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Australia Merrill Lynch has completed an accelerated global bookbuild exercise to sell 13m News Corporation preference shares on behalf of an undisclosed customer.

THE REPUBLIC of the Philippines embarked on global roadshows this week for a deal that observers believe may either make or break its reputation in the international debt markets.

THE HONG KONG internet and technology stock bandwagon gathered yet more momentum this week, ignoring the volatility on the international traditional stock markets and responding to more record highs on Nasdaq. Shares in Tom.com surged more than 400% on their March 1 debut. Huge demand from retail investors in Hong Kong is underpinning international institutional demand and should provide the platform for more stunning debuts from several other stocks due to list in Hong Kong and overseas, including HK.com, SUNeVision and Sunday Communications.

ASIA PULP & Paper (APP) has stepped back into the international debt markets for the first time in over two years with the launch this week of a $350m bond offering for its China operations.

AS FORESHADOWED in EW641, Argentine cable company CableVisión this week launched a $100m three year callable Euro/144A issue via WestLB. Issued off the borrower's $1.5bn global MTN programme, the offering was priced with a 12.5% coupon to give a spread of 608bp over the three year US Treasury. Initial price guidance had been 575bp-610bp over the US government bond benchmark, with WestLB reporting that demand had built around the 12.5% coupon level - hence launch pricing at the wide end of the range. The transaction is callable as of March 2, 2002 at 102.25.

CALLAHAN Associates is set to tap the European loan and high yield markets for up to Eu4.5bn to help finance its acquisition of the controlling stakes in the cable networks of North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Market report: Compiled by Jim Webber,

CALLAHAN Associates is set to tap the European loan and high yield markets for up to Eu4.5bn to help finance its acquisition of the controlling stakes in the cable networks of North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

AFTER a week when Latin American sovereigns stole the limelight in the euro bond market, central and eastern European governments are poised to move to centre stage next week. Set to play a starring role is the Baa1/BBB/BBB+ rated Republic of Poland which this week started investor presentations in Europe in support of its first international bond for three years.

US COMMERCIAL finance group CIT is set to make its mark on the international capital markets next week with a $1bn global transaction jointly lead managed by Lehman Brothers and Warburg Dillon Read. The bond will target the short to intermediate part of the curve, between three to five years. Two teams of company representatives have been pitching the CIT story over the past week, one visiting various cities in the US, the other spending full days in London, Milan and Frankfurt.

AT THE end of last week, Citibank Salomon Smith Barney launched the long awaited co-arranger level of the DM830m senior debt backing the KKR sponsored buy-out of Tenovis, the private networking division of Bosch Telecom. Citibank, as underwriting bookrunner, was joined by Credit Suisse First Boston as co-lead arranger and is hoping for strongly supported co-arranger tier so that it does not have to run a general syndication. "We have gone relatively wide," said an official at the underwriting bank. "This is so that we can accommodate the German banks. We want them to play a large part in the deal. We will do a general syndication if we have to. But we have used the same strategy that is employed on the jumbo financings - going far and wide at the co-arranger level where the fees are better and the final takes are more worthwhile."

* Bank Austria AG Guarantor: Deficiency guarantee from City of Vienna