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POLITICAL upheaval overshadowed the economic turmoil in Russia this week after the Russian parliament rejected Viktor Chernomyrdin's candidacy for prime minister in the first round of voting on Monday. A second vote will be held today (Friday), with most observers convinced that president Yeltsin's candidate will again be rejected by the left-dominated lower house.

LONDON bankers will shortly pitch to lead managers Robert Fleming and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson for syndicate slots in the demutualisation of the South African life assurance group, SanLam. Earlier this year the company announced its intention to float on the Johannesburg stockmarket and, until recent turbulence in world equity markets, the deal was expected to play well to an audience including international buyers. Despite the tough market conditions the group still plans to list locally and to complete its demutualisation before the end of the year.

Denmark ABN Amro, Citibank and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi have launched the co-arranging phase of the $500m credit facility for Borealis, the Danish petrochemicals company.

Market commentary Compiled by Tawanda Nyandoro, RBC DS Global Markets, London. Tel: +44 171-653 4870

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Eurosterling secondary market Compiled by HSBC Markets, London. Tel: +44 171-336 3525.

LEAD managers JP Morgan and Warburg Dillon Read this week began premarketing the IPO for Swisscom as the government confirmed that it is unlikely to consider cancelling or postponing the deal in the face of difficult market conditions. With pre-marketing continuing next week, an indicated price range is due to be released on September 15. At up to $10bn, the deal will be the largest European IPO this year.

* Commerzbank Global Equities has appointed Brian O'Keefe and Charlie Dove-Edwin to form a new pan-European engineering research team. They will be joined by Winfried Becker who is based in Frankfurt and has been with Commerzbank for two years. Brian O'Keefe joins CGE from JP Morgan Investment Management. Charles Dove-Edwin joins from Lehman Brothers.

LEAD manager Schroders is expected to press ahead with its sale of stock in TPSA, the Polish national telecoms operator. However, London bankers this week were pessimistic about the prospects of new equity issuance from the emerging markets and did not look forward to attempting to sell such a large deal from a market which cannot be immune from the Russian crisis. Schroders is to shortly announce its syndicate structure. The deal is likely to focus on the international market and will include CSFB and Deutsche Bank as co-lead managers with Salomon Smith Barney, and Goldman Sachs as co-managers.

THE UK DEBT Management Office and its financial adviser Schroders will next Thursday meet with sterling market participants to finalise plans for London & Continental Railway's government guaranteed £2.65bn channel tunnel rail link bond. Bankers expect the DMO to follow the meeting with an announcement that the bond will be launched via a Gilts style auction rather than as a syndicated Eurobond. Should the auction route be chosen, it will be the first time that a UK government guaranteed corporate bond has been launched in this manner.

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