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Within central and eastern Europe, it has been the corporates who have found the going hardest this year.

The Loan Market Association held its second Annual General Meeting on July 9, 1998. At this meeting, I was pleased to be able to announce that our membership had grown to 110, and that, as a result, we had collected sufficient funding to enable us to undertake all of our planned expenditures for the current calendar year.

At last it has happened. What every banker in the syndicated loan market has been crying out for the last four years has finally taken place: the loan market has turned in favour of the lender.

The first six months of 1998 have been a frustrating time for many UK project financiers. Following the government's decision to halt approval of new gas-fired power plants, over $5bn of power projects are now on hold.

With the recent Financial Accounting Standards Board ruling, corporations will now be responsible for publicly disclosing the market value of their derivative portfolios.

NOMURA has enhanced its fast growing fixed income operations in Asia with the appointment of Ilyas Khan as managing director and head of debt origination based in Hong Kong. Khan, who is relocating from the bank's London office, will report to Hong Kong based fixed income managing director Mike Thoms, who recently joined the securities firm from Sumitomo, and ultimately to Stefan Ludwig, the bank's regional head based in Singapore who relocated from London earlier in the spring.

AN HIATUS of activity since the Republic of Korea's groundbreaking $4bn global, which has lasted almost three months, is finally on the verge of breaking. Premarketing took place this week for a novel zero coupon bond from the Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco), and roadshows are to begin next Wednesday for the Korea Asset Management Corporation's (Kamco's) debut DM1bn euro-fungible transaction.

THE PEOPLE'S Republic of China has mandated Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs as the two lead managers for a new benchmark Yankee offering to be launched when spread levels ease back to their pre-June levels. Officials from the PRC's Department of State Debt Administration commented that current market conditions do not support new bond issuance from China, which typically favours an opportunistic approach to overseas borrowing in the absence of a pre-defined funding requirement.

ROADSHOWS are to begin in Hong Kong on Monday for the only major equity deal currently on offer in Asia, a $100m GDR for Taiwanese electronics company D-Link. Led by Salomon Smith Barney with ING Barings as joint-lead, bankers and analysts said that the networking products company is one of the few capable of capturing investor interest in current market conditions.

INDIA'S ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has moved to revive confidence in its 100 day old government by this week announcing its intention to raise $2bn to $5bn in what it termed Resurgent India Bonds. Taken alongside plans by the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to proceed with a benchmark $200m fixed rate offering in the fourth quarter, issuance from the subcontinent is showing signs of a mild revival despite an unabating wave of negative news.

STANDARD & Poor's surprised the market on Monday when it placed Hong Kong's senior long term credit rating of A+ on CreditWatch with negative implications. The announcement was released just a few hours after the government revealed a sweeping package of new measures to avert further economic deterioration in the Territory. The agency cited "increasing financial sector strain and the growing likelihood of a protracted economic downturn that could challenge the ability of Hong Kong's government to maintain its prudent fiscal policies and traditional non-interventionist stance toward the economy".

THE KINGDOM of Thailand is inching closer to the launch of a global bond, although local officials said that the deal will not be formally ratified by the cabinet until its meeting during the second week of July. Fiscal Policy Office officials responsible for co-ordinating the $1bn transaction said that, market conditions permitting, they hope to close the deal before the end of next month, with roadshows beginning immediately after final cabinet approval. Following weeks of confusion, however, questions have now moved beyond possible syndicate structure to whether a transaction should still be launched since the kingdom's spreads have come under pressure.