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STRONG investor confidence in the biotech sector enabled Macropore to price its Eu67m IPO at the top of the range this week. Concord Effekten managed the sale. Confidence in the sector comes after the Nemax biotech index rose 110% in the first five months of the year, compared to a 43% rise in the Nemax all-share index.

DEN DANSKE Bank expects to launch its securitisation business by the end of the third quarter. This will be the Danish bank's first foray into a managed securitisation facility.

Italease, the leasing company affiliated to Italy's network of banche popolari (co-operative banks), launched its fifth securitisation this week with a Eu588.3m deal through UBS Warburg. Italease Finance SpA is the company's first securitisation under Italy's new securitisation law.

Gulf International Bank (UK) Ltd last Friday launched the first two tranches of a collateralised bond obligation backed by US and European high yield bonds. Saudi International Bank, which merged with Gulf International Bank last year, launched four CBOs between 1991 and 1995, but has been out of the market since then. Key staff left in 1997 and since the beginning of last year the bank has been preoccupied with the merger.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter this week launched a £300m securitisation for igroup limited, the UK non-conforming mortgage lender formerly called Ocwen UK Ltd. The company was renamed in March, following its management buy-out from Ocwen Financial Corp last October. The pool comprises 6,368 loans, of which 75.8% are first lien mortgages. Some 23.3% of the pool, according to Fitch, comprises loans to borrowers who have had at least one County Court judgment, with 7.6% to borrowers with more than one CCJ. High value properties make up 18.9% of the pool. The average loan to value ratio is 66.9%.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter this week launched its second securitisation of Japanese non-performing loans to overwhelming Japanese and international demand. The ¥31bn deal, International Credit Recovery - Japan Two Ltd, is backed by 257 mortgages on 441 properties, including some real estate owned outright by the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund.

Credit Suisse First Boston introduced two structural advances to the Portuguese securitisation market last Friday when it launched a Eu200m deal for three consumer finance subsidiaries of Banco Português de Negócios. Chaves Funding No 1 Ltd is the first Portuguese deal to include a triple-B class, and the first to use an unrated bank as holder of the deposit that allows interest to be paid on the bonds without withholding tax.

Online business-to-business exchanges have surfaced in the commodity, currency, equity and fixed-income over-the-counter derivatives markets.

DEUTSCHE Bank and Salomon Smith Barney have secured the prestigious mandate to float Uecomm, the telecommunications subsidiary of United Energy. Premarketing is underway and Uecomm will list on the Australian stock exchange on September 11. The issue is designed to capture positive investor sentiment in Australia and to slip into the market ahead of the razzmatazz of the Olympic Games, which starts on September 15.

INTERNATIONAL Business Machines (IBM) followed up its two yen denominated bond issues this year with a five year Samurai transaction this week, making it the second largest international issuer of yen denominated debt this year. The corporate issue is further confirmation of the increased interest by international companies in the Samurai bond market.

NEC Corporation has launched a jumbo convertible bond in the Japanese domestic market, raising ¥100bn of zero coupon funds with an issue that enjoyed tremendous demand from domestic and international investors. Daiwa SB Capital Markets was lead manager for the transaction and sold 30% of the paper into the Euromarket. The deal was more than 10 times covered, according to Koki Yakato, deputy general manager at Daiwa SBCM in Tokyo.

Australia Bendigo Bank is looking to access the international debt markets in the coming month, according to a market observer familiar with the institution.