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LANDESBANK Hessen-Thüringen and Südwestdeutsche Landesbank launched debut DM2bn jumbo Pfandbrief transactions this week to take advantage of the increasing demand for liquidity from German investors. Whereas previously the two Landesbanks have restricted Pfandbriefe issuance to traditional structured instruments, investors' hunger for liquidity and new names have made the jumbo market an attractive alternative for Landesbanks.

THE NEW issue market remained volatile this week for both small and large offerings. Despite reporting healthy second quarter earnings, Del Monte Foods had to withdraw its IPO, blaming current market conditions. The company had planned to offer some 13.5m shares and shareholders 4m shares at a price range of $17 to $20, but investors were unwilling to buy within the range and lead manager Morgan Stanley Dean Witter reduced it to $16 to $18. The size of the deal was also reduced from 17.5m to 14.7m shares.

* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

LEAD managers JP Morgan and Warburg Dillon Read this week revealed the shape of the Sfr10bn ($6.8bn) Swisscom flotation, launched last week. In what will be the largest deal to reach the equity capital markets during the third quarter of the year, some Sfr2.8bn will be raised in a capital increase which will coincide with the flotation of around Sfr7.2bn in the form of a divestment of secondary shares by the government.

DLJ HAS completed the sale of stock in ICO, the international satellite group which is raising new capital through the issue of high yield debt, a bond with equity warrants and via its initial public offering. DLJ, which was joined by co-lead managers CSFB and Salomon Smith Barney, last night gained SEC approval for the new terms of the equity offering and the shares should be priced in the centre of the range at $13.50 this (Friday) morning in New York.

* Bank of Western Australia Ltd Rating: A1/A

THE PRICE of Telebras ADRs soared over 5.6% (yesterday) Thursday in record trading on the New York Stock Exchange following the success of Brazil's $19bn landmark privatisation of the telecom operator on Wednesday. Its ADR price closed at $124.5625 after a record 7.7m ADRs changed hands. Merrill Lynch's HOLDRs, the synthetic ADR designed to preserve a single share instrument in the 12 spun-off Telebras companies, surged 6% to close at $125.625. Brazil's Ibovespa was also boosted 3.76% on Thursday.

MACQUARIE Securitisation Ltd, Australia's leading non-bank mortgage lender, moved swiftly to soak up European demand for Australian mortgage backed securities last Friday, launching a $450m deal through JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank. A structured products official at bookrunner JP Morgan said: "We talk to the issuer regularly about the state of the markets, but the idea for this deal germinated only the week before last. This is a quiet period for issuance and there is still a lot of demand left over from Westpac's global deal in May."

* MBNA's fifth credit card deal of the year blew out this week as Lehman Brothers brought an $882.4m floater in response to a reverse enquiry. The Series 1998-E issue has a 9.7 year soft bullet expected maturity -- its $750m of 'A' notes priced at 14.5bp over three month Libor. Class 'B', worth $66.2m and rated A2/A+, came at 33bp over, while the privately placed 'C' tranche offered the same amount of triple-B rated securities.

NIKKO Europe's principal finance group has added two more UK motorway service area (MSA) companies to the RoadChef portfolio it bought in May. RoadChef will pay £80m for Blue Boar, which has three functioning MSAs, and Take A Break, which operates one site which is one of the largest in the UK. Nikko is buying all the shares in the companies from venture capital group 3i and their existing managers.

The 1990s have provided a wealth of lessons for risk managers.

ONE OF Asia's few remaining vibrant debt markets has been closed following moves by the Taiwanese government to suspend supranational issuance in its domestic bond market. Local bankers said that the central bank put the ban in place to cut off one of the few available avenues of speculation against the Taiwanese currency. Said one: "The government has a sense of speculative sentiment prevailing in the market and will not approve any new supranational issues until the currency situation settles down."