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NSW TAB has announced a price range for its A$1bn offer, to be led by ABN Amro and Merrill Lynch. Conservative earnings projections contained in the prospectus mean the float is likely to raise less than the long expected A$1.2bn. Retail investors will pay a maximum price of A$2.05, while those who reserve shares though a broker will pay a A$0.10 premium to reflect the fact they are more likely to receive a full allocation than regular retail customers. Retail customers who completed a pre-registration process will receive 25% more stock than other retail investors.

* The $300m Yankee bond by the National Power Corporation of the Philippines (Napocor) was priced last Friday. Led by Salomon Smith Barney, with ABN Amro and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter as co-managers, the issue emerged with a single 30 year tranche against expectations of 10 and 30 year maturities. Priced with an issue/re-offer price of 98.243, the deal had a coupon of 9.625% to yield 386.5bp over Treasuries. Bankers commented that pricing came slightly wider than a pre-marketed level of around 375bp over Treasuries and about 40bp above the most comparable existing benchmark for the republic, whose 2016 Brady was being quoted just above 340bp at the time of launch.

MACRONIX pulled a planned $280m sale of ADRs this week in a move which dramatically illustrated that Taiwan was not, as some had believed, immune to the troubles of the rest of Asia. The failure of the deal came on top of last week's offer of convertible bonds for China Petrochemical Development, on which the terms had to sharply revised. Corruption allegations against the co-lead on the China Petrochemical sale and against privatisation candidate Chinese Petroleum Corp also reminded investors that some of the problems that plague the rest of the region may also exist in Taiwan.

RENEWED hopes that more Taiwanese banks could be enticed to follow Chiao Tung's recent foray into the international debt market have remained unfulfilled, with current spread levels continuing to scare off potential issuers. Borrowing from the island republic, while infrequent, has traditionally resulted in exceptionally tight pricing -- a reflection both of the sovereign's Aa3 rating ceiling and of the rarity value of bank credit.

NEXT month's A$13bn+ ($8.3bn) AMP float will feature a novel structure protecting its policyholders from missing out on potential large gains in the first week of trade. Lead managers Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell hope the provision, a world first, will help convince policyholders who receive shares to recycle them into a facility for institutional investors.

THE ASIAN Development Bank (ADB) is to launch its keenly awaited superliquid bond toward the middle of next week, if market conditions stabilise. Led by Nomura International, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and SBC Warburg Dillon Read, the deal is emerging as a roughly $3bn global bond with a likely maturity of five years. In the face of difficulties marketing Asian-linked credits and a wide spread differential between the bank's most recent 10 year deal and comparable supranational credits, Asian support is rapidly coming into focus as the likely platform for the deal. Bankers said that the deal has already garnered strong demand from the region. Asian central banks provide an obvious home for the ADB's paper, both on grounds of the bank's triple-A rating and the role the supranational is expected to play in the region's recovery from economic turmoil. Whether that buyer universe will prove large enough to allow the ADB to meet its funding targets remains uncertain.

VENEZUELAN state oil company PDVSA stunned the markets this week by issuing a record $1.8bn bond, the biggest 'corporate' offering from Latin America. The deal, led by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, employed a structure which enabled PDVSA to catapult itself into the investment grade world with an A2 rating, the highest any similar structured deal out of the region has ever achieved, and a staggering seven notches higher than the sovereign rating.

LATIN AMERICA's first equity issue of the year failed to lift the gloom this week as investors turned their noses up at the Dominican Republic telephone company's $74m offering. The Tricom deal, led by Bear Stearns, involved the issue of 5.7m ADSs, priced at $13, the bottom of its $13 to $15 filing range.

LEADING Czech commercial bank Komercní banka this week became the first central and eastern European borrower to issue a major subordinated debt transaction in the international bond markets with the launch of a $200m 10 year non-call five Euro/144A offering via Credit Suisse First Boston and JP Morgan. Issued through the bank's Dutch registered financing vehicle, Komercní Finance BV, the groundbreaking Baa3/BB/BBB- rated offering featured a fixed/floating rate coupon to yield 350bp over the 5.75% April 2003 US Treasury for the first five years. This steps up to 500bp over six month dollar Libor thereafter if not called. The lead managers said that by pricing the deal at the generous end of the 337bp-350bp indicated spread range they had ensured a strong bid for the paper in a volatile new issue environment. That enabled them to increase the deal to $200m from $150m at launch. Although a number of Slovak and Estonian banks have previously issued small US dollar or Deutschmark denominated subordinated debt transactions, those issues have effectively been private placements. Komercní's much larger public transaction marks the de facto creation of a new asset class for the central and eastern European region.

THE UNITED Mexican States tapped the Escudos market for the first time this week as part of its continued effort to diversify its European investor base. The Esc18.5bn floating rate offering, led by Banco Finantia, was priced at par with a coupon of six month Lisbor plus 180bp, a spread which was said to have attracted good interest initially but looked slightly expensive, according to some, once dollar spreads in the emerging markets widened out on midweek.