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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will today (Friday) announce details of its new global bond, following the completion of its annual general conference in Geneva this week. As revealed in Euroweek, the bond is set to emerge at between $3bn and $4bn and at five years. Nomura is lined up along Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and SBC Warburg as joint bookrunner.

Porterbrook, the UK rolling stock leasing company which has earned a reputation for innovative financings, broke new ground again this week when it securitised revenues from trains which have yet to be built. The securitisation, structured by UBS over the last 10 months, was issued through special purpose vehicle New Investment for Trains plc (NIFTI). The package is made up of a senior £110m loan from the European Investment Bank, three tranches of FRNs worth a total of £140m, and a £23m subordinated loan from UBS, partly wrapped by the European Investment Fund.

LATE last Thursday an internal communication was issued to all project finance staff at UBS/SBC Warburg Dillon Read, outlining the strategy for the new bank's project finance activities. The communication was issued by Charles Zabriskie, global head of project finance in New York who was, according to a source at the bank, under the impression that the strategy had indeed been determined.

Outside events seemed to be diverting the attention of many market professionals towards the end of the week. The long weekend will tee off for many today (Friday) with holidays in most of Europe. It will give some the opportunity to ponder the outcome of the EU meeting at which members of the single currency will be confirmed and euro conversion rates will be set.

The Greek government is taking advantage of buoyant domestic stockmarket conditions to hurry along its privatisation programme, divesting minority stakes in a number of industrial and financial groups. This week the government sold a 3.3% stake in national telecom carrier OTE to raise $400m in the largest bought deal yet seen in the Greek market. The stake was sold to Credit Suisse Boston and Salomon Smith Barney, with the process being co-ordinated by domestic lead manager National Bank of Greece.

In the same week as Israelis celebrated the 50th anniversary of the founding of the modern State of Israel, the Israeli shekel became the latest Eurocurrency. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) claimed the honour of being the first issuer to tap the new Eurobond currency sector, which has been created following the liberation of Israel's foreign exchange controls.

A China project bond for infrastructure developer Traffic Stream (BVI) International Ltd was finally priced last Friday by Merrill Lynch. Originally set to comprise a $150m issue with a 10 non call five structure, terms were adjusted in the final lead up to pricing after resistance from a core group of investors in the US.

Outside events seemed to be diverting the attention of many market professionals towards the end of the week. The long weekend will tee off for many today (Friday) with holidays in most of Europe. It will give some the opportunity to ponder the outcome of the EU meeting at which members of the single currency will be confirmed and euro conversion rates will be set.

THE SLOVAK Republic is to host roadshows in Europe and the US next week in preparation for a landmark $1bn equivalent multi-currency bond financing package to be denominated in US dollars, Deutschmarks and Japanese yen. The multi-tranche offering will provide a stern test of investor sentiment towards the country. Economic and political uncertainty over the last year has prevented Slovakia from tapping the public international bond markets.

CHASE Manhattan is set to launch the City of Moscow's debut Eurolira transaction on Tuesday. Under the Bank of Italy's queuing system for emerging market issuers, the Ba3/BB- rated transaction for the Russian capital was scheduled for launch this Wednesday or Thursday. Chase, however, has secured central bank permission to extend the issuance deadline to next week to give it more time to premarket the transaction.

Whatever the level of new supply of French equity this year, it is unlikely to exceed the runaway demand from domestic and international investors that has lifted the CAC-40 stockmarket index by 40% since the end of 1997.