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MERRILL Lynch has launched a $300m ADR for Asia Pulp & Paper, helping to shore up the nascent recovery in the Asian new issue market. A total of 40.3m ADRs will be sold in the deal, which also includes a separate warrants issue for existing shareholders. A small syndicate is still being formed for the issue, which is part of an restructuring of the company's books. The deal will price during the week of April 19, and a discount of up to 5% on existing ADRs (trading at $7.50 on Thursday) has been suggested by some bankers.

SIAM COMMERCIAL Bank (SCB) began roadshows this week to raise up to $875m in non-government purchased new equity with a simple message for investors: "This is an honest bank and our books are open for all to see." In an unprecedented move the 300-page prospectus includes an independent auditors report focusing on key issues such as collateralisation and non-performing loan (NPL) rates, worries over which have proved such a hindrance in the past.

MERRILL Lynch and Hyundai Securities will price Shinhan Bank's $350m GDR sale at the end of today (Friday) with early indications pointing to the deal being fully covered. Although a strategic investor is now known not to be involved in the deal, bankers said that Merrill is likely to have a large anchor client to have been confident enough to have roadshowed the deal over the Easter break. Providing a 15% greenshoe is exercised, the deal will raise the $400m the bank believes is necessary for it to reach capital adequacy targets.

INVESTOR sentiment toward the Singapore property market is set to be tested with the imminent launch of the DBS and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter-led IPO for Allgreen Properties. Although no figures or details are yet available for the deal, bankers said anything from $100m to $300m could be raised from the sale. The domestic offer is lead managed by DBS Bank.

THE REPUBLIC of Turkey this week made its third visit to the public Eurobond markets in 1999, with the launch of a well received $200m fungible bond. The issue was an increase to its outstanding $200m 12% 10 put five year Eurodollar issue from December 1998.

THE LIKELIHOOD that Brazil will choose a plain vanilla bond structure to return to the international markets grew this week as increasing confidence in the country's outlook sparked a strong bond rally. "The way their curve is rallying they could easily do a plain vanilla deal at this point," said one New York syndicate head.

THE REPUBLIC of Argentina might issue a new 30 year dollar bond if it finds enough investor interest for longer duration bonds, according to director of public credit Federico Molina. Molina said the government, now that it has raised more than $4bn internationally, would approach the dollar markets opportunistically. "We may increase the 10 year [dollar global bond] or create a new 30 year bond if we feel that the market is asking for that," he said.

THE REPUBLIC of Hungary this week achieved its long held ambition of becoming the first central and eastern European borrower to issue a SEC registered global bond. Bookrunners ABN Amro and Salomon Smith Barney yesterday (Thursday) launched the Baa2/BBB rated transaction which had been delayed for two weeks in the wake of the Nato air strikes against Serbia, with which Hungary shares a border. The seven year issue, which emerged for $500m versus an original $750m target, will be priced at 14:00 GMT today (Friday) at a launch spread of 145bp over the off-the-run 5.625% February 2006 US Treasury, equivalent to 164bp over the curve.

PRICES on Kazakh Eurobonds held up strongly this week in the face of a surprise devaluation of the Kazakh tenge. On Tuesday the Kazakh authorities gave up their fight to support the currency; once allowed to float, the tenge slumped from last Friday's level of Kt88.3/$ to Kt150/$, before recovering to Kt112/$ yesterday (Thursday).

GERMAN systems software group Software AG has shrugged off the poor response to last week's flotation of telecom company debitel -- and mounting pressure on software shares worldwide -- to launch its DM1bn initial public offering. The offering for the Darmstadt-based group, for which Lehman Brothers is global co-ordinator and bookrunner, is expected to be the largest European software sector IPO this year and one of the biggest ever offerings in the sector.

MERRILL Lynch has landed two prize mandates for the second quarter, whose progress will be closely watched by market participants. The firm will lead the secondary offering for Global Telesystems Group (GTS) which filed this week for the sale of 10m shares. The deal could raise around $650m based on its current stock price of $65.

UNOFFICIAL premarketing is already uncovering substantial demand for the privatisation of French defence and technology group Aérospatiale, according to banks involved in the syndicate. Although the formal pre-marketing of the SG-led flotation will not begin for another week or two, the long lead time required for a deal of this kind means that investors have plenty of time to register their interest to intermediaries.