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Negative rating news for Peru and Argentina this week served as a sobering reminder to attendees at the IMF meeting in Prague this weekend that Latin America, while looking better than it has in decades, still has its trouble spots. Although Brazil and Mexico are poised to receive credit upgrades, Argentina was placed on negative watch by Fitch and market participants speculated that Standard & Poor's (S&P) may be poised to do the same.

Malaysia * Federation of Malaysia

Europe * Arran Two Ltd

* Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

Australia ANZ Investment Bank and Barclays Capital have secured a mandate from Pacific Carriage/ Southern Cross Cables. Terms are still being discussed but the amount sought is believed to be just under $1bn.

The IPO of Telekom Austria has been scheduled for the end of November, after the deal was moved back from earlier in the month so that investors can take into account the price of Austrian UMTS licenses. The licenses are being auctioned in the last week of October or the first week of November. "Investors have to know how much the company is going to have to pony up to get the licenses," said a banker close to the deal.

The grim realities of the Chase-Morgan merger are causing ripples of panic among the participants. In Morgan's fixed income group, where job losses are expected to be in the region of 90%, the staff have been lighting candles, but that is unlikely to delay the fatal summons that will confirm the end of the line. When the call comes, our advice to our Morgan friends is to be wearing brown trousers and, when the head of human resources (who is probably due for the chop as well) puts on his black cap, just think about how many Morgan shares you own and how you have really done quite well for not accomplishing very much for so many years.

Goldman Sachs closed the £478m secondary offer for Bookham Technology three times covered on Wednesday, pricing the deal at a slim discount to the market price. The 14.27m shares were sold at 3,350p - a discount of 2% to the market price of 3,421p. Of the total sold, 11.2m were existing shares sold by management and venture capitalists and 3.06m were new shares. The sale price was equivalent to $47.17 for the Nasdaq listed American Depository Receipts.