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THE LATIN new issue market this week began to recover from its recent bout of indigestion as Argentina cable company Multicanal took advantage of the boom in US high yield debt to launch the first 20 year issue for an Argentine corporate this year. It will be followed today (Friday) by a $150m five year FRN from Nafinsa, the Mexican development bank.

RUPERT Hume-Kendall, the former head of equity syndicate at UBS who lost his job - together with most of his colleagues - as a result of the merger with SBC Warburg Dillon Read, is to resurface at Merrill Lynch. He will join the firm in late May as a managing director in the equity capital markets group, principally covering the UK and reporting to Brad England, head of equity capital markets in Europe. Roberto Oggioni, another ex-member of the UBS team, is also joining Merrill as a vice president in equity capital markets to cover Italy.

SBC WARBURG Dillon Read this week ran the books on a well received debut Eurobond from Russian electric utility, Irkutskenergo. The DM125m three year deal featured an optically attractive 12.5% coupon to yield 825bp over Bunds at the issue/fixed re-offer price of 99.75 - at the top of the 775bp-825bp indicated spread range.

KAZKOMMERTSBANK, Kazkhstan's largest private sector bank, will next week host investor presentations in London and the US for a debut Eurobond which promises to be the first of a series of international bond issues from the Central Asian republic this year. Kazkommerts, which is rated B+ by S&P and Fitch IBCA, and B2 by Moody's, is to launch a $100m three year issue via ING Barings in the week beginning Monday, April 27.

* Paribas has been mandated for the ratings advisory and lead management mandate for the debut Eurobond for the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. The French bank has won out against competition from Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, Nomura, and UBS, whittled down from an original group of 14 bidders.

THE RUSSIAN Federation's first ever Eurolira bond is likely to surface next week, following roadshows this week. Senior finance officials from the Ba3/BB-/BB+ rated sovereign held a series of well attended investor presentations in Rome, Milan and Lugano alongside bankers from joint lead managers Credito Italiano and JP Morgan.

AS FIRST quarter earnings reports started to pour in this week, US stocks pulled back from two consecutive days of record highs - with the Dow Jones closing down yesterday (Thursday) by more than 85 points. The US market was also affected by the sell-off in Asian markets overnight on Thursday - especially by the Nikkei's fall below 16,000 - although the Dow continues to trade above the psychologically important 9,000 level.

THE privatisation of Spanish tobacco group Tabacalera is already a blow-out success in the domestic market, with the retail tranche of the Pta342bn ($2.2bn) offering oversubscribed by more than three times within 48 hours of the application period opening this week. Investment bankers said the overwhelming local demand for stock made it likely that the already small international tranche of the offering would be cut even further.

SWISS cement giant Holderbank became the latest issuer to take advantage of the buoyant market demand for equity linked debt this week, launching a Sfr419m convertible. The financing was run by SBC Warburg Dillon Read, which last week launched a successful offering for Swiss Life which raised more than $2bn through a multi-tranche, multi-currency series of exchangeable bonds.

ROADSHOWS began this week for the secondary offering of stock in Isbank, a transaction which participants hope will break the logjam of Turkey privatisations. The Privatisation Administration has formally announced details of the sale of its 12.3% stake in Isbank, Turkey's leading private commercial bank.

* Credit Suisse Financial Products Ltd Rating: A2/A+

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