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THE MALAYSIAN government will appoint a financial adviser for its Asset Management Corporation (AMC) this weekend, signalling the start of a bad loan work-out programme likely to be financed by at least $4bn of international bond issues this year alone.

Abu Dhabi CMS is believed by the market to have put in the lowest bid for the $900m Al Tawellah power and water project. Barclays Capital is supporting CMS's bid. A final decision on the preferred bidder should come shortly. Credit Suisse First Boston is advising the government on the concession.

NATIONSBANK CORP is set to make its annual visit to the Euro-FRN market next Tuesday, with a five year transaction led by its traditional lead manager, Merrill Lynch. The issue will be the first by NationsBank since the announcement of its merger with Bank of America last month. Underwriters are expecting a deal of at least $500m priced in the region of Libor plus 12bp.

Market commentary Compiled by Gerard Perrignon, RBC DS Global Markets, London. Tel: +44 171-865 1759

* Austria Haustechnik (AHT), the world's largest manufacturer of ice-cream chest freezers, is to float on the Vienna stockmarket. The deal is the first Austrian IPO this year. AHT will issue 1.07m ordinary shares at an indicated price range of Asch345 to Asch415, valuing the company at around Asch700m ($56m).

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Willy Liu has been hired as a managing director in Chase Manhattan's global oil and gas group. Liu moves from JP Morgan where he was head of its emerging Asia special industries group which covered real estate, telecoms, media and technology, power, petroleum and transport. Liu will be based in Hong Kong and will have senior client management responsibilities for Asia Pacific.

Finland Banque Nationale de Paris and Merita Bank have been mandated by Amer Group Plc to arrange a three year $100m multicurrency revolving credit. The margin starts at 45bp over Libor before ratcheting down to a low of 25bp if certain financial conditions are met.

SBC WARBURG Dillon Read has launched the sale of shares in Coca-Cola Beverages, a new company created through the demerger of Australia's Coca-Cola Amatil that will incorporate the company's European operations and the acquisition of Coca-Cola Bevande Italia, the Italian bottling operations owned by Coca-Cola of the US. The new company is the largest bottler of carbonated flavoured drinks in central and eastern Europe and will operate in 13 countries including Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine and the Czech Republic.

* Swedish Export Credit Rating: Aa3/AA+

The changing nature of the retail investor Retail investors have traditionally been the mainstay of the Euromarkets. For issuers, selling bonds to continental retail -- whether to generate spread tightening or to tap arbitrage in higher yielding markets -- has long been a key element of funding strategies. In recent years, the nature of retail has undergone some fundamental changes. Falling returns in traditional retail markets -- such as higher yielding western European currencies and the dollar bloc -- means they are now being challenged by a new breed of even higher yielding currencies such as the South African rand and the Czech koruna. The extent of the change means that even these markets -- only three years old -- are no longer considered exotic. The more daring investor might now buy Israeli shekel or Turkish lira bonds, for example. Taken together with the increasing mutualisation of retail investment, these new niche currency sectors are increasingly dominated by a handful of firms. Euan Hagger reports.

* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA