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THE IMMEDIATE prospects of a second Asian issue insured by Japan's MITI (Ministry of Trade & Industry) have been clouded by the continuing failure of the Thai authorities to formally appoint an investment bank to lead the ¥70bn private placement. Although the Japanese ministry had initially mandated Citicorp for the seven to 10 year transaction, the issue was thrown open to competition at the end of last year, after Thailand's finance ministry demanded the right to appoint a bank itself.

SOCIETE Générale Australia executed the largest Australian domestic asset backed deal at the end of December, with an innovative equipment lease securitisation for its Sogelease Australia subsidiary. The A$700.7m transaction takes virtually all of Sogelease's operating leases, finance leases, commercial hire purchase agreements and chattel mortgages off balance sheet, and allows further issuance up to a maximum of A$1bn.

THE MASS Transit Railway Corporation (MTRC) and the State Development Bank of China (SDB) are both limbering up for roadshows at the end of the month, fuelling belief that the first bond deal of the year from Greater China will emerge shortly. Both issuers are known to be keen to issue as soon as possible within the new year and bankers remain divided whether the two credits will cannibalise each other should they launch competing transactions at the same time.

MERRILL LYNCH will next week launch the secondary sale of stock in Mettler Toledo, the Swiss manufacturer of weighing instruments. The deal is one of a long queue of Swiss deals expected to come to this market over the next six months. Last year Swiss corporates failed to take advantage of the recovering stockmarket conditions of the fourth quarter. Issuers and vendors from other continental markets such as Spain, France and the Netherlands reversed earlier decisions to postpone their share offerings and came to market during the last weeks of 1998.

THE KOREA Asset Management Corporation has sold W565bn ($470m) of non-performing real estate loans to Lone Star Fund, a $1bn US private equity real estate investment fund. Lone Star will pay W141bn ($117m) for 70% of the equity in an offshore special purpose vehicle that will own the assets -- Kamco will own the remaining 30%, giving it a share of any upside from recoveries.

ROADSHOWS for the ING Barings-led $200m Heilongjiang Agriculture 'H' share IPO kick off on Monday while Goldman Sachs appears to have decided to delay Shandong International Power's $200m IPO until after Chinese new year. ING Barings is global co-ordinator for the 630m share Heilongjiang offer with BNP Prime Peregrine joint lead manager, HSBC senior co-lead and Warburg Dillon Read as co-lead.

MALAYSIA'S national oil company Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) launched its largest ever Samurai bond this week, raising ¥51bn via Daiwa Securities. The first ever deal by the group to be targeted at the retail market, the issue comprised one ¥34bn tranche of five year paper (increased from ¥30bn) and one ¥17bn tranche of 10 year paper (increased from ¥10bn).

* Macquarie Bank has decided not to sell PUMA, the securitisation vehicle which has issued some A$7.5bn of mortgage backed securities. Macquarie invited bids in October, but announced on December 23 that none of the offers satisfied its criteria for a sale in relation to price, staff and clients. Macquarie had expected that an Australian mortgage originator could derive economies of scale by amalgamating its servicing systems with PUMA's, but that proved not to be the case.

THAILAND'S Financial Sector Restructuring Authority has sold six more tranches of its business loan portfolio, raising Bt27.3bn ($750m) from assets with a face value of Bt124bn ($3.4bn). Goldman Sachs bought the lion's share of the loans, bidding in partnership with GE Capital. The formal auction, which closed on December 15, disposed of only 8.2% of the Bt388bn ($10.68bn) of available assets, but the FRA then negotiated with several candidates whose bids were too low for it to accept outright.

Australia The Australian government has appointed ABN Amro, Credit Suisse First Boston and JB Were as co-ordinators for the sale of a further 16% stake in Telstra. The line-up is identical to that for the successful first tranche sale in November 1997.

CENTRAL and eastern European sovereigns are looking to capitalise on the euphoria following the successful introduction of the euro this week, with plans to launch debut issues in the new single European currency. Among those countries in the region believed to be mulling a euro denominated deal is Hungary, with the Baa2/BBB rated sovereign expected to mandate a probable Eu500m 10 year bond possibly as early as next week.

>* DePfa Rating: Aa3