the complex structure and one day marketing period. Bankers also argued the execution of what would have been the largest ever convertible from Asia raised questions about Goldman's market judgement.

* Macquarie Securitisation, formerly PUMA, has mandated Deutsche Bank to lead manage its next Euromarket mortgage securitisation. Macquarie Securitisation's managing director Tony Gill will be in London in two weeks' time to consider the viability of an issue. Macquarie's mortgage funding requirement for 1999 is likely to be around A$2.5bn. * Nomura launched its ¥91.5bn club funding vehicle Ensemble Ltd this week, raising three year funds for 21 Japanese corporates, with senior ratings higher than their own.

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Angola Warburg Dillon Read plans to close general syndication of the $500m oil contract pre-export financing for Sociedade Nacional de Combustiveis de Angola (Sonangol) early next week. All reports indicate the deal has been well supported.

THE REPUBLIC of Argentina continued to show the rest of Latin America how to run a successful funding programme, launching a Eu300m five year euro bond to bring its overall capital raising to over $1bn in little over a week. The offering, led by CSFB and Deutsche Bank, was the first plain vanilla public euro deal by a Latin American borrower this year and follows last week's Eu100m three year private placement (led by CSFB), a Eu350m nine year step down deal (MSDW) fungible with three other deals done last year in Deutschmarks, guilders and French francs, and a $200m reopening of its 2017 global bond (JP Morgan).

THE BOOK for the privatisation sale of shares in Air France has been massively oversubscribed, more than 10 days before final allocations, providing a pleasant surprise for the French government and its banks -- SG, Crédit Agricole Indosuez and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. The response from both local and international investors has been extraordinary, given conditions in the airline industry and nervous European markets.

Hong Kong Bank of Boston has been mandated to arrange a $260m financing for Cathay Pacific Airways.

Australia Lead arrangers Deutsche Bank Australia, BA Australia, National Australia Bank and Toronto-Dominion Australia are arranging a A$1.1bn loan for Texas Utilities Australia Pty for the first phase of the Victorian gas privatisations in Australia.

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Market commentary: Compiled by Glenn Blackley, RBC DS Global Markets, London. Tel: +44 171-865 1759

The £2.2bn senior debt facility backing Axa's £3.44bn agreed acquisition of Guardian Royal Exchange has been cut to £1bn, after Axa raised Eu1.5bn through a convertible bond issue last week. The senior debt is split into two tranches -- a three year tranche and one that matures on December 31, 1999. The three year tranche carries a margin of 27.5bp over Libor with a commitment fee of 12.5bp and the short term tranche carries a margin of 25bp with a commitment fee of 10bp.