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JIM FRANCE, head of ING Barings' Asian securitisation group, has resigned, and is expected to be hired by another investment bank in Asia. The move follows ING's retrenchment of its Asian operations in response to the economic downturn in the region. France's group had been one of the largest securitisation teams in non-Japan Asia, with 11 staff at its peak, based in South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore as well as Hong Kong.

THE PEOPLE'S Republic of China looks increasingly likely to make a return to the international debt markets, with country specialists anticipating a new sovereign benchmark as early as July. Although the Chinese government could undermine its immunity to the regional crisis by bringing a transaction to market while Asian spreads remain volatile, most observers believe the government is keen to pave the way for a string of borrowings by the country's three state owned policy banks.

THE KOREA Asset Management Corporation (Kamco) is to press ahead with its international fundraising programme, mandating Deutsche Morgan Grenfell for a $1bn to $2bn equivalent euro-fungible issue in Deutschmarks. Although the group had been hesitating over the wisdom of issuing in current market conditions and was widely tipped to have awarded joint books to its financial adviser Morgan Stanley, it has instead made the unusual move of appointing only one lead manager.

THE REGIONAL turmoil in Asia led to a mixed week for Hong Kong's equity markets. A block trade for Smartone was seemingly unaffected by the troubles, but a number of small equity offerings were either delayed or struggled to completion. Meanwhile, First Pacific twice took advantage of the depressed market to buy back its convertible bonds at a discount to their face value.

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THE REPUBLIC of Lebanon has asked banks to submit proposals for what will be the country's most audacious Eurobond funding exercise to date. Finance ministry officials in Beirut requested bids for a financing package which could see the B1/BB-/BB rated sovereign raise up to $1bn of 10 and 20 year money.

THE REPUBLIC of Lithuania has mandated Credit Suisse First Boston and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson to lead manage the country's first benchmark offering in a European currency. The Ba1/BBB-/BB+ rated sovereign originally asked 18 international investment banks to bid for the mandate on a DM300m five year to seven year offering. But the growing trend of issuance from the central and eastern European region in euros means the transaction may emerge in that sector when launched in around four to six weeks' time.

Rising M&A volumes are fuelling a boom in acquisition finance, the fastest growing area of the European syndicated lending market over the last year. The development of a more active secondary loan market and the wider use of grid pricing has given arrangers greater confidence to underwrite large deals and participants have been keen to sign up to loans that pay relatively high margins -- and which are usually refinanced quickly through bond issues or disposals. Across Europe the deal flow has been booming, with M&A deals of unprecedented size in a variety of countries being financed with relative ease in the loan market. But recently there have been signs that the acquisition finance market is getting more sticky. Has it already peaked?

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* TeleDanmark, the leading provider of domestic, international and cellular telecom services in Denmark, has established a $2bn Euro-MTN programme marking the arrival of the issuer in the international debt markets. The company was recently assigned ratings of Aa3/AA by Moody's and Standard & Poor's in preparation for its entry into the Euro-MTN market

* JP Morgan this week completed a placement to international institutions of shares in BHF Bank, selling just over 5.79m ordinary shares at DM75 per share. This represented a 6.6% stake and the vendor was Alte Leipziger Lebensversicherungsgesellschaft. * Dresdner Kleinwort Benson last week purchased 150m shares in Billiton, the London-listed mining company from SanLam, the South African insurance group. Several firms have pitched for the deal, but Dresdner KB won on a very aggressive bid that was around 158p on a closing price of 165p.

* Bayerische Vereinsbank Rating: Aa2