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IMPERIAL Tobacco, the UK's second largest cigarette manufacturer, last week executed an innovative £1.452bn securitisation to finance its peak stock requirements. Arranged by Greenwich NatWest, the deal is a rare example of four asset backed commercial paper conduits jointly financing a single securitisation.

SHAREHOLDERS of Marston, Thompson and Evershed, the UK brewer that had planned to securitise 569 of its tenanted pubs through a £155m deal led by Nomura International, this week met to approve the deal -- but voted to adjourn their extraordinary general meeting. Marston's management recommended that shareholders take this course, to give them more time to consider the relative merits of the securitisation and a hostile takeover bid from Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries.

COMMERCIAL Guaranty Assurance, a monoline insurer created in 1997 to focus on the commercial real estate market, launched the first public transaction from its $2bn Euro-MTN programme this week, with a deal of up to Eu100m lead managed by IMI Luxembourg and Merrill Lynch. Issued at 101.25 and re-offered at 99.75, the 10 year bond carries a 5% coupon until January 2000 -- then the coupon switches to 80% of the 10 year constant maturity swap with a floor of 4%. (See bonds section for market commentary on the deal.)

* A string of blow-out deals set the US asset backed markets on track for recovery this week. Commonwealth Edison priced its $3.4bn stranded cost deal last Friday through Goldman Sachs (books), Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith Barney, and ended up several times oversubscribed.

RABOBANK quietly executed a $7.2bn collateralised loan obligation in late October. Atlantis Finance Two used a similar structure to Rabobank's first CLO. That deal transferred $5.5bn of exposure to corporate loans from Rabobank's Utrecht headquarters in December 1997. The bank set up a special purpose vehicle, Atlantis Finance, that issued $5bn of senior notes, rated AA- by Fitch IBCA and $500m of BBB rated junior bonds.

Though Indian entities are acquiring a greater awareness of hedging instruments for exchange rate and interest rate exposures, an active derivatives market has yet to develop.

THE EXPORT Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) is preparing to make its first foray of the year into the public bond markets with its long awaited securitisation of promissory notes. The Ba2/BB+ rated bank is hoping to launch the deal, which was originally mandated to Warburg Dillon Read, before the end of the year and possibly towards the end of next week.

THE FIRST Asian sovereign transaction to emerge from the raft of recent aid initiatives for the region is set for launch at the end of next week, pending the completion of final documentation. The ¥30bn ($500m) Euroyen transaction for the Federation of Malaysia -- backed by Japan's Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) -- will be the first bond issue to come under the $30bn Miyazawa plan and only the second time this decade that the sovereign has come to the international bond markets in its own name.

THE JAPANESE government's $7bn selldown of shares in telecoms giant NTT moved into gear this week as roadshows got underway Europe and Japan. Although most bankers believe the issue will be a success -- mainly thanks to the cheap price of NTT shares -- the deal has attracted complaints from syndicate members about the tactics being employed by joint bookrunners and global co-ordinators Daiwa Securities, Goldman Sachs and Warburg Dillon Read.

THE $250m offering of shares in Pohang Iron & Steel (Posco) looks set to close by Tuesday after successful roadshows in Hong Kong, Singapore and Europe this week. The book for the deal, led by Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith Barney, is believed to be covered already -- although bankers expect the majority of bids to be placed in the final days.

A SECOND Asian Development Bank co-financing was completed this week as the Development Finance Corp of Ceylon (DFCC) raised $70m. Bankers said that books for the 10 year FRN, which comprised one $5m ADB tranche and a $65m syndicated tranche, were oversubscribed to the extent that the bottom rung of the syndicate was able to be scrapped.

* A third international issuer has made presentations in Australia in preparation of launching a Kangaroo bond. The Nordic Investment Bank plans to follow the Asian Development Bank and German federal agency KfW with a Merrill Lynch-led issue. Triple-A rated NIB first considered launching a domestic Australian bond in 1992 and has been reviewing the market all year.