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MORGAN Stanley Dean Witter successfully completed its $2.4bn Airplanes Group refinancing at the end of last week. The deal refinanced four tranches of the original $4.048bn 1996 securitisation of 229 aircraft leases for Ireland based GPA, extending the maturity of the debt and lowering the interest cost.

In common with many currencies, the Mexican peso used to be pegged to the dollar.

NOMURA Securities has announced plans to form a stockbroking and investment banking joint venture with Unit Trust of India (UTI), the country's largest fund manager. The Japanese securities firm will take a 40% stake in UTI's stockbroking arm, UTI Securities, at a cost of around $10m with the option to raise the stake to 49%.

* The World Bank launched a HK$1bn fixed rate issue via HSBC Markets this week. With a three year maturity, the triple-A rated deal was priced at par with a quarterly coupon of 8.6% to yield 8.88%. With fees totalling 18.75bp, co-leads are Chase Manhattan Asia, China Development Finance Hong Kong, JP Morgan Asia, Merrill Lynch International, Oakreed Financial Services and Salomon Smith Barney. LAF eligibility is being applied for.

ROADSHOWS for the jumbo international bond financing by the Republic of Korea have tentatively been scheduled for either the last week of March or first week in April. The move will allow the country to access the debt markets almost immediately after completion of the commercial bank debt exchange on April 8. Seoul-based bankers said that lead managers Goldman Sachs and Salomon Smith Barney received comments back from the US SEC on Friday, having filed a shelf registration last Tuesday. "Roadshows are still something of a moving target," said one banker, "but the intention is to go ahead in early April."

THE INNOVATIVE structured bond offering by listed Thai steel company Nakornthai Strip Mill Public Company Ltd (NSM) was priced in line with expectations last Friday by lead manager NatWest Capital Markets. Raising proceeds of $456m, the three tranche deal was hailed a great success by observers in the US who noted that with the participation of about 50 institutional investors including the Soros group of hedge funds, the transaction traded up strongly in the secondary market.

NOMURA Securities Company broke new ground in Japan's domestic bond market this week with the launch this week of the first straight bond from a Japanese securities company. The AA JBRI rated group raised ¥100bn ($792m) via a seven year issue, which was priced at par on a semi-annual coupon of 2.275% equating to spread of 36.5bp over yen Libor or 66bp over JGBs.

MOODY's managing director of sovereign risk Vincent Truglia has responded to criticism of the agency's handling of the Asian crisis in an address published this week. In highlights of an speech at the Council of Foreign Relations last month, Truglia said Moody's feels strongly that it had given powerful and clear indications of the problems certain Asian nations were facing before anyone else. Thailand and Korea were singled out in particular. "In both cases especially in 1996 and early 1997," he said, "We were condemned roundly for not understanding Asia. Not only did the Thai and Korean governments attack us publicly -- indeed a senior Thai minister actually threatened us physically."

COSCO RAISED $150m from the sale of exchangeable bonds last week in a deal that -- depending which side of the market you were on -- could be said to be either well timed or disastrous. Coming at the beginning of a week in which the long predicted shake out of the Hang Seng took place, the bonds had fallen to around 96.00 yesterday (Thursday), from par at launch.

CHEIL Communications has successfully completed its domestic IPO, breaking the new issue logjam from the country, and generating hopes of brighter prospects among bankers. LG Securities arranged the 430,000 share issue for what is Korea's leading advertising company. The shares were priced at W20,000 and made the maximum gain allowable on the Seoul stock exchange -- 12% -- every day for the three days after launch.

THE HONG Kong Mortgage Corporation (HKMC) will next week launch a HK$500m three year bond, the first from its note issuance programme, arranged by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). The issue will kick start a busy capital markets spree for the corporation that may propel it from almost nowhere to becoming one of the most important borrowers in the region.

SINGAPOREAN development bank DBS this week announced the largest rights issue to date from the city state, with plans to raise S$1bn ($595m) via a one-for-five rights issue. Shares were suspended on Wednesday following the announcement, with foreign shares having closed at S$12.50 and local shares at S$8.80. The issue will be led by Jardine Fleming, with an issue price of S$8.50 for foreign shares and S$6 for local shares.