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Asia Shares of Nasdaq debutante iAsiaworks, provider of internet services for companies doing business in the Asia Pacific region, began trading late last week. By Wednesday they had collapsed almost 28% to $9.38 from the issue price of $13 per share.

SHARES in NRMA Insurance enjoyed a strong debut on the Australia Stock Exchange on Tuesday, trading as high as A$3.10 before closing at A$3.01. The stock closed at A$2.87 yesterday (Thursday). Bankers involved in the deal told Euroweek they were delighted with the response from institutional and retail investors. One banker said: "Around 75% of the institutional placement was taken up by about 20 gilt-edged investment funds from across the globe, giving NRMA a platform for expansion in the future through acquisition."

Brazil stole the limelight in the international equity markets yesterday (Thursday) with the $4bn sale of 180m shares in its oil concern Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) - the largest global share offering from Latin America. International demand for the deal was so strong that over 60% of the offering was sold to international investors, and the ADRs, priced at $24, surged more than 12% in afternoon trading on the NYSE to $27.3125. Petrobras was the most actively traded issue of the day, with more than 27.17m shares traded.

POHANG Iron and Steel Corp (Posco), the world's largest steel manufacturer, took advantage of relatively quiet primary markets to launch its ¥35bn Samurai deal this week. The transaction was distributed to an extremely broad syndicate, due partially to the thin primary and secondary markets in Japan. But the transaction came in for criticism from some market sources for being priced too tightly, leaving it hard to place with investors.

THE UNITED World Chinese Commercial Bank (UWCCB) of Taiwan scored two firsts this week, launching its debut international bond deal and becoming the first Taiwanese debt issuer to tap the Hong Kong dollar debt market. The Taiwanese bank launched a HK$300m three year floating rate certificates of deposit (FRCD) issue, which was priced at par. Deutsche Bank was sole bookrunner and lead manager for the transaction. The senior unsecured deal will provide a coupon of 30bp over three month Hibor.

BANKERS in Tokyo are bracing themselves for the result of the NTT6 beauty parade. The ministry of finance will today (Friday) announce the domestic and international co-ordinators for the planned sale of 1m NTT shares owned by the government. The deal is due to launch in October. A key challenge for the banks that emerge as winners will be the marketing of the shares to the retail market. The NTT5 issue priced in November 1999 at ¥1.666m in more encouraging market conditions.

Absa Bank, via Merrill Lynch, has added R500m to the R750m 10 year non-call five subordinated debt issue it launched in February, boosting the fledgling South African corporate bond market. The original deal was the first South African private sector borrowing in the domestic bond market since the days of apartheid. Since then the market has grown significantly. Two of the other top five South African banks have launched issues: a R1.25bn offering from Standard Bank and a R500m 12 year subordinated debt deal from Investec.

South Africa

WITH most ECM bankers in holiday mode, new issuance has all but dried up. However, attention is turning to the autumn when a flurry of major deals is expected. Goldman Sachs and Den norske Bank may launch Telenor's Eu6bn-Eu8bn IPO as early as the third week of September, according to bankers. The stake to be sold by the government has not yet been set, but will be between 10% and 25%.

Asia * International Credit Recovery - Japan Two Ltd

Market report:

Australia Some A$2.8bn was made available for the acquisition of electricity utility Powercor Australia by Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings (CKI) and Hongkong Electric Holdings (HKE) via a special purpose company of CKI and HKE.