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SWISSCOM'S IPO made its debut this week, defying instability in world stockmarkets to achieve exceptional premiums over their issue price. The shares ended yesterday (Thursday) at Sfr405.5, compared to the Sfr340 sale price. Global co-ordinators JP Morgan and Warburg Dillon Read priced and allocated the deal last weekend.

Union Bank of Norway (UBN) has raised Nkr2.1bn ($289m) through a capital increase that defied weak market conditions and the negative sentiment which engulfs the financial sector. Merrill Lynch and Karl Johanfunds (the investment banking arm of UBN) recycled the rights to new international and local investors after taking the bank on a roadshow to introduce its story to institutions.

GOLDMAN Sachs has successfully executed the DM102m sale of stock in Ixos Software AG. The group launched its stock on Nasdaq and the Neuer Markt this week and grabbed investor attention despite the turmoil in global stockmarkets generally and in the hi-tech sector especially. Some 530,000 primary shares were sold for the company, and two members of Ixos management disposed of 75,000 shares to pay down debt. The shares were sold at DM170, a level just under the mid-point of the DM160 to DM195 indicated price range.

MERRILL Lynch this week successfully sold a 1% stake in the UK family controlled transport group, Stagecoach, in an accelerated marketed offering. This is the first time that the US firm has used this method of placing stock.

* Glaverbel, the Belgian glass maker, has withdrawn plans for a $130m convertible bond due to poor market conditions. The issuer, which has rarely used the equity capital markets was to launch its bonds in the next week, but pulled the transaction as the company felt its share price had fallen to unjustifiably low levels. The group is not alone. Dedicated convertible salesmen in London say that the number of issuers interested in coming to the convertible market has shrunk and that, as share prices remain vulnerable to market volatility, that it is unlikely that this situation will be reversed soon.

ROBERT Fleming and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson will next week launch the sale of stock in SanLam, one of South Africa's premier life assurance groups, as part of its demutualisation. Despite the difficult global stockmarkets, investors are reported to be expressing keen interest in this deal.

MERRILL Lynch and Merita will next week launch the sale of stock in Sonera, the Finnish national telecommunications operator. The authority will meet its bankers this weekend to decide on the structure and size of the deal. "We have two conflicting messages from the market," said one banker in London. "We have seen Swisscom trade like any bull market privatisation and we have seen the French government postpone its offering of France Télécom."

DEUTSCHE Bank and Banco Cisf have begun the marketing for the $825m sale of stock in Portugal's motorway group, Brisa. The company was partially privatised last year in an extremely successful deal where the shares were priced at Esc4,850. The forthcoming divestment involves the sale of 18.6m ordinary shares, including a 10% greenshoe option.

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WHY ARE flags flying at half-mast above 1, Finsbury Square, the despairing HQ of Warburg Dillon Read which is said to be less user-friendly than the maximum security penitentiary at Marion, Illinois?