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MORGAN Stanley Dean Witter this week sold the largest exchangeable bond from Asia excluding Japan for Singapore Telecom (SingTel), raising $1bn and fuelling hopes that the Asian markets are open for business again * provided the credit is right. The transaction also confirmed that, barring the special case of Thailand, convertibles are the instrument of choice in the effort to draw investors back to the region.

* Norway's Fokus Bank has today (Friday) signed a $1bn Euro-MTN market in a bid to increase its presence in the international capital markets. Arranged by Merrill Lynch the programme will be used by the bank to further diversify its funding away from its traditional sources. Its aim is to carry out the majority of its funding internationally.

MORGAN Stanley Dean Witter this week sold the largest exchangeable bond from Asia excluding Japan for Singapore Telecom (SingTel), raising $1bn and fuelling hopes that the Asian markets are open for business again * provided the credit is right.

* The Republic of Lebanon will next week launch a twin-pronged assault on the Euromarkets as part of its most ambitious international fundraising exercise to date. According to lead manager Paribas, overwhelming European and Middle Eastern demand for Lebanese risk has led to plans for a $300m five year offering in addition to a previously announced $500m three year issue.

* Lehman Brothers has completed one of the most successful French IPOs this year with the sale of stock in bio-tech group Transgene. The offering, which was around 15 times oversubscribed, results in a dual listing for the company on the Nouveau Marché and Nasdaq. Lehman and joint lead manager Credit Suisse First Boston were able to close the deal in the face of heavy oversubscription -- pricing the stock at $14.50, the top of the indicated price range. Some 1.314m GDRs were sold to investors with each receipt representing three shares. The joint leads were joined by Crédit Lyonnais and Lazard Capital Markets as co-managers.

Canada Bank of Montreal and Goldman Sachs Credit Partners LP have completed a $1.8bn facility for Canadian National Railway Co and Grand Trunk Co. The facility is split into a five year $600m revolver and a $480m term loan for Canadian National Railway Co, and a one year $320m term loan and a $400m five year revolver for Grand Trunk Co. Pricing for the loan is based on the company's debt ratings.

Edward Brown has quit as head of distribution in Chase Manhattan's global syndicated finance department in London to join Credit Suisse First Boston. He will be a director in CSFB's syndicated finance and asset distribution team in London where he will report to managing director Grant Johnson and work alongside Charles Bennett. Michael Berry and Christophe Cleve have been appointed global co-heads of leveraged finance within Deutsche Morgan Grenfell's structured finance division. Berry will be based in London, while Cleve will be based in Frankfurt. Both will report to Gavin Lickley, head of structured finance.

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THE Portuguese government looks likely to move away from its traditional method of rotating lead managers for privatisation mandates, instead rewarding banks which have performed well in previous sales. Goldman Sachs looks likely to team up with ABN Amro Rothschild and BPI to lead the next sale of stock in Electricidade de Portugal (EdP) while Morgan Stanley and BFE looks front runners for the sale of a further stake in the national cement producer, Cimpor. These banks were involved in the companies' earlier sales.

INVESTORS in some of France's largest and best corporates will be offered new stock in capital increases in the next few weeks. The wave of activity demonstrates that the country's leading industrial groups, in common with their German counterparts, intend to make the most of the current bull market sweeping through continental exchanges. Household names such as Cap Gemini, Lafarge and Latecoere are all set to raise capital from existing investors, but the strength of the Paris market is also inspiring many other smaller cap groups to list shares and raise additional capital on the public markets.

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Denmark JP Morgan (co-ordinator) and Den Danske Bank (facility agent) will close general syndication of the $350m seven year multicurrency revolving credit for Tele Danmark early next week. Appetite has been strong from the borrower's core relationship banks and an oversubscription is likely. The final syndicate will be about 10 strong with Danish banks dominating the group.