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WESTPAC this week began marketing the first New Zealand home loan securitisation denominated in Australian dollars. To be launched via its WST Funding Trust, the A$260.6m twin tranche issue will be led by Westpac Capital Markets, with JP Morgan as manager to the dealer panel. Bankers said that the transaction, which is scheduled to price on April 3, offers local investors their first real chance of diversification, following a period of heavy issuance in the Australian MBS market. Collateral for those deals is typically heavily concentrated on the Eastern seaboard of Australia.

The Australian Gas Light Company has completed a A$354m share placement to enable it to pay down debt and position itself to buy up gas assets to be sold by the Victoria state government. ABN Amro was underwriter on the deal, selling 29m shares at A$12.21. "This is a well known stock internationally and that undoubtedly helped it," said one banker. Although there were no limits placed on foreign participation, the shares were placed mainly with Australian institutions.

AIFUL Corporation, one of Japan's largest consumer loan companies, has closed its 4m share offering raising a total of ¥33bn. The sale completes a hat trick of international equity sales for Japanese companies this year, following offerings from Mitsui Marine & Fire Insurance and Toppan Forms. Sources at sole bookrunner and lead manager Nomura International said the Aiful deal gained momentum as the roadshow progressed, allowing the issue size to be expanded to the top end of the 3m-4m share indicated range and priced at the bottom end of the 2%-4% discount indicated range.

* Crédit Lyonnais Securities Asia will sell the first ever red chip style 'B' share offering for Shanghai Electric Corporation in May. The company is the fund raising entity of the Ministry of Machinery and Manufacturing. It has four asset injection candidates already lined up and a stated strategy of growth through acquisition. The listed company will be called Shanghai Consolidated Electric Co. It hopes to raise up to $150m from the issue. A roadshow for the deal should start imminently.

* The Republic of Lebanon will next week launch a twin-pronged assault on the Euromarkets as part of its most ambitious international fundraising exercise to date. According to lead manager Paribas, overwhelming European and Middle Eastern demand for Lebanese risk has led to plans for a $300m five year offering in addition to a previously announced $500m three year issue.

LEAD managers Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and SBC Warburg Dillon Read received plaudits from their peers for their deal management skills this week as they successfully steered the Russian Federation's first Eurobond of 1998 away from potential disaster. Originally scheduled for launch on Monday, the DM1.25bn 9.375% seven year Euro/144A offering looked in jeopardy after Russian president Boris Yeltsin sacked his entire government in frustration at a lack of progress on economic reforms.

THE Republic of Turkey this week completed the third leg of its Eurobond issuance programme for 1998, launching a DM1bn eight year offering via Commerzbank and Credit Suisse First Boston. The B1/B rated sovereign has raised almost $1.5bn out of a total $3.5bn funding requirement for 1998 so far this year. This follows the launch of a DM1bn five year offering in January and a $400m seven year transaction in February.

THE Republic of Argentina hopes to diversify its US investor base further today (Friday) with the pricing of a $250m-plus variable rate note offering led by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Called Floating Rate Accrual Notes (Frans) the issue will have a seven year maturity and a coupon that resets every six months at the spread level of its outstanding 2006 global bond, minus 25bp.

THE Federative Republic of Brazil got caught in the Deutschmark deal crossfire this week when it launched its DM750m 10 year deal at the same time as Russia and Turkey issued more attractively priced offerings. Expecting Russia not to come to market after president Yeltsin's decision to fire his cabinet, Brazil on Tuesday launched its offering at a tight spread of 305bp over Bunds with a 10% coupon stepping down to 7% after 2000. The issue was led by ABN Amro and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson.

THE Republic of Colombia will today (Friday) lead a slew of Latin sovereign dollar issues due in the weeks ahead with the launch of a $500m 8.625% 10 year deal led by Goldman Sachs and Salomon Smith Barney. The offering, launched at 296bp, the highest end of its 275bp to 295bp spread talk, and a reoffer of 99.854, comes as Uruguay gears up to issue $200m to $300m 10 year bonds in the coming week.

THE sale of stock in TCNZ (Telecom Corporation of New Zealand) is progressing well with global co-ordinators CSFB and Merrill Lynch marketing the stock to investors in international roadshows. Reports from the local market point to a heavy level of participation by individual investors in both Australia and the domestic market.

THE new issue pipeline from central and eastern Europe is starting to build up again, with bankers forecasting a heavy supply of paper in the second half of the year. Emerging market specialists say that generalist investors -- whose appetite for central and eastern European equities had been gaining steadily before the Asian meltdown last October caused the region's markets to slump -- are starting to return.