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n The Dutch government has sold its residual stake in Corus, the renamed group formed by the merger of British Steel and Hoogovens, through a £170m block trade managed by Goldman Sachs. The state, which was advised by Van Kempen, selected Goldman after seeking proposals from a number of investment banks. The shares were bought by the broker at 121.25p.

Financial issuers are finding new issuance conditions tough as a result of general market turbulence and the focus of investors on growth stocks. This week's IPO from investment management firm Neuberger Berman followed last week's flotation from Blackrock. Although both offerings were sold within their price ranges, the erratic performance of the Dow Jones in recent weeks, and falling prices for listed competitors, kept investors on the sidelines until the last minute.

Corporate new issue activity in Spain is gathering pace this autumn, with the offerings of shares in travel booking group Amadeus Global Travel Distribution and construction company OHL heading a rare flurry of deals. The Amadeus flotation, which was launched last week by sole bookrunner Warburg Dillon Read and joint global co-ordinator Merrill Lynch at a price range of Eu4.75-Eu6, is attracting strong demand - prompting one banker outside the syndicate to describe the deal as "flying".

The Eu1.3bn flotation by Siemens and Matsushita of their joint venture operation Epcos looks to be heading for a successful conclusion, despite lukewarm demand for the shares in Germany. The two owners are jointly divesting 74.9% of Epcos, one of the leading manufacturers of passive electronic components. A total of 42.587m shares will be sold, including 3.3m of primary equity.

SCOTTISH & NEWCASTLE has secured a stunning success in its bid to raise £1.55bn from the loan market to back its acquisition of the pubs, restaurants and budget hotels of Greenalls Group plc. Arranger Warburg Dillon Read launched the deal to 28 sub-underwriting co-arrangers in mid-September, offering banks a fee of 37.5bp for underwriting £125m.

Bond markets were subdued this week, with market participants awaiting the results of the US FOMC, Bank of England and European Central Bank meetings. No changes to interest rates were announced, but both the Fed and the ECB announced a move towards a tightening bias. ECB president Wim Duisenberg said that he would need more evidence of a pick up in European inflationary pressures before tightening monetary policy. His comments, coming after a week of higher than expected European price and output figures, suggest that the market's bearish trend ahead of these data was overdone.

The Republic of Argentina fought off a Moody's downgrade and returned to the dollar bond markets this week for the first time since April with a groundbreaking $1.5bn investment grade issue. The bond carried a World Bank guarantee that cut the country's headline borrowing costs by almost a third. The deal, led by JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, was broken into six zero-coupon tranches of $250m each from one to five years, all of which were priced at the tight end of revised spread guidance.