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Two small issues were launched in the domestic Australian bond market this week. SBC Warburg Dillon Read led an issue from AMP Shopping Centre Trust and Common- wealth Bank of Australia (CBA) brought a private placement FRN for state owned Australian Postal Corporation (Australia Post). The A$80m FRN for AAA/A-1+ rated Australia Post is to be priced today (Friday) and will be fungible with an existing issue, bringing the total outstanding to A$447.5m.

THE Latin bond issue queue is brimming with high quality deals scheduled for launch in coming months as names like Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay, Pemex and Petrobras look to take advantage of improved investor sentiment. This week the Federative Republic of Brazil took bids for a DM1bn 10 year bond; Venezuela is understood to have mandated a $500m 20 year deal to JP Morgan for issue in the first half; Uruguay is expected to launch a $200m 10 year deal via ABN Amro before the end of March; Pemex this week began roadshows for a $700m seven and 20 year Yankee bond and Petrobras will make its first entrance this year with a $100m to $150m two year issue via Chase.

* ABN Amro and Salomon Smith Barney have secured the mandate to lead manage the first Eurodollar deal by the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) since August 1994. The two banks emerged victorious from a shortlist of eight banks which comprised four European and four US bidders. The planned $300m five year issue for the Baa3/BBB- rated borrower will be roadshowed in Italy, Switzerland and the UK next week, with launch expected shortly thereafter. Given Hungary's limited fundraising needs, the NBH is fast gaining a reputation for launching opportunistic, tightly priced issues. The forthcoming transaction is expected to emerge at an aggressive-looking spread of 80bp over Treasuries.

THE United Mexican States virtually wrapped up its 1998 financing needs this week with the successful issue of Lit750bn worth of 15 year notes led by Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. The long-awaited offering -- mandated last October -- was launched at a fixed reoffer price of 99.85 to give a spread of 240bp over 15 year lira Libor, and traded up to 100.10 bid.

DEUTSCHE Morgan Grenfell and SBC Warburg Dillon Read are set to launch the Russian Federation's first Eurobond of 1998 next Monday -- likely in the form of a DM1bn-plus seven year Euro/144A issue. A senior delegation from the Russian finance ministry and officials from the lead managers this week completed a series of investor presentations in Geneva/Zurich, Paris, Frankfurt and London. Price talk on the transaction, which will mark the opening leg of the Ba3/BB-/ BB+ (Moody's/S&P/Fitch IBCA) rated sovereign's $3.4bn international bond financing programme for 1998, is 460bp-480bp over Bunds.

ING Barings, SBC Warburg Dillon Read and UBS this week completed the offering of stock in Hagemeyer, the Dutch trading company, raising $1.6bn in the largest corporate sale of stock in the Dutch market to date. The shares were sold by First Pacific and were priced at Dfl 89 after just nine days of bookbuilding. According to syndicate members, the deal was not the easiest sell during the marketing period and they had to work hard to explain the Hagemeyer name to international investors.

INVESTMENT bankers are expecting a growing supply of new issues from Turkish banks over the coming months, as well as some issues from top Turkish companies -- many of which have been waiting until the privatisation programme gets underway. The latest bank to join in the rush is Akbank, which this week said it will sell secondary shares to international investors via Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Akbank is the largest private sector bank in Turkey ranked by shareholders' equity and the third largest in terms of assets. Morgan Stanley launched the deal this week and the transaction will be executed at the end of the month.

INVESTMENT bankers and managers at the oil majors are eagerly awaiting an announcement from the Russian government about how it will structure the forthcoming privatisation of Rosneft, the last major oil company in state hands. Bankers in London are expecting between 50% and 75% of Rosneft to be sold, although the shares may be be offered in several tranches over a number of years and strategic investors are likely to be involved in the deal.

A STRING of small and medium cap companies from Germany are gearing up to issue new shares, spurred on by the rising domestic demand for equity. According to bankers, more of them are also electing to list their shares on Frankfurt's main market and the Neuer Markt. Merrill Lynch and West LB were mandated for one such deal this week when they were hired as bookrunners for the flotation of Kamps, one of the largest retail bakeries in Germany.

LEAD managers Goldman Sachs and IMI have concluded the sale of stock in Saipem, the oil field services company controlled by Italy's national oil and gas group, Eni. The two firms achieved a good price for the company's stock despite the aggressive forces of a local bull market and a falling international oil price.

MERRILL Lynch is poised to launch an international offering of Egyptian equity, testing demand for a sector that fell more than most emerging markets when stockmarkets collapsed last winter. The deal is for Ameriyah Cement, which has fallen a further 12% in the past three months and was trading this week at E£71. But bankers insist that demand for Egypt is picking up. Research on the company will be published next week and pre-marketing is due to kick off towards the end of March. Merrill, which won the mandate to run the books on the privatisation last year, will sell the stock to the international markets in the form of London or Luxembourg listed GDRs.

GLOBAL co-ordinators Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Creditanstalt this week successfully executed the third international sale of stock in Mol, the Hungarian oil and gas concern. The company has long been a favourite among international and local investors and, despite the large correction in its share price following last year's re-rating of emerging stockmarkets, it remains popular with specialist and some generalist funds.