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Australia The Queensland Government has appointed JB Were to lead manage the sale of its remaining 31% stake in Suncorp-Metway which provides banking and insurance services. Part of the offer will be in the form of 142.5m exchanging instalment receipts and part from a two-for-one rights offer. A total of A$1.012bn could be raised from the deal and 75% of the shares will be sold to the public.

POSCO has overtaken the float of Korea Telecom in the government's privatisation programme, mandating Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney and Dongwon Securities to lead manage the deal, due to be completed in November. Although final decisions about the scale of the transaction have yet to be taken, the issue will likely involve a 3.1% stake which could raise over $150m.

BRAZIL and the IMF yesterday (Thursday) looked to buy more time for themselves by making a joint statement to assure markets they would announce a multi-billion dollar package soon. Anxious not to end the annual IMF meeting without some formal response to talk of a $30bn IMF-instigated package for Brazil, the statement confirmed that the money was definitely there to back up the country's three year fiscal reform package, to be announced around October 20.

OIL BUSINESS Conoco has begun the marketing for its planned $3.3bn IPO which, if successful, would be the largest US flotation so far this year. The fate of the deal will be closely watched; after the lull in the IPO market last month, there are a number of new companies lining up for launch in the coming weeks, prepared to risk the difficult market.

ABN AMRO Rothschild and CDC Marches this week allocated the sale of stock in Caisse National de Prévoyance (CNP), the French insurer sold by the government. The $1bn deal is one of the few transactions from the financial sector to have braved recent market volatility. Stocks in this industry has been pounded as the implications and severity of the global financial crisis become clear.

LEAD managers Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and MeesPierson have been forced to postpone the planned Dfl 4bn capital increase for the Dutch bancassurance group, Fortis Amev. The leads were to have priced the shares on Monday but abandoned this aim after the issuer refused to sell its equity capital at the price the market offered. "This fate will befall many issuers if they feel that they can get a better valuation for their assets by waiting for the markets to establish some stability," says one banker in the Amsterdam market.

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.