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* Merrill Lynch will shortly launch the sale of convertible bonds for Banca Popolare di Milano (BPM). The issue, mandated last year, will offer investors 10 year bonds priced at BTPs less 60bp to 110bp, and with a conversion premium of between 15% and 20% above the reference price of BPM shares. A reference price is to be used to accommodate the placement of bonds to Italian retail investors through an OPV which will be launched with terms on yield to maturity, conversion premium and maximum reference price. The latter may represent the last sale but could theoretically be any level chosen by the lead manager.

THE SWISS equity market is preparing for its largest IPO to date with the privatisation sale of shares in Swisscom, the national telecoms operator. This week the government and the company confirmed that stock will be offered to domestic and international institutional investors in the fourth quarter of 1998. The deal, which was mandated to SBC Warburg Dillon Read and JP Morgan last year, involves the sale of up to 49.9% of Swisscom -- of which a significant proportion will be sold to the domestic retail market.

SGS THOMSON, the Franco-Italian micro-electronics firm, this week braved difficult market conditions to execute a $2bn sale of stock and a $400m sale of liquid yield option notes (Lyons). Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell led the stock offering, while Merrill Lynch acted as lead manager for the Lyons equity-linked offering.

GLOBAL co-ordinators Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse First Boston have set the indicated price range of the sale of stock in Alstom, the Anglo-French engineering group, which is being floated this month in Europe's largest corporate IPO. At a range of between Ffr190 and Ffr220 the company is valued at a maximum level of Ffr46.2bn ($7.8bn). The flotation of the company will signal its independence from the former owners of the joint venture concern -- GEC of the UK and the state-controlled Alcatel Alsthom of France.

THE RECENT volatility in stockmarkets is leading vendors and intermediaries increasingly to execute deals on an accelerated marketing timetable, hoping to minimise the risk of a market downturn during the sale period. Although issuers are keen to secure the certainty provided by bought deals, few banks are willing to take hard underwriting risk in the current environment. As a result, lead managers are instead speeding up the offering process to protect the underlying stock.

SPANISH corporates are lining up to float on the country's buoyant stockmarket, with issuers keen to take advantage of the boom in equity prices this year. Although appetite for privatisation stock in Spain seems to be suffering from a degree of investor fatigue, attention is increasingly turning to the corporate and bank sector.

CONNOR Killeen, the former head of equity capital markets at UBS, is to join Dresdner Kleinwort Benson as global head of equity capital markets starting in September, Euroweek has learned. Killeen, who led UBS' thrust into the primary equity markets over the last six years, left the bank at the beginning of this year following the merger with SBC Warburg Dillon Read.

THE GERMAN primary market is heading for an unprecedented period of activity, with a large number of capital increases by Germany's biggest corporate groups due for launch in the next few weeks and a wave of small to mid-cap groups looking to float their shares on the Frankfurt equity markets. Despite the heavy supply on offer, issuing conditions are almost perfect. This week the Frankfurt Xetra Dax stockmarket index hit a record high following expectations of positive company results and heavy trading activity in some of the market's leading sectors.

THE ITALIAN treasury has begun the fourth sale of shares in national oil and gas group Eni, announcing the structure of the transaction this week and filing a prospectus with Consob, the national stockmarket regulator. In keeping with past practice -- and to protect Eni's outstanding share price -- the exact size of the deal will not be announced until the first phase of the premarketing period is concluded on June 13.

GLOBAL co-ordinator HSBC has launched the sale of stock in MaltaCom, Malta's national telecom operator. The offering, the first international equity transaction from the island state, heralds the start of the country's privatisation programme. The $90m sale of GDRs will involve some 40% of the company's equity capital being placed in public hands. Following two weeks of premarketing, the lead manager has indicated a price range to potential investors of between $12.44 and $13.62 (M£82 to M£89.5).

China Roadshows were held in Hong Kong and Singapore this week for the syndication of the international tranches of Shandong Guangzhou Power Company's $2.2bn power project financing, with presentations to be held in London, Paris and Frankfurt next week. Arrangers Greenwich NatWest, IBJ Asia and SG Asia report strong interest in the deal despite rumours in the market that the project does not meet World Bank environmental guidelines for gas emissions. The arrangers deny this is the case and argue that the deal has been cleared of any infringement of World Bank guidelines.

THE FLOOD of jumbo sized loans is set to continue into the third quarter with news that the Channel Tunnel Rail Link project, which has a cost of £5.8bn (or £7.7bn if allowing for inflation), will now go ahead. The UK's deputy prime minister and transport minister John Prescott this week accepted restructured plans from London & Continental Railways, the project's sponsor, involving the financing and development of a high speed rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel.