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MERRILL Lynch completed the secondary sale for market favourite Global Telesystems Group this week, raising $311m. Existing shareholders sold all of the 5.4m shares. The offering was priced at $57.50, its close on Monday. Although the stock initially traded up during the marketing period, from $56 when the offering was announced to around $65 three days later, it fell back ahead of pricing.

* Warburg Dillon Read this week completed a fully underwritten equity placement in Fortis 'B' shares, the common stock representing the bank's Belgium business. The selling shareholder was a major Japanese shareholder which sold 5.24m shares at Bfr33.70 on a closing price of Bfr33.72. The stock was widely placed throughout Europe with one sizeable order coming from the UK market. The shares closed slightly weaker after the trade and settled yesterday around Bfr32.70.

GLOBAL co-ordinator Deutsche Bank has completed the sale of new stock for Securitas, the Swedish security group. The deal was helped by the recovery in most of the major equity markets these past few days after the sell-off the previous week.

THE SUCCESSFUL sale of stock in Soporcel, Portugal's pulp and paper group, has provided encouraging signs of a revival in international investors' interest in the Iberian markets. Global co-ordinators Banco Cisf and BES Investimento closed the books on the deal earlier this week, offering the 8.84m ordinary shares at Eu8.305 (Esc1,665).

GLOBAL co-ordinators Creditanstalt and Nomura will today (Friday) complete the sale of stock in Synergon, the Hungarian hi-tech group. By last night, the book looked to be extremely well covered with keen interest from a number of top accounts. As a result of a roadshow campaign in the US and Europe, investors are reported to have been very interested in the company's story and its potential for growth. Following last week's corrections in hi-tech stocks, however, sector funds were understandably less keen on the shares than emerging market specialists.

CREDITANSTALT Investment Bank is to lead manage a capital increase for Austrian Airlines (AUA), which is keen to raise money to slim down its debts and fund future expansion. The group has been expected to come to the international equity capital markets for some while and investors are said to be keen to get the chance to buy into a continental airline at a low point in its industrial cycle.

CSFB SCORED a notable coup in the competitive world of bought deals this week, fighting off stiff competition from rival firms Goldman Sachs and Warburg Dillon Read to win a mandate to sell some Sfr500m of stock in Adecco, one of the world's largest temporary employment agencies. The group was formed through the merger of two similar groups, Adia and Ecco, and has been controlled by its principal shareholders ever since. These include Claus Jacob, who last year sold a stake in the Swiss confectioner Barry Callebaut. Jacob did not sell shares in this week's trade, although he may do so at a later date.

IRELAND'S ministry of public enterprise this week launched the first phase of a marketing campaign to attract retail investors for the I£1bn privatisation of Telecom Eireann. Led by Merrill Lynch and AIB Capital Markets, the share offering will take place by early July. Registration forms have been sent to some 2.8m potential retail investors, offering incentives for early applications. After one month of local campaigning, the company will release its full year financial results. This will be followed by a four week pre-marketing and institutional bookbuilding exercise.

THE GERMAN Neuer Markt has shrugged off last week's losses triggered by the worldwide sell-off in technology stocks, with new issue activity reviving this week. Last week the Nasdaq fell by around 7% as international and US investors became increasingly concerned with the earnings outlook for the technology sector.

GOLDMAN Sachs and Lehman Brothers plan to launch the sale of stock in Cellcom, the Israeli cellular phone group, in June. The deal has been eagerly awaited among sector investors keen to get exposure to the Israeli market. The lead managers had hoped to launch the deal last year, but it was postponed in the wake of the markets' volatility.

China Banks are requesting head office approval to roll over their commitments for the $100m L/C facility for Chinatex Capitals Inc arranged by BA Asia. Bankers are monitoring the success of this financing as there are two other similar deals coming to the market shortly.

HAVE THERE BEEN some significant changes within the debt capital markets group of Merrill Lynch in London, where overall fixed income supremo, Kelly Martin, and his head of European operations, Steve Bellotti, are calling some clever shots?