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YET MORE feverish demand for Taiwanese technology stocks is expected later this month with the IPO on Nasdaq of GigaMedia Ltd. Goldman Sachs is sole lead manager and bookrunner for the placement. The issue is expected to record stellar demand. There has been a clamour for Taiwanese technology companies so far this year, and the Taipei bourse has surged since the new year. Bankers polled by Euroweek consider GigaMedia the ideal Asian conduit for global investors to take a slice of the broadband internet access market.

Beijing Capital International Airport shares fell on launch on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this week. The stock dropped from the issue price of HK$1.87 to HK$1.79 by the end of the first day's trading as 111.7m shares changed hands. Bankers in Hong Kong believe that ABN Amro was active in the market this week trying to mop up the selling pressure.

PROOF THAT global demand for CBs from Taiwan technology companies is far from exhausted came earlier this week with the speedy and successful completion of the $200m Delta Electronics convertible. Lead manager and bookrunner Warburg Dillon Read launched the issue on Monday at 3pm and completed the deal within eight hours. Warburg received more than $1bn of orders for the bonds. The Delta bonds are zero coupon and zero yield to maturity. Like the FET and Acer SIZes structures, investors enjoy put options at par at the end of each of the first four years, thereby providing the principal protection that Asian CB investors lacked before the Asian crisis.

China The long awaited sale by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) of 15% of its PetroChina unit will be premarketed next week. The roadshow will start in the third week of February. Goldman Sachs is joint lead with China International Capital Corporation.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) is finalising plans for its debut euro transaction, set to be a Eu500m-Eu1bn five year fixed rate issue via Deutsche and Merrill Lynch priced in the high teens over Euribor. Long a presence in the dollar floater market, the bank has mostly shied away from the euro and tributary markets. But Peter Marriott, ANZ's chief financial officer, hopes that the benchmark will establish the bank's name in Europe as the borrower aims to raise 60% of its A$6bn 2000 funding in the Euromarkets.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) is finalising plans for its debut euro transaction, set to be a Eu500m-Eu1bn five year fixed rate issue via Deutsche and Merrill Lynch priced in the high teens over Euribor. Long a presence in the dollar floater market, the bank has mostly shied away from the euro and tributary markets. But Peter Marriott, ANZ's chief financial officer, hopes that the benchmark will establish the bank's name in Europe as the borrower aims to raise 60% of its A$6bn 2000 funding in the Euromarkets.

ARGENTINA plans to launch a domestic bond debt swap on February 10 of at least $1.75bn in size. The deal will involve the issue of two local bonds, called Bontes, maturing in 2003 and 2005, in exchange for a series of local bonds and the FRB Brady bond. Up to 30% of the total size of each bond can be bought for cash.

Hong Kong BA Asia has been mandated by Florens Container Inc to arrange the extension of the company's $120m two year letter of credit facility signed in May 1998. That deal was also arranged by BA Asia and paid an L/C fee of 100bp and a 25bp extension fee.

Europe * Owengate Keele Plc

* GE Capital Australia Funding Pty Ltd Guarantor: General Electric Capital Corp

Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi are venturing into new waters with a $100m 364 day loan for Banamex. This is the first loan for a Latin borrower to be targeted solely at Asian and Middle Eastern banks.

Do we hear the sound of falling bodies from the battlements of Commerzbank in London? Is there already enough blood on the pavement to delight the Dracula Gourmet Club, which salivates over the prospect of slowly-cooked jugged hare and oozing boudin noir for breakfast? Did Regis 'Reggie' Fraisse, the reclusive Frenchman, who packed his Camembert sandwiches and walked away on New Year's Eve, leave the front gates open for the barbarians outside to come in and put every last man, woman and child to the sword?