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THE INDIAN privatisation saga took off in the right direction this week with the completion of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd's (VSNL) secondary GDR sale which raised $161m, albeit at a considerably lower price than expected. A total of 17.4m GDRs were sold at $9.25 -- a discount of 3.9% from Wednesday's close of $9.625 -- by global co-ordinators Credit Suisse First Boston and Salomon Smith Barney. Bankers said the most important achievement had been to convince the government to accept market pricing for the sale. As the GDR price fell below the psychologically important $10 level, there had been concerns that the government would insist on a price floor.

MERRILL Lynch held roadshows in Hong Kong and across Europe this week for the $575m commercial property securitisation by Wharf (Holdings) Ltd, one of Hong Kong's leading property companies. Merrill's salesforce will move to North America next week, and the bank expects to price the deal at the end of February.

COMMONWEALTH Bank of Australia this week launched a new product designed to offer the benefits of the swap market to investors whose internal rules forbid them engaging in swaps. The Coupon TIC is named after an existing product, the Transferable Investment Certificate, which CBA created for investors reluctant to buy zero coupon bonds for tax reasons.

Australia's fast-growing domestic corporate bond market gained another new name this week with a debut issue from Case Credit Australia, a finance subsidiary of farm equipment group Case Corporation of the US. The A$175m two tranche issue was launched under the borrower's A$1bn CP and MTN programme. Salomon Smith Barney was sole lead manager, with National Australia Bank acting as co-manager.

A debut bond issue by Singapore's Housing & Development Board (HDB) closed this week with marginal undersubscription of the S$300m deal's retail tranche. Having offered S$270m to institutional investors and S$30m to retail investors, bankers said that the slight shortfall was a symbolic marker of the limitations of retail participation.

GOLDMAN SACHS suffered a blow this week as Shandong International Power Development's (SIPD) $220m IPO was pulled, shattering hopes for several other 'H' share listing hopefuls and confirming market opinion that to launch the deal would be a mistake in the current climate. A steady souring of sentiment toward emerging markets was blamed by Goldman for the withdrawal of the deal.

INDUSTRIAL Bank of Korea last week raised $106m from investors around the world with a securitisation of 57 bonds and loans from borrowers in 20 emerging market countries. Chase lead managed the transaction through Peak Funding Ltd -- the bonds were wrapped by triple-A rated monoline insurer FSA. With an average life of 2.1 years and expected maturity in August 2002, the passthrough deal priced at 75bp over three month Libor.

THE REPUBLIC of the Philippines reaffirmed its market adeptness once more this week by launching two successive dollar transactions on Monday, with the aim of reducing its short term debt. The first $200m deal, via JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Warburg Dillon Read, was a re-opening of the sovereign's recent $1bn twin tranche global bond and was used in place of privatisation receipts from Meralco (Manila Electric) to pay down short term debt.

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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