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AT THE end of the first week of roadshows in Asia, demand for the jumbo flotation of China Telecom is already said to be building strongly, underlining growing concern that the Hong Kong authorities are unprepared to cope with the scale of the domestic IPO. "They are understandably very, very nervous," said one banker. "Although a number of proposals are under consideration, nothing definite has yet been put in place." Keen to avoid the interbank liquidity crunch which has characterised previous China-related IPO's -- most notably that of Beijing Enterprises -- the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and four local banks charged with receiving retail applications have been working on a number of solutions to prevent an excessive level of funds becoming tied up in the banking system.

MORGAN Stanley Dean Witter has further bolstered its Asian investment banking operations with the appointment of Michael Dee, managing director of debt capital markets in Europe, as its new head of debt capital markets for non-Japan Asia. The relocation of one of the Euromarket's best known practitioners underscores the US firm's desire to protect and enhance its Asian franchise against growing competition in the region.

INDICATIVE terms for the eagerly anticipated credit-enhanced convertible for First International Computers (FIC) will be released today (Friday) by lead manager UBS. Scheduled to be completed on an accelerated basis, the fact that the $200m issue will be the first from Asia backed by a triple-A basis has drawn keen attention. With launch on Monday for final pricing on Thursday, bankers said that the five year premium redemption, zero coupon structure has already drawn very positive pre-marketing feedback.

DEFYING regional currency turmoil and the precipitous drop of the Jakarta stock market, a $471m offering by Gulf Indonesia has been hailed a great success by Asian equity players. Despite widespread grumbling at the use of a pot system to allocate the 24.15m share Goldman Sachs led deal, bankers said that the ability of a Asean-based company to appeal to international equity investors in the current market climate was nothing short of astounding.

SUMITOMO Bank issued the third of three ¥50bn batches of asset backed commercial paper last week from its offshore vehicle Pegasus Funding Corp. The two month issue, together with a three month deal the previous week, were intended to improve the bank's BIS ratio in time for the reporting deadline on September 30, the end of the first fiscal half year. No more paper will be sold from the ¥500bn programme until at least December, when the end of the fiscal year in March begins to come in range of the programme's maximum maturity.

JAPANESE financing company Nichiei Co and lead manager UBS this week broke new ground for corporate Japan with the successful completion of the first bookbuilding aimed exclusively at international investors. The offering of 4.5m shares, with a 500,000 greenshoe, will raise around $470m if the greenshoe is exercised. The offering was priced at ¥11,270, representing a 2% discount to the market price -- the lower end of the indicated 2%-4% discount range. Shares moved up to ¥11,900 in a brisk aftermarket.

THE KOREA Telecom share offering has been delayed, with international roadshows planned for this week cancelled. While the Korean government is hoping that the sale will only be postponed for a couple of weeks, many bankers say the issue may not emerge this year. The delay highlights the woeful state of the Korean stock market, as well as investor caution to deals from the country. Offerings for Dacom and SK Telecom were both recently pulled, compounding the effect of the controversial placement of a KorAm Bank issue. Investors may also be distracted by rival offerings from China Telecom and Telstra.

CITICORP HAS scooped a second mandate for a novel securitisation by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Following its success last month with a $225m telecoms-related securitisation for Paktel in association with ABN AMRO, the bank was awarded the mandate this week for a $300m to $500m securitisation of overseas workers' remittances. With Deutsche Morgan Grenfell likely to be brought on board as joint lead, bankers said that the issue will probably emerge in about six months' time and will follow a bridging loan scheduled to be put in place first.

THE HIGH profile jumbo £1.75bn project finance facility being arranged on fully underwritten basis for Orange by Chase Manhattan plc and JP Morgan Securities Ltd has entered the initial phase of the syndication process. The facility, one of the largest UK deals to be sought this year, is entering a far more cautious sub-underwriting market than has been the case for some years. The last few months have been littered with large deals poorly received at the initial underwriting phase -- among recent examples are Barking Power and NTL.

PERSERVERANCE paid off for Embotelladora Andina, Chile's leading soft-drink maker this week, when it launched a three part $350m global bond that included a 100 year tranche. The issue succeeded, even though investors initially baulked at the prospect of a Latin century bond. Andina issued $150m of 10 year global bonds at 90bp over; $100m of 30 year bonds at 120bp over and $100m of 100 year bonds at 145bp over. All were oversubscribed and tightened in the aftermarket: on Wednesday the 10 year was quoted at 89bp bid, 86bp offered; the 30 year at 116bp/113bp and the 100 year at 140bp bid with none offered.

Ghana The well supported and heavily oversubscribed $275m receivables backed trade finance facility being arranged for Cocobod by co-ordinating lead arranger Citibank International plc is to be signed on October 10 at the Savoy Hotel in London.

China The $65m two year pre-delivery facility for Air China has closed. Arranger Banque Nationale de Paris pledged $25m. Participants are WestLB (Hong Kong), Wing Lung Bank taking $15m each and Dresdner Bank AG (Beijing) absorbing $10m.