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ROADCHEF, the UK's third largest operator of motorway service areas, this week launched a £210m bond secured on its assets, sole managed by Barclays Capital. Nikko Europe's principal finance group bought RoadChef for £175m in May this year -- the group's first acquisition since it was set up in 1997. RoadChef in turn paid £80m for two smaller competitors, Blue Boar and Take A Break, in July.

THE ASIAN Development Bank (ADB) has crowned an unexpectedly successful fundraising year with a final trio of deals that marks the completion of its $9.6bn funding requirement for 1998. Bankers argued that the realisation of the supranational's fundraising targets should be considered a remarkable achievement, given the negative credit perceptions with which it has had to battle all year.

CONCOR successfully completed its $53m secondary offering this week, giving the Indian privatisation process a much-needed shot in the arm. It also potentially opens the way for a VSNL offering before Christmas, despite the failure of the government to appoint an adviser following a controversial mandating exercise. The Warburg Dillon Read-led Concor issue closed 1.5 times subscribed, having priced at the government's target level of Rp250 per share. That represented an 11.5 times multiple to fiscal 1998 forecasted earnings, compared to a BSE Sensex average of 9 times and a multiple of 10 times for MTNL, 6.1 times for VSNL and 6 times for IOC.

ROADSHOWS will begin in Colombo on Wednesday for a $70m Asian Development Bank (ADB) co-financing for the Development Finance Corp of Ceylon (DFCC). Moving onto Singapore on November 26 and Hong Kong the following day, presentations for the ABN Amro-led deal will be completed in London on November 30, for final pricing shortly after. The two tranche deal, which incorporates an ADB guarantee on principal repayment and a government guarantee on interest payments, will have a 10 year maturity and FRN format. With one $5m ADB tranche and one $65m syndicated tranche, pricing is indicated at 200bp over Libor, a 115bp premium to a previous deal completed in July 1997.

FINANCE company Orient Corporation this week staked its claim to be the premier Japanese asset backed issuer in the international markets, with a $250m auto loan securitisation lead managed by DKB International. "Coming to market shortly before the year end, after the explosion of the credit markets -- everyone said it couldn't be done," said an official at DKBI in London. "But this is the highest quality ABS available, and at this pricing it offers extraordinary relative value to investors."

THE JAPANESE government will seek to follow up the massive success of NTT DoCoMo next week when it launches the sale of up to 1m shares in parent company, NTT. The sale could raise up to $7bn. The NTT offering is the first tranche of government shares to be sold in over 10 years. The timing does not seem ideal, as NTT's share price has fallen steadily in recent weeks.

MOODY'S became the second of the three major rating agencies to strip Japan of its triple-A rating on Monday, downgrading the country to Aa1 and assigning a negative outlook. Although the agency concluded its report by stressing that Japan "still remains among an elite group of highly rated countries", its assessment was bleak.

MERRILL Lynch and Warburg Dillon Read brought to a close the saga of Cable & Wireless Optus A$2.4bn listing on a positive note this week after the stock gained more than 25% on its first day of trading. To finish off a successful week, the same lead managers then successfully placed US West's stake in the company yesterday (Thursday) at a substantial premium to the institutional tranche price of the IPO.

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NEW LIFE was breathed into Australia's domestic debt markets this week when its most prolific corporate borrower, Ford Motor Credit, launched an A$100m two year fixed rate deal. The new offering, led by Merrill Lynch with Warburg Dillon Read as dealer, marked Ford's first fixed rate offering since 1992 and the first corporate deal in the domestic market since Orica in August.

HENGAN Group has been granted approval to launch a HK$700m ($90m) IPO on Monday. The BNP Prime Peregrine-led issue was delayed last week after the Hong Kong stock exchange refused permission for the sanitary products manufacturer to list because of some discrepancies in the prospectus. The deal will now launch next week with roadshows in Hong Kong, Singapore and London. Bankers said that premarketing had shown unexpectedly high demand in Europe that would ensure the transaction was a blowout. "We've already had demand from the UK which would make the deal subscribed many times over," said a banker.

THE JURONG Town Corporation (JTC) inaugurated its newly signed S$4bn MTN programme yesterday (Thursday) with the launch of its first public bond offering. Unusually, the S$300m ($185m) twin tranche, seven year transaction is to be launched via a tender process, on a pay as you bid basis, similar to Singapore government Securities. Pricing is to take place on November 23, with a coupon to be announced at 5pm following the close of tender at noon.