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ROADSHOWS will begin in Colombo on Wednesday for a $70m Asian Development Bank (ADB) co-financing for the Development Finance Corp of Ceylon (DFCC). Moving onto Singapore on November 26 and Hong Kong the following day, presentations for the ABN Amro-led deal will be completed in London on November 30, for final pricing shortly after. The two tranche deal, which incorporates an ADB guarantee on principal repayment and a government guarantee on interest payments, will have a 10 year maturity and FRN format. With one $5m ADB tranche and one $65m syndicated tranche, pricing is indicated at 200bp over Libor, a 115bp premium to a previous deal completed in July 1997.

FINANCE company Orient Corporation this week staked its claim to be the premier Japanese asset backed issuer in the international markets, with a $250m auto loan securitisation lead managed by DKB International. "Coming to market shortly before the year end, after the explosion of the credit markets -- everyone said it couldn't be done," said an official at DKBI in London. "But this is the highest quality ABS available, and at this pricing it offers extraordinary relative value to investors."

THE JAPANESE government will seek to follow up the massive success of NTT DoCoMo next week when it launches the sale of up to 1m shares in parent company, NTT. The sale could raise up to $7bn. The NTT offering is the first tranche of government shares to be sold in over 10 years. The timing does not seem ideal, as NTT's share price has fallen steadily in recent weeks.

MOODY'S became the second of the three major rating agencies to strip Japan of its triple-A rating on Monday, downgrading the country to Aa1 and assigning a negative outlook. Although the agency concluded its report by stressing that Japan "still remains among an elite group of highly rated countries", its assessment was bleak.

MERRILL Lynch and Warburg Dillon Read brought to a close the saga of Cable & Wireless Optus A$2.4bn listing on a positive note this week after the stock gained more than 25% on its first day of trading. To finish off a successful week, the same lead managers then successfully placed US West's stake in the company yesterday (Thursday) at a substantial premium to the institutional tranche price of the IPO.

THE ASIAN Development Bank (ADB) has crowned an unexpectedly successful fundraising year with a final trio of deals that marks the completion of its $9.6bn funding requirement for 1998. Bankers argued that the realisation of the supranational's fundraising targets should be considered a remarkable achievement, given the negative credit perceptions with which it has had to battle all year.

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BRAZIL'S finance minister Pedro Malan and central bank president Gustavo Franco visited New York this week to bolster investor confidence -- and their presence raised speculation that Brazil is considering a new bond issue. The two officials explained the government's $84bn three year fiscal adjustment programme to US investors and clarified the disbursement schedule for its recently completed $41.5bn IMF-led assistance package. Up to $20bn could be made available to Brazil by early 1999, much greater than market expectations.

IMPROVING investor confidence and an interest rate cut in the US prompted the National Bank of Hungary to return to the Eurodollar market this week for the first time since the end of the first quarter. The 25bp monetary easing by the Federal Reserve, which will reduce financing pressures on all emerging market borrowers, provided optimal conditions for the Baa2/BBB- rated sovereign borrower to issue a $200m fungible increase to its $300m 6.5% April 2003 bond launched at the end of March.

MEXICAN oil giant Pemex is making the most of the sudden turnaround in the emerging markets, this week launching a $600m 10 put three year deal and beginning a roadshow for a $1.5bn multi-tranche securitised structure in the week ahead. The $600m deal, led by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, was doubled in size and launched at a yield of 9.375%, or a spread of 477bp over three year Treasuries, tighter than its original yield guidance of 9.50% to 9.75%.

SOUTH AFRICA'S leading telecoms operator, Telkom, this week ushered in a new era in the country's domestic debt market when it became the first corporate to launch a Eurobond-style issue. Lead managed by JP Morgan and Standard and Corporate Merchant Bank, the ground-breaking transaction was launched for R1.5bn against an R1bn-R2.5bn indicative size range. It was then quickly increased to R2bn on the back of strong investor demand.

LEAD MANAGERS Schroders and Powszecyhny Bank Kredytowy w Warszawie (PBK) were vindicated in their efforts to bring the sale of the Polish government's stock in Telekomunikacja Polska (TPSA) at such a difficult time by the shares' early trading performance this week. Sceptical salesmen had doubted the deal's feasibility after the emerging markets crisis of recent months. But last week the shares were successfully placed with a wide variety of institutions and attracted strong levels of interest from the domestic retail market.