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Merrill Lynch and Warburg Dillon Read will finalise the London listing and international offering of shares in Old Mutual, South Africa's premier life insurance group, this weekend. The process has involved a demutualisation where domestic policyholders have been offered stock and a recycling of unwanted shares is taking place from these investors into the international market.

Spain's largest ever share issue by a private sector company closed successfully this week as oil and gas group Repsol completed its Eu4.8bn capital increase via global co-ordinators Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney, BBV and Invercaixa. Despite a 3% fall in the share price on Monday and Tuesday this week, the company managed to raise more than anticipated from the issue - which will help pay for its takeover of Argentina's YPF.

The Irish government's Eu4.4bn sale of stock in Telecom Eireann has been a roaring success, attracting an overwhelming response from the Irish public and from domestic and foreign institutional investors. The transaction has been widely viewed as one of the best European privatisation sales this year and its success has been greeted with delight by the

The sale by Hoechst of its 45% stake in Swiss specialty chemicals group Clariant has succeeded beyond expectations, with the German vendor taking advantage of buoyant market conditions and increased appetite for cyclical stocks following recent positive indications of continental European economic growth. Hoechst announced its plan to sell between 30% and 45% of Clariant's equity capital some weeks ago, a decision which caused some concern among investors over the possibility of an overhang of shares.

The UK market for hi-tech stocks will explode into life in the coming weeks as Credit Suisse First Boston launches IPOs for Freeserve, Dixon's internet access provider, and for QXL, the online auction house. Warburg Dillon Read will also shortly launch the flotation of The Exchange Group, the internet stockbroker for financial advisers. Never before have so many internet groups sought listings on the London Stock Exchange. The flow of new deals should reap enormous dividends for the market, which is attempting to compete for hi-tech listings with some of the Continent's high profile NM markets.

Warburg Dillon Read has executed the successful Eu2.2bn sale of stock and convertible bonds for the Belgian/Dutch banking and insurance group, Fortis. The deal involved both equity and convertible bonds, and investors appear to have preferred the option of owning straight stock. Some 55m shares were sold as straight equity, with 15m shares backing a convertible bond.

Independence Day celebrations meant a quieter week on Wall Street, with few companies launching new issues and even fewer new registrations. Musicmaker.com grabbed the headlines, however, as the first online music company to take the plunge into the stockmarket.

ING Barings and Lehman Brothers will shortly launch the sale of stock in VersaTel, the Dutch provider of telecommunications services to businesses. The deal comes shortly after the sale of Libertel by ING Groep and has much negative sentiment to combat as a result. ING's divestment was eagerly awaited by the local market and by international institutional investors, but has badly disappointed in the aftermarket.

Lead manager Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette has launched the $100m sale of stock in Netia Holdings, the Polish fixed line telecommunications operator. The company, which plans to list its shares on Nasdaq, will raise new capital through the flotation to finance expansion of its fixed line network. Some 5.5m ADSs will be sold to investors, which will push the free float of Netia's equity capital up to around 21%. DLJ set an indicated price range of between $22 and $25. At the mid-point of this valuation, the company will have a market capitalisation of around $650m.