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THE GREEK government will this year seek to divest a fourth tranche of its national operator, OTE. The forthcoming sale of stock in OTE may raise around $500m. However the identity of the lead managers has yet to be confirmed. The Greek government has a history of revolving its favours among groups of international investment banks although it has tended to focus on a group including CSFB, HSBC and Salomon Smith Barney, in addition to a local bank.

WITH THE US market moving through 9,500 for the first time Wall Street's investment banks are set to launch a wide variety of new equity issues in the first weeks of 1999. The 223 point surge in the broad market was fuelled by investors bidding up hi-tech and blue chip stocks on the back of the merger negotiations between AirTouch and Vodafone. Nasdaq, too, benefited from a surge in activity by gaining ground to more than 2,320.

THE FRENCH government is set to launch the sale of Air France in the next two weeks. The Trésor is expected to sell some 50% of the group through lead managers SG and Banque Indosuez Agricole in a deal that could be worth over Ffr5bn (Eu765m). The lead managers have this week been sending out invitations to international and domestic investment banks to pitch for co-lead and co-manager positions, with syndicate desks in London and Paris reporting that they are entering a remarkably busy period as lead managers select syndicates in advance of the rush to execute new business.

SG LAUNCHED the first genuine euro denominated convertible this week with a Eu1.5bn offering for the French media and utility giant, Vivendi. The deal exploded on to the market during a traditionally quiet period for the equity capital markets, seizing the opportunities offered by the European currency union celebrations as well as the New Year's roaring stockmarkets.

GLOBAL co-ordinators, ABN Amro Rothschild, Nomura and Union Bank of Estonia, this week launched the privatisation sale of stock in Estonia Telecom. Although the transaction was known to be on the cards for the early part of this year -- last year the three banks won the mandate to lead the country's largest international equity issue after a hugely competitive beauty parade -- the speed of execution surprised some bankers.

GOLDMAN SACHS and JP Morgan have been mandated to run the books on the Swedish government's divestment of its 7% stake in Pharmacia & Upjohn, the pharmaceuticals group formed through the merger of local and US groups in 1995. The deal was launched this week to raise as much as $2bn and will be one of the largest of the year's stock offerings from the Swedish market. The transaction shows a canny sense of timing by the government in cashing in on the popularity of the pharmaceutical sector. This has largely been sparked by the increase in shareholder value expected to materialise through the current wave of mergers -- such as that between Zeneca and Astra -- sweeping the industry.

Côte d'Ivoire Joint arrangers of the senior debt for the $223m Azito independent power project -- the IFC and SG -- have closed syndication of the first privately financed independent power deal in sub-Saharan Africa.

MEMORIES of 1998 proved short-lived this week as the international capital market greeted the new year with an explosion of debt issues from across the credit spectrum.

THE PIPELINE of new issuance in Europe's high yield market is filling up fast with two issues already being roadshowed and many more believed primed for launch in the coming weeks. A bullish tone to the secondary market has provided a positive backdrop to roadshows for high yield transactions for Willis Corroon and Completel, which both started this week.

THE CITY of Florence has inaugurated its newly signed global MTN programme with a $29m 144A issue. Although a series of presentations before the deal's launch generated strong demand across Europe as well as the US, the city opted for a purely US transaction. The 15 year issue fixed rate issue, which has a linear amortising structure and an average life of 7.5 years, came at a spread of 85bp over the 10 year Treasury. The deal was sole lead managed by Merrill Lynch, arranger of the $300m global MTN programme. There is no further group.