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Investors and bankers have welcomed corporates into the new euro market with open arms. Even the most optimistic predictions about the credit market have been exceeded.

The exclusive club of high rated, high volume issuers in the international bond markets has had to face up to a series of new challenges in recent times.

It has not been an easy couple of years for the treasury officials of emerging market sovereign issuers.

Toyota is poised to list in London and New York at the end of September, on the back of a ¥162bn share sale by three major investors. The move continues a trend of reduced cross-holdings in Japanese industry.

The Republic of the Philippines is shaping up to be the only active sovereign borrower from Asia in the closing months of 1999, with preparations under way for a fresh onslaught of international borrowings to bridge its widening budget deficit and take full advantage of the Miyazawa plan. Excluding the central bank, the republic has raised $2.195bn so far this year through a total of four foreign currency transactions and is likely to be as tireless as ever over the next few months despite recent talk of placing greater reliance on domestic funding sources.

The $200m plus Eurobond from the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) will be priced early next week, with every sign that the deal will meet a satisfactory though hardly spectacular conclusion. Led by Merrill Lynch and Warburg Dillon Read, the three year dollar offering garnered solid support from Europe and Asia, although a number of investors have remained sitting on the sidelines.

GE Capital Australia made a surprisingly quick reentry into the domestic bond market this week with the launch of a new A$400m offering via Merrill Lynch. Having made its debut just two weeks ago with an A$600m transaction via ANZ, the triple-A rated group is now two thirds of the way to completing an A$1.5bn funding programme for the current

China Despite reports to the contrary China National Offshore Oil Corporation is unlikely to begin roadshows for its offering for at least a month. The company is expected to have a stock exchange listing committee hearing next week. That will be followed by at least two weeks pre-marketing and a roadshow of at least three weeks.

Thai Military Bank (TMB) will launch a $760m recapitalisation programme before the end of September while Thai Farmers Bank (TFB) has been forced to postpone its synthetic rights offer due to problems with subsidiary Phatra Thanakit. A syndicate for TMB has yet to be announced but members will produce research on the company next week with a roadshow likely to begin a week later. The funds will be raised under the government's Tier 1 recapitalisation

Abbey National Treasury Services (ANTS) became the 10th overseas issuer and fourth bank to debut in Singapore dollars this week when it launched a S$100m transaction. Led by HSBC Markets with Barclays Capital as co-manager, the 10 year deal was launched on Monday at par with a 5% semi-annual coupon to yield 29bp over Singapore Government Securities (SGS). ANTS paid a slight premium to outstanding statutory board paper of the same maturity, with Jurong Town Corporation's (JTC) recent 10 year deal trading at 4.90% at the time of launch.

n Premarketing began this week for a $100m FRN by the Agricultural Bank of China. Rated Baa2 by Moody's, the specialist state-owned bank has previously been an infrequent issuer in the capital markets, having only raised funds once in yen, once in Hong Kong dollars and once in US dollars through its Singapore branch. With SocGen acting as lead manager for a three year deal, pricing has been set at 100bp over Libor, based on an issue price of par and re-offer at the 99.70 level. Formal launch is expected to take place early next week, with tight pricing said likely to attract mainly relationship banks into the