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NOMURA International has begun marketing the £155m securitisation of cashflows from 569 tenanted pubs for UK brewer Marston, Thompson & Evershed. The deal will be Nomura's first agency securitisation in Europe -- the bookrunner plans to launch the bond in two to three weeks.

VIRGIN Rail Group, which operates two train services in the UK, has appointed Royal Bank of Scotland and Lombard GATX as preferred financiers for its two orders of high technology tilting trains. The deals are set to close by year end. Rolling stock leasing company Angel Train Contracts, which RBS acquired from Nomura's principal finance group in December 1997, will buy 55 trains with a maximum speed of 140 miles per hour from Alstom and Fiat Ferroviaria for over £500m, and lease them to VRG for its West Coast Main Line route.

* Australian investment bank Macquarie Bank is considering selling PUMA, the mortgage securitisation business that has become one of the country's most successful mortgage backed issuers. The bank has invited bids, but not committed itself to a sale. PUMA is a rare animal -- it neither originates mortgages nor lead manages securitisations. Instead, it processes mortgages written by independent non-bank originators into securitisable pools, and awards mandates to investment banks.

A convertible grants the bondholder the right to convert the bond into a predetermined number of shares of common stock, i.e. the bondholder is long a call on the issuer's stock.

THE CHINESE government's abrupt closure this week of its second largest International Trust & Investment Corporation (Itic) and one of its 10 original international windows has been interpreted as a politically motivated but largely positive development in its efforts to clean up the republic's financial system. Asian bankers concluded that initial reports focusing on the implications of the Guangdong Itic's (Gitic) demise for the overall financial system have obscured the important political message the Chinese government was trying to put across.

THE NTT DoCoMo sale looks set to be a major success, despite the daunting scale of the $15bn IPO and massive pressure from the Nikkei following a 5.8% fall yesterday (Thursday) which was the largest drop in seven years. The sale of 545,000 shares led by Goldman Sachs and Nikko is due to be priced on Monday at around ¥3.6m, slightly below last week's expectations. Market turmoil has prompted investors to seek pricing in the lower half of the ¥3.3m to ¥4.3m range.

Australia The Queensland Government has appointed JB Were to lead manage the sale of its remaining 31% stake in Suncorp-Metway which provides banking and insurance services. Part of the offer will be in the form of 142.5m exchanging instalment receipts and part from a two-for-one rights offer. A total of A$1.012bn could be raised from the deal and 75% of the shares will be sold to the public.

THE Indian government looks set to announce a U-turn in privatisation policy which might push DR sales for Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), VSNL and Concor well into next year. Government officials told Euroweek that an announcement on the programme was imminent and did not deny that efforts might be re-focused towards strategic sales of stakes in smaller companies. Nalco, which has mandated Jardine Fleming; Modern Foods, which has mandated ANZ Grindlays; and ITDC which may have mandated HSBC, are likely immediate second tier targets for strategic sales by government.

The first major corporate debt refinancing from Indonesia was settled this week, with 32 banks coming to an agreement with PT Trakindo Utama, a local distributor for Caterpillar. Chase Manhattan led the talks on a restructuring of $171m in debt comprising two syndicated loans and a number of bilaterals. The provisional deal comprises an agreement whereby Trakindo will pay $81m immediately with further payments spread out over a period of three years at a price of 300bp over Sibor. The company also agreed to provide further guarantees in the form of collateral from its receivables and those of a Singapore-based subsidiary.

POSCO has overtaken the float of Korea Telecom in the government's privatisation programme, mandating Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney and Dongwon Securities to lead manage the deal, due to be completed in November. Although final decisions about the scale of the transaction have yet to be taken, the issue will likely involve a 3.1% stake which could raise over $150m.

Thailand Standard & Poor's (S&P) assigned a new series of ratings downgrades across the Thai banking sector this week, cutting the long term foreign currency ratings of Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank and Bank of Ayudhya and the local currency rating of the Industrial Finance Corporation of Thailand (IFCT).

* Trustees for the international securitisations executed by Japan Leasing Corp, which filed for bankruptcy on September 27, are close to agreement with the preservation trustee appointed by the court to oversee the reorganisation of JLC on a plan to ensure the securitisations continue to perform. Bankers Trustee Co, which acts as bond trustee for the deals, is to announce details to noteholders shortly.