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THE LEBANESE Republic has formally mandated Credit Suisse First Boston and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter for an ambitious 20 year bond issue - its longest to date - which is slated for launch in September. The republic is also close to appointing a lead manager for its first Samurai bond, which is likely to be issued in November.

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Nomura International's principal finance group will today (Friday) close the second securitisation of assets from Thorn Ltd, the UK based consumer goods rental company it bought in October 1998. The Eu250m deal, arranged by CIBC World Markets in the bond and asset backed commercial paper markets, parcels rental and hire purchase contracts from Thorn's subsidiaries in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Lehman Brothers this week placed a $744.42m aircraft securitisation for itself and GATX at an extremely competitive pricing level, even compared to AerFi Group's successful AerCo deal last month. Embarcadero Aircraft Securitization Trust Series 2000-1 is backed by 34 Airbus and Boeing jets, valued at $903m and leased to 17 airlines in nine countries.

Chase Manhattan, the agent bank for the Eu4.65bn securitisation of delinquent social security payments by the Italian government agency INPS, last week published its first report on the performance of the deal. The report has been greeted with a flurry of speculation and some anxiety among investors in the deal, since some of the collection figures it contains are lower than expected.

MBNA International Bank, the UK subsidiary of US credit card issuer MBNA, has mandated JP Morgan and Barclays Capital to launch its largest ABS so far, and the first to be sold outside the sterling market. The 10 year deal, worth £500m, will comprise three tranches, with the senior piece denominated in euros. Roadshows for the tranche, worth some Eu725m and paying fixed rate interest, will begin on September 11, with pricing set for the following week.

Achmea Hypotheekbank, the mortgage subsidiary of Dutch bancassurance group Achmea Holding, will launch roadshows on September 4 for its first securitisation, a Eu1bn MBS issue. Lead managed jointly by ABN Amro and CIBC World Markets, Dutch Mortgage Portfolio Loans 1 BV will offer four tranches of bonds rated by all three agencies.

Institutional investors increasingly are turning to commodity derivatives for diversificiation.

CITIGROUP is to tap the Samurai bond market for an unprecedented ¥155bn, the largest Samurai bond issue to date. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Merrill Lynch also announced their intentions to issue in Samurai debt soon, reinforcing the trend of foreign interest in the Samurai bond market.

ING Barings scored a surprise success by placing $52m of First Pacific shares to international fund managers after the close of the Hong Kong market on Tuesday. ING Barings acted indirectly on behalf of the Indonesian government as the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) and Holdico Perkasa sold 177.48m shares to raise much needed funds for the troubled country.

THE MARKET reacted favourably this week to the decision by the Japanese ministry of finance (MoF) to appoint four joint global co-ordinators of the NTT6 share sale, rather than three, the number standardised in the NTT4 and NTT5 placements. There also appears to be agreement that the four firms - Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Nikko Salomon Smith Barney and Nomura - will face tough negotiations with the MoF on the eventual fee structure for the jumbo issue. The sale is likely to raise around $11.5bn if priced at recent trading levels.

Australia Members Equity, the Australian fund manager, announced this week that it is offering A$346 million of mortgage backed securities on August 23, via its issuing vehicle SMHL Fund SF-9. CSFB Australia is lead managing the ABS issue.