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DEFINING the HKMA's role at the forefront of the development of Hong Kong's increasingly sophisticated bond market, executive director Peter Pang outlines a five pronged approach.

The recently established Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation will bring liquidity and innovation to the local capital markets and a new Hong Kong borrower to the international markets.

Once retail dominated, the Swiss bond market is changing fast, as investment pools are increasingly managed by professionals demanding to buy - and trade - in size.

In this issue, Johan G.B. Beumée, a partner in Riskcare Limited, and Paul Wilmott, professor of mathematics from Imperial College London, present some approximations of the warrant pricing method introduced in a previous Learning Curve (DW 1/12).

* Crédit Lyonnais Securities Asia will sell the first ever red chip style 'B' share offering for Shanghai Electric Corporation in May. The company is the fund raising entity of the Ministry of Machinery and Manufacturing. It has four asset injection candidates already lined up and a stated strategy of growth through acquisition. The listed company will be called Shanghai Consolidated Electric Co. It hopes to raise up to $150m from the issue. A roadshow for the deal should start imminently.

AIFUL Corporation, one of Japan's largest consumer loan companies, has closed its 4m share offering raising a total of ¥33bn. The sale completes a hat trick of international equity sales for Japanese companies this year, following offerings from Mitsui Marine & Fire Insurance and Toppan Forms. Sources at sole bookrunner and lead manager Nomura International said the Aiful deal gained momentum as the roadshow progressed, allowing the issue size to be expanded to the top end of the 3m-4m share indicated range and priced at the bottom end of the 2%-4% discount indicated range.

The Australian Gas Light Company has completed a A$354m share placement to enable it to pay down debt and position itself to buy up gas assets to be sold by the Victoria state government. ABN Amro was underwriter on the deal, selling 29m shares at A$12.21. "This is a well known stock internationally and that undoubtedly helped it," said one banker. Although there were no limits placed on foreign participation, the shares were placed mainly with Australian institutions.

THE Republic of the Philippines has embarked on only its fourth foray into the international debt markets this decade, launching the roadshow campaign for its $500m global bond on Wednesday. Throughout the run-up to the JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley led deal, the government has assiduously sought to avoid clashing with Korea's jumbo global bond -- maintaining a slight lead in both its roadshow schedule and provisional pricing date.

ROADSHOWS for the Republic of Korea's keenly watched global bond began in Hong Kong and Frankfurt yesterday (Thursday), with bankers reporting unprecedented attendance levels as over 200 investors crammed into the key Asian presentation. Price talk and the likely tranche structure for the $4bn+ issue have been kept deliberately sketchy, reflecting the government's determination to embark on a true price discovery process with investors.

THAI Farmers Bank (TFB) succeeded in a major recapitalisation yesterday (Thursday) when it sold 376m shares raising Bt33.1bn ($857m) via a private placement * short of initial estimates but enough for its needs, according to bankers close to the deal. Bankers reported a high quality book for the sale, despite sole bookrunner Goldman Sachs having to battle rumours of management interference over pricing, stories of eventually groundless strategic investors, and the challenge of launching the first major deal to come from Thailand since the Asian crisis began.

WESTPAC this week began marketing the first New Zealand home loan securitisation denominated in Australian dollars. To be launched via its WST Funding Trust, the A$260.6m twin tranche issue will be led by Westpac Capital Markets, with JP Morgan as manager to the dealer panel. Bankers said that the transaction, which is scheduled to price on April 3, offers local investors their first real chance of diversification, following a period of heavy issuance in the Australian MBS market. Collateral for those deals is typically heavily concentrated on the Eastern seaboard of Australia.

THE Hong Kong equity new issue market showed further signs of revival this week with convertible bonds from China-backed Guangdong Investment and New World Infrastructure and a placing for red chip China Resources Beijing Land. Guangdong Investment raised $125m in a sale of redeemable cumulative convertible preference shares, which generated little enthusiasm from bankers despite performing reasonably well in the aftermarket.