Search results for

UBS HAS won the mandate for a $150m non-credit enhanced convertible for Acer Peripherals. The deal, for one of Taiwan's leading electronic companies, should follow the pattern of most convertibles from the country and will have a five year tenor with a possible put in year three. The deal will add to the growing list of equity and equity-linked issues from Taiwan.

WESTPAC inaugurated its 1998 funding programme last Friday with the launch of the first foreign currency Uridashi bond by a financial institution. In a market sector dominated by surpranational borrowers, the AA-/Aa3-rated Australian bank raised $50m via Nomura in a three year offering priced at 99.95 on a semi-annual coupon of 5.25%. Senior manager of Westpac's group treasury division Jonathon Minor said the issue was a new landmark in its evolving strategy of increasingly targeting distribution at retail investors.

SHANDONG Yangzhou Coal Mining (YCC), the first Chinese coal company to seek a listing in Hong Kong, has reduced the issue price for its HK$2.21bn offering. The ABN Amro and Bear Stearns arranged deal will see the company offered at a p/e of between 6.25 and 7.75 times this year's prospective earnings.

Two small issues were launched in the domestic Australian bond market this week. SBC Warburg Dillon Read led an issue from AMP Shopping Centre Trust and Common- wealth Bank of Australia (CBA) brought a private placement FRN for state owned Australian Postal Corporation (Australia Post). The A$80m FRN for AAA/A-1+ rated Australia Post is to be priced today (Friday) and will be fungible with an existing issue, bringing the total outstanding to A$447.5m.

DOMESTIC bond issuance in Taiwan looks set to surge over the second quarter. Bankers are predicting a slew of issues as supranational borrowers harvest arbitrage opportunities and local corporate borrowers seek to insulate themselves from the Asia premium demanded by the offshore market. The European Investment Bank (EIB) is set to price its two tranche NT$6bn ($185m) issue towards the end of next week, while the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is set to launch its third transaction during the next month.

ROADSHOWS for the Republic of Korea's critical global bond are poised to begin in Hong Kong next Thursday, with lead managers Goldman Sachs and Salomon Smith Barney likely to price the roughly $3bn offering on Tuesday April 7. Seoul bankers believe that while the government is hoping to launch a 10 year transaction at as low as 300bp over Treasuries, it has indicated an unusual degree of flexibility in its attitude to the pricing and structure of the deal.

* Stephen Taran, managing director of credit research at Lehman Brothers Asia has resigned. Taran's departure marks a sad loss for the US investment bank where he was one of Asia's key deal originators with a network of close government-level contacts across the region. Taran wishes to move back to the US over the medium term, and his new post is likely to be as head of global sovereign credit research at an as yet unnamed rival US firm.

* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

AN ISSUE of stripped Portuguese government bonds was launched this week through special purpose vehicle OT STRIPS (Luxembourg). It is the second such transaction to come to the Portuguese market. Lead managed by Banco Mello de Investimentos and Banco Chemical Finance, the deal is backed by Esc15bn of the 5.375% OT due in June 2008 and has a total value, including the interest strips, of Esc23.0625bn.

DEUTSCHE Morgan Grenfell and SBC Warburg Dillon Read are set to launch the Russian Federation's first Eurobond of 1998 next Monday -- likely in the form of a DM1bn-plus seven year Euro/144A issue. A senior delegation from the Russian finance ministry and officials from the lead managers this week completed a series of investor presentations in Geneva/Zurich, Paris, Frankfurt and London. Price talk on the transaction, which will mark the opening leg of the Ba3/BB-/ BB+ (Moody's/S&P/Fitch IBCA) rated sovereign's $3.4bn international bond financing programme for 1998, is 460bp-480bp over Bunds.

9565

* European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Rating: Aaa/AAA