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INTERACTIVE Investor International's (iii) £150m IPO, a £40.25m placement for online auction firm QXL, and the launch of the hotly anticipated StepStone IPO confirmed the growing internet addiction among investors this week. iii priced its 55m share offering at the top of the 120p-150p range. The deal closed on Wednesday and was 30 times covered in the institutional tranche and around 13 times covered in the retail tranche. Given the euphoria surrounding the offering, the shares opened at 350p and closed the day at 338-1/2p. Of the total, 20% was sold to UK retail investors - who subscribed to the issue via the website - with the remainder sold to institutions.

Not only was the World Bank's Ps1bn 15.875% three year Eurobond on Monday, the first by this borrower in the peso market, it was the first international offering by any supranational in a Latin currency. The World Bank has been contemplating a peso issue for several years, said head of the dollar group CK Tang, but only lately have investors regained their confidence in peso exposure.

ARGENTINA'S largest mortgage bank, Banco Hipotecario SA, made a successful return to the international bond markets last Friday (February 11) with the launch of an ABN Amro led three year Euro/144A offering. Demand was such that the lead manager was able to up the issue to $125m at pricing, from $100m at launch.

The Republic of Italy last week offered investors the rare opportunity to buy into a sovereign liquid 10 year yen bond. The ¥100bn global transaction, lead managed by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Nomura, is Italy's first deal in the yen market since March 1997 - and makes it the first sovereign to issue a global yen bond since March 1999. "We have been considering a yen issue for some time," said Vincenzo La Via, Italy's head of funding. "This is an important investor base for us and in this particular case there was a coincidence in terms of demand such that we were able to place this bond in the US, Europe and also in Japan."

India Despite bringing in a handful of banks as sub-underwriters, arrangers ANZ Investment Bank and HSBC have effectively suspended syndication of offshore senior debt facilities for the $1.4bn Vizag power project in Andhra Pradesh state.

THE GOVERNMENT of Jamaica returned to the international bond markets this week with a Eu100m tap of the Ba3/B rated sovereign's Eu100m 10% February 2003 bond. Lead managed by Deutsche Bank, the issue was reopened at a spread of 553bp over the OBL 126/573bp over the July 2002 BTAN at a fixed re-offer price of 99. The issue price on the add-on was 99.75.

Two Kazakh banks are looking to capitalise on the improving sentiment towards Kazakhstan by raising bond funding in the international markets this year. Leading public sector lender Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan is hoping to enter the Eurobond markets in the second quarter, according to the bank's chairman Karim Masimov. Masimov said this week that Halyk is mulling a debut Euromarket issue in April or May.

CHASE and Warburg Dillon Read have won the latest big ticket leveraged debt mandate to hit the European loan market - a £570m senior debt package backing KKR's takeover of Wassall, the UK conglomerate whose principal asset is Thorn Lighting Group. The takeover was declared to the stock exchange at the end of last week. KKR's decision to acquire Wassall follows Knutsford's failure to buy the conglomerate after it was unable to raise the required underwriting commitments.

Banks attended a meeting in Paris yesterday (Thursday) for the £3.95bn acquisition financing for the French building materials firm Lafarge, backing its hostile bid for Blue Circle of the UK. Terms on offer appeared more generous than many of the some 35 banks present expected. But this was in large part due to the hostility of the bid. However, it has given them a chance to join a high paying deal and make some headway towards ambitious 2000 fee targets.