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CSFB IS TO launch the sale of stock in Agora, the leading Polish publishing company. The company is owned by its own management and by Cox Communications, the innovative US media group that was in the equity market last week with the divestment of stock in TeleWest.

GLOBAL co-ordinator Argentaria next week will launch the IPO of shares in Azkar, the Spanish speciality transport company. The deal was slated to be launched during the second half of last year but was postponed due to the upheaval in global stockmarkets. The Spanish equity market recovered in line with its continental peers to recapture most of its losses and ended the year just 8% off its all time high.

THE ITALIAN ministry of communications announced this week that the government had no interest in maintaining its ownership of a 4.5% stake in Telecom Italia, the national operator privatised in 1997. The sale would raise between Lit5,000bn and Lit6,000bn (Eu2.58bn to Eu3.10bn) for the Treasury. Although the indication of this plan -- made by Salvatore Cardinale, the communications minister -- may have been premature, it is still likely that the sale will take place before the end of April.

GOLDMAN Sachs and JP Morgan have completed the sale of stock in Pharmacia & Upjohn (P&U), the three year old pharmaceuticals group formed through the merger of the US and Swedish groups. The deal was executed on an extremely fast time-table, illustrating the benefits of using this type of marketing during turbulent market conditions. Although the offering was launched in last week's booming stockmarkets, the situation changed abruptly this week with the exposure of Brazil's economic, political and currency problems. But the outstanding stock in P&U was relatively insulated from the turmoil, allowing the lead managers to price the placement close to the $55-1/16 closing price in New York last night (Thursday).

WARBURG Dillon Read is to launch the sale of stock in Neoplast, the world's second largest supplier of mail-room equipment. The deal has been eagerly awaited by investors as one of the few large, liquid corporate deals to emerge from the Paris market for some time. "This market has largely been dominated by privatisation issues," says one Paris banker. "And Neoplast will give investors a rare opportunity to buy a well established privately owned company."

SALOMON Smith Barney has been appointed as global co-ordinator with Christiania Bank for the government's sale of stock in the Norwegian bank -- one of a slew of bank deals coming from the region. Prime among the other offerings is one from Den norske Bank, led by Warburg Dillon Read.

MORGAN Stanley Dean Witter and MeesPierson this week completed the accelerated offer of stock in Fortis, the Dutch banking group. The deal raised over $1bn, making it one of the largest transactions to be executed using this swift marketing style. The bank had planned to raise $2bn through a capital increase last September but was eventually unwilling to accept the poor valuation given to its shares after the worldwide stock rout.

There were several new names added this week to the growing list of new and secondary US offerings scheduled for the first quarter, despite worries that the Brazil crisis may finally bring the gravity-defying US market back down to earth. Grabbing most attention is the IPO for Pepsi Bottling Group. The company filed with the SEC last Friday for a offering of common stock, expected to raise around $1bn.

A VARIETY of new equity issues from large and small cap companies is poised to hit the German equity market. Despite the corrections suffered by most markets this week on the back of Brazil's economic crisis, bankers in the local market and in London say that the flow of deals should continue undaunted, especially if the continent's stockmarkets recover their losses. The German market greeted 1999 with sharply rising indices with the Dax trading at around 5,200 on December 31, up from a year low of 3,896. By yesterday (Thursday), the index had sagged to around 4,900.

DO WE SMELL blood at swishy Thames Court on Upper Thames Street, the new ivory towered home of Rabobank in London? Passing Japanese tourists report the sight of many body bags. Has there been a breakout of the plague or have Rabobank's puritanical task masters in Utrecht merely come to their senses? To be honest, we never believed that rich little country bumpkin Rabobank ever wanted to become a full blown international investment bank.

THE NEW shape of the international primary bond markets was confirmed this week as the two main currency blocs, the dollar and the euro, dominated new issue activity. Only a handful of sterling transactions distracted attention away from the now two core currencies. Although the deal flow of the first week of the year could not be maintained, as the market slowed on the back of concerns about Brazil's fiscal predicament, frequent issuers remained keen to get deals into the market as early in the New Year as possible.