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NOMURA SECURITIES and Merrill Lynch this week launched Toyota Motor Corp's first public bond offering in Japan, raising ¥200bn ($1.6bn) in 15 minutes, and buoying hopes of a revitalised domestic bond market. Toyota's turn toward financing at home coincides with a revival in Japan's straight bond market as banks continue to tighten their balance sheets before the BIS deadline at the end of the financial year on March 31.

THE Federative Republic of Brazil will next week make its first appearance in the Eurobond markets of 1998 when it launches an inaugural five year deal of around Ecu250m that redenominates into euros. The deal, mandated to SBC Warburg Dillon Read and Paribas, follows the blowout Ecu400m offering by the Republic of Argentina late January, which has tightened to trade at 355bp from a launch spread of 412bp.

* Export

THE FIRST test of investor appetite for Latin new equity issues in 1998 will get underway in the week ahead when Salomon Smith Barney and Santander take Colombian cellular phone company Celumovil on the road to market its initial public offering. The deal, which includes JP Morgan as a co-manager, will be a major test of the water for one of the worst hit equity new issue markets since the Asian markets collapse.

CREDIT Suisse First Boston has launched an innovative two tranche financing in the US 144A market for Telecom New Zealand Finance Limited which achieved the capital treatment requirement of the borrower. The deal consisted of a $150m five year issue paying a coupon of 6.25% and priced to yield 85bp over Treasuries; and a $150m 10 year issue with a coupon of 6.5% and paying a spread of 105bp over. The bonds were rated Aa2/AA- by Moody's and Standard & Poor's respectively. Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley were co-leads on both tranches.

Market appraisal:

* Aegon NV

A BUSY pipeline is beginning to build in the sterling high yield corporate bond sector following the launch of the largest deal in the nascent market to date. Last Friday, bookrunner Goldman Sachs launched a two tranche sterling/dollar financing for UK telecom and cable TV company Diamond Holdings.

* Santander International Ltd

Croatia

* Bank Austria AG