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ROCLA Industries' IPO will price at the low end of the A$4 to A$4.75 range today (Friday). Earlier in the week speculation had centred around a price of A$4.50 but a tailing off of investor interest led to a more cautious approach being taken by lead managers BT Alex Brown and Credit Suisse First Boston. "At A$4 the firm is something of a bargain," said one banker, "but closer to A$4.50 foreign buyers couldn't see a reason to be involved when there are plenty of other building materials companies available cheaper." A total of 79m secondary shares and 39m new shares are being sold, with 70% of the deal due to go to institutions. Yesterday (Thursday) almost one half of the major fund managers in Australia were thought to have put in firm bids for shares, according to bankers.

AUTO company China Brilliance was expected to price its shares at the close of New York trade yesterday (Thursday) toward the end of a difficult week in Asian markets after Moody's announced a change in Japan's ratings outlook and Fed chief Alan Greenspan warned of the severity and depth of the regional crisis. Bankers said that the book was just covered but rivals expressed amazement that lead manager Merrill Lynch undertook the deal without a back-up buyer. Speculation circulating Hong Kong during the week that the parent company of China Brilliance was prepared to buy unsold shares was fiercely denied by those close to the deal.

THE MALAYSIAN government's plan to provide Asia with a critical new bond market benchmark received a temporary blow yesterday (Thursday) after Moody's rating action against Japan spelt new trouble for Asian spreads.

* Alliance & Leicester Group Treasury plc Guarantor: Alliance &

* GMAC International Finance BV Guarantor: General Motors Acceptance Corp

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The market is responding well to Barclays' aggressive pricing on the $150m four and a half year term loan and a $40m revolver for aluminium producer Dubai Aluminium Ltd (Dubal). The term loan carries a margin of 25bp over Libor and the revolver is priced at 20bp. "The appetite is there for UAE risk," says one banker. "There is not much paper from there in the market and banks will want to get hold of some."

Chase Manhattan has closed syndication of the quietly arranged £475m bridge financing for NTL. The facility has a maturity of about 11 months and a margin of 300bp over Libor, say bankers. However the margin shoots up during the maturity prompting many bankers to believe that the bridge will be refinanced through a capital markets issue.