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Issuers and investment banks in the ABS market have reacted angrily to changes to the Dutch Tax Reform 2001 placed before parliament this week. If approved, they will penalise most of this year's ABS deals issued from Holland. Suggested amendments to the tax reform, or Veegwet, could mean that subordinate tranches of Dutch ABS would lose their tax deductibility for the issuer, while investors could become liable for withholding tax. These changes would be applied retrospectively to all deals issued after January 12, 2000.

Dutch insurance company DBV Levensverzekeringsmaatschappij this week launched its first solo securitisation with a Eu360m residential MBS lead managed by Fortis Bank (arranger) and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (books). Holland Homes MBS 2000-1 BV offered investors longer maturities than most Dutch deals with an 8.7 year average life on the senior floater and 18 year soft bullets on the lower fixed rate classes. The Eu334m 'A' tranche, rated triple-A by Fitch and Standard & Poor's, priced at 31bp over one month Euribor.

ING Barings-BBL has hired two senior securitisation officials in London to reinvigorate its European business. Robert Plehn, a senior securitisation partner at US law firm Sidley & Austin, takes up the newly created role of head of European securitisation in London, reporting to global head Ken Cox.

Bankers report reasonable interest in China Mobile's $4.1bn offering and considerable enthusiasm for the $690m convertible bond issue, despite the adverse market conditions. Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch are with the company on a global roadshow to raise up to $5.7bn as part funding for the firm's $32.84bn purchase of seven mobile telecoms franchises in China.

Hong Kong Standard & Poor's lowered Cathay International's corporate credit rating and the rating on its $350m senior notes due 2008 from CCC to D.

The recent broadening of the Australian corporate bond market was taken a step further this week, with the launch of a triple-B rated A$160m bond issue from Envestra Victoria - the first triple-B rated corporate issue in the Australian domestic market this year. Bankers said there was a good response from investors to Envestra Victoria's debut MTN offering, and that the signs were encouraging for further issues from triple-B rated corporate issuers. "This is one of the few triple-B rated names to have tapped the market," said an official at one of the lead managers. "The fact that the reception was so good shows that the appetite among investors for slightly lower rated credits is growing as part of the overall development of the domestic corporate bond market.

Australia BHP shareholders voted on October 17 to spin off its OneSteel unit into a separately listed firm. BHP hopes to raise around A$1bn through the float, for which no fixed timetable has, so far, been announced. BHP shareholders will receive one OneSteel share for every four fully paid BHP shares they own.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) shares closed down 4.3% from their issue price on their first day of trading in Hong Kong yesterday (Thursday). On Wednesday, the shares had been helped to a small premium in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange by the announcement that Exxon Mobil had bought a 19% stake in the company.

Another chapter in the miserable tale of the Chunghwa Telecom privatisation was written this week as the government failed to sell 86% of the shares it had offered to its 35,000 employees. This was despite discounts of between 10% and 20%, depending on the period the employees agreed to hold the shares.

Jurong Town Corp (JTC) extended the yield curve in the Singapore bond market this week, launching the first 12 year bond issue listed on the Singapore stock exchange. The industrial park developer awarded the lead management role to Overseas-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC), attracting strong criticism from a number of banks for the complex bidding procedure involved. Citicorp Investment Bank and JP Morgan were allotted 30% of the paper as co-lead managers. The S$200m transaction is JTC's fourth bond issue under a S$4bn MTN programme.

Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway Corp (MTRC) has issued a 'request for proposals' to around 10 banks for a $500m 10 year bond issue. The A3/A rated railway corporation is looking at the possibility of tapping the markets before year end to take advantage of the strong reception for its public flotation last month. Deciding on the timing of the new issue, which would be MTRC's first international bond outing since January 1999, will be challenging given the deterioration in market conditions over the past two weeks.

Bankers in Tokyo report moderate interest in the jumbo NTT sale, which combines 1m shares from the government portfolio and up to 300,000 new shares. Nevertheless, the book is reportedly two times covered as a result of value investors climbing into the deal.