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CREDIT Suisse First Boston will next month launch a Ffr800m Eurobond for special purpose vehicle Stade Finance, in a vivid demonstration of the growing attractions of structured finance for infrastructure projects in continental Europe. The 15 year bullet bond will be guaranteed by triple-A rated Financial Guaranty Insurance Company (FGIC) and will finance Stade de France, the stadium in the St Denis area of northern Paris newly built to hold this year's World Cup final.

DUTCH securities house Bank Labouchere will launch the second securitisation of its retail share lease contracts today (Friday). The Dfl 1.2bn deal, through special purpose vehicle Lease Assets Backed Securities II BV, will parcel revenues from some 100,000 contracts written by Legio-Lease, a subsidiary of Labouchere.

* Salomon Smith Barney priced the first securitisation for car manufacturer Hyundai's auto finance arm at the end of last week. Hyundai Auto Receivables Trust 1998-A offered two sequential senior tranches wrapped by MBIA - both priced two basis points tight of price talk. The $220m one year average life tranche came at 18bp over 12 month Libor, with a coupon of 5.9% and issue price of 99.98151.

UNIBANK Markets this week launched a Dkr1.35bn repackaging of five Danish mortgage bonds. The security was targeted at the same largely Danish investor base which buys mortgage bonds naked, but offers them a more sophisticated investment, since the issue is split into three sequentially amortising tranches.

The German pfandbrief--morgage bond--market shows a significantly divergent behaviour over the bund or swap market.

Following the introduction of the new market risk capital requirements recommended by the Basle Committee, this article will address some concerns raised about the methods of calculating the capital charges.

* Merrill Lynch is in the final stages of structuring a future trade receivables securitisation for a Chinese steel producer. The size of the deal will depend on two rating agencies' due diligence, but is likely to be at least $100m. The financing will be launched in the 144A market, possibly within the next two months, and probably without a monoline wrap. The transaction is believed to have been structured by a New York based team hired from JP Morgan. Before moving to Merrill, the group executed a similar deal for a Latin American steel company a year ago.

IN AN attempt to reduce its reliance on short term debt, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has revived plans to launch a $300m fixed rate offering via ANZ. Originally mandated last autumn, the five year deal was put on hold after the Asian crisis caused spreads to balloon across the region. Bankers, however, said that a new 144A deal can be expected within the next two months as B2/B+ rated country attempts to cut its debt service payments to more reasonable levels.

SOME of the shine has began to come off Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's sale of bonds exchangeable into Singapore Telecom (SingTel) shares * heralded as a landmark at the end of March. The bonds, having been priced at par, stood around 96 yesterday (Thursday) on the back of negative company news, poorer sentiment in the fixed income market and some investor confusion over the structure of the issue. "SingTel announced a reduction in international tariff rates reflecting the telecom market's move from monopoly to competition," said one analyst. "That will inevitably affect the value of the core asset and the announcement reminded investors of that." But others said the fall in price could be explained by more immediate reasons. "The exchangeable bonds have created another route for investment in SingTel besides the shares. Logically that means that current prices could not be held, even with a surge in interest in the company," said an analyst.

A CRITICAL new benchmark in China's burgeoning project bond sector was set in New York last night (Thursday) with the pricing of a debut $350m transaction for Cathay International via JP Morgan. In the absence of any plain vanilla debt issuance from the People's Republic, bankers said that the growing pipeline of asset backed and project finance deals will provide a key test of the outer limits of investor appetite for more esoteric paper.

ABN AMRO has been appointed by the Australian government as adviser on the privatisation of the remaining two-thirds of telecoms company Telstra. The sale - which depends on the re-election of prime minister John Howard and his government - is expected in either the last quarter of this year or the first quarter of 1999. Along with Credit Suisse First Boston and JB Were, ABN Amro was global co-ordinator for the Telstra IPO in November 1997. Rival bankers were quick to point the potential for a conflict of interest if ABN Amro is made a senior member of the syndicate for the new sale, which could raise as much as A$40bn ($26.6bn). Said one banker: "The government's advisor is concerned with getting the best price for a government asset, while a co-ordinator or lead manager has to consider other factors, such as the effect on outstanding shares."

UP TO six Australian borrowers are lining up to make debut US bond offerings during the second quarter, following an extremely quiet period in which most corporate activity was heavily focused on Australia's extremely competitive domestic bank market. Sydney-based bankers argue that the renewed surge of activity has resulted from a combination of factors, including a desire for longer term funding as interest rates reach the low point of their cycle and a realisation that the burgeoning Australian bond market is not yet mature enough to absorb longer dated tenors.