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* 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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Arrangers of the £2.4bn facility for PowerGen Finance -- Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and HSBC -- will launch general syndication next week. Retail follows a blow-out success at the sub-underwriting level -- some 19 out of the 22 invited banks came into the deal.

* Fannie Mae Rating: Aaa/AAA

* General Electric Capital Corp Rating: Aaa/AAA

THE PIPELINE for US IPOs looks uncertain for the autumn as several deals have been pushed back and many companies wait for the market to settle down before announcing new issues. Bermuda-based GCA Ltd was one of the few new companies to file with the SEC this week. The company, which provides guaranty reinsurance, will offer some 16.75m shares internationally and is expected to raise around $251m. Investors will be invited to bid for shares at the indicated price of $15.

* Republic of Austria Rating: Aaa/AAA

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Emerging markets commentary Compiled by ANZ Investment Bank, London. Contact: Chris Portman

US AGENCY Fannie Mae proved the advantages of offering investors liquidity this week when in the face of volatile swap and credit spreads it successfully raised $2bn through a tap of its five year global benchmark note, having already raised the same amount through a 10 year add-on last week.