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Following Kazakhstan's $350m seven year bond issue last week, two debut Kazakh bank deals are in competition - with similar $100m three year structures and back-to-back roadshows in Europe next week. Kazkommertzbank, the country's largest private sector bank with assets of KZT81bn at the end of last year, is looking for a $100m three year deal via lead managers ABN Amro and Merrill Lynch. Halyk Savings Bank, the dominant retail bank which is majority owned by the ministry of finance, is also looking for three year funds in a probably identical size through lead manager JP Morgan, which also led the sovereign issue with Deutsche Bank.

Argentina Salomon Smith Barney has been mandated to arrange a $100m five year structured term loan for electricity distributor Empresa Distribuidora Norte SA (EDENOR).

Bahrain Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait is proving popular in the co-arranger phase, where banks are asked for $10m take and hold tickets at 40bp.

* Trading will begin today (Friday) for PC-Ware, which has completed its Eu46.873m (including greenshoe) IPO. The DG Bank-led deal was 8.7 times oversubscribed and priced at the top of the Eu16-Eu19 range. The issue was divided roughly 50/50 between retail and institutional investors. Of the institutional sales, around two-thirds was sold in Germany with the rest sold elsewhere in Europe.

France * Books will open next week for the Eu100m IPO of Riber. The company - which manufactures machines used in the production of compound semiconductors - will list on the Nouveau Marché and on Nasdaq.

* Paul Richards has been named head of global debt syndicate of Merrill Lynch and will oversee the bank's debt syndicate businesses in Canada, the US, Japan, Australia, as well as Europe. Richards, who was previously head of European debt syndicate, will report locally to Harry Langfield and globally to Jimmy Quigley.

* City of Gothenburg Rating: A1/AA

Three weeks after BNP Paribas' European securitisation group resigned to move to Credit Suisse First Boston, the tussle between the two banks has ended and the new composition of the two groups has become clear. BNP Paribas mounted a rapid counterattack after nearly all its European securitisation staff resigned, putting each defector under pressure to stay. After a sustained struggle, the bank succeeded in retaining key members of the team that had structured Paribas' Italian deals, one of the most significant parts of its business.

* World Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

THE Republic of Argentina provided a ray of hope for emerging market debt issuance this week with a Eu750m five year bond issue lead managed by Chase Manhattan and JP Morgan. On the back of strong retail investor demand - mainly from Italy, which has proved itself consistently hungry for Latin America's most frequent borrower - the deal just about made it out of the door, said bankers.