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Cellular phone group Grupo Nuevo Iusacell this week struggled to become the first Mexican corporate to launch a publicly listed international equity issue since 1997 when it raised $131.25m in a three-pronged offering. The deal, led by JP Morgan (books) with Lehman Brothers and Warburg Dillon Read as co-leads, included the offering of 12.5m ADSs, 5% of which were sold to Mexican accounts, 70% to the US and 25% to Europe.

El Salvador and Brazil's Banco Itaú braved difficult conditions in the international debt markets this week to launch new issues, while several billions dollars worth of Latin American deals remained on the sidelines waiting for better market conditions. El Salvador made its international bond market debut with a $150m seven year offering led by Salomon Smith Barney. The deal was priced at a spread to Treasuries of 500bp, which was considered fair by bankers given the state of the market, but the deal was slimmed from an initial $200m.

The Republic of Turkey launched a pre-emptive strike in the international bond markets this week in an attempt to avoid having to compete with an expected post summer slew of emerging market Eurobond issues. ABN Amro and Deutsche Bank joint lead managed a Eu300m six year offering, the B1/B/B+ rated sovereign's second issue in the single European currency. The bonds featured a 9.625% coupon to give a yield of 9.74% and a spread of 516bp over the 6.875% May 2005 Bund on an fixed re-offer price of 99.50.

The Republic of Ukraine and ING Barings this week brought the subscription period for a voluntary zero coupon exchange offer to a successful close, easing fears that the B3 rated sovereign will be forced to default on its external debt this year. Under the terms of the exchange the holders of $504m of two year dollar paper - issued last September in exchange for a maturing special Ukrainian T-bill issue executed by Merrill Lynch in September 1997 - were offered two options.

THE ITALIAN government is ready to move into the next phase of its privatisation programme with the sale of stock in Enel, the country's electricity utility. The government has been readying the sale for more than five years, and global co-ordinators Mediobanca and Merrill Lynch have been in place since 1993. Although speculation in the London market was that the deal would be delayed until next year, local Italian bankers say a fourth quarter transaction is more likely.

THE ITALIAN government is ready to move into the next phase of its privatisation programme with the sale of stock in Enel, the country's electricity utility. The government has been readying the sale for more than five years, and global co-ordinators Mediobanca and Merrill Lynch have been in place since 1993. Although speculation in the London market was that the deal would be delayed until next year, local Italian bankers say a fourth quarter transaction is more likely.

Global co-ordinator Warburg Dillon Read will today (Friday) complete the sale of stock in eXchange, the UK online financial services group. eXchange was able to inspire strong interest from institutional and retail investors. It defied weaker global stockmarkets suffering from a combination of concerns over hi-tech stocks, continued worries about the direction of the US interest rates and negative investor reaction to the latest spate of industrial mergers.

International investors have been unfazed by the news that the acquisitive Dutch supermarket group, Koninklijke Ahold, is to raise new equity capital in the second half of this year to fund its purchase of Pathmark. The $1.75bn acquisition of the US supermarket group will cement the already strong hold of the Dutch company in the US food retail market.

Germany's Neuer Markt is set for a rush of new issuance after the summer break, with a wide range of hi-tech issuers primed to float their company's shares in Frankfurt. Although the Neuer Markt has lost some of its lustre in recent weeks, after lower quality issuers demanded unrealistic valuations for their shares, the sector is still trading on high multiples. This has been sufficient to encourage a number of new entrants.

n International investment banks have been pitching to the UK Treasury to bid for the lead slot in the flotation of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL). The government is considering the sale of stock in the nuclear fuel disposal group and, although the deal is unlikely to reach the markets for at least 18 months, the government's decision should be made public in the next few weeks.

Following a near dearth of corporate activity, the Madrid stockmarket is set to host a variety of private sector and government divestments over the coming months. "The market was expected to produce a host of mid-cap deals this year, but neither local nor international investors have been interested in owning new stocks outside the high growth industries generally and the hi-tech industry in particular," said one local banker.