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Finland Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Chase Manhattan, Commerzbank and Merita Bank have closed the

GREEN TREE Financial this week brought its first home equity deal of the year, through Salomon Smith Barney. The company rode out the bad press it has received in the US to raise $400m of fixed and floating rate funds. Green Tree Home Equity Loan Trust 1998-A offered nine tranches of bonds, including one $75m floater with a 2.45 year average life, priced at 25bp over one month Libor. Standard & Poor's and Fitch rated that class and four fixed rate tranches at triple-A.

FOLLOWING last week's successful tender for residential mortgages, the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation may buy a portfolio of mortgages privately in the next two weeks, to be followed by a possible further public tender. The corporation's decisions will depend partly on movements in Hong Kong interest rates. A week ago three month Hibor came down below Prime, and it has since stayed below 9% -- on Thursday the rate was 8.375%.

MERRILL LYNCH roadshowed a new asset class in London and Milan this week -- film library revenues. The bank will likely sole manage a Lit450bn bond the week beginning February 23 for Italian media group Cecchi Gori, backed by earnings from a library of 1,200 films. The portfolio comprises both Italian films to which Cecchi Gori has rights, including many which it produced, and international films which Cecchi Gori has the exclusive right to distribute in Italy.

* DKB International, the London investment banking arm of Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, will likely launch its first asset backed bond on February 23. Oscar Funding Corp is a securitisation of Japanese auto loans originated by Orient Corporation, the country's second largest independent consumer credit company. The deal will probably total $300m, and will mature through a 5% clean up call on March 10, 2003, with an expected average life of 1.8 years.

* CSFB will next week sole manage the first CLO backed by project finance loans. Project Funding Corp 1 will offer $617m of three month Libor floaters in five classes. The senior tranche, rated triple-A, will comprise 87% of the deal.

SALOMON Smith Barney brought its most successful student loan deal yet with $923.47m of floating and fixed rate notes for the Student Loan Finance Corporation. Since its formation late in 1997 the house has cornered the market in European targeted student loan securitisations -- Smith Barney had a leading position in the US domestic student loan market, while Salomon Brothers brought its placement power with European Libor-based investors.

SOCIÉTÉ Générale this week issued the second repackaging of Australian mortgage backed securities from its HOMES MTN programme in a search for ever better arbitrage. Home Owner Mortgage Enhanced Securities Ltd Series 98 came in two tranches, rated triple-A by Standard & Poor's in line with the underlying collateral. Both are callable at one year with a step up coupon to reassure investors of the soft bullet maturity.

THE £343m private placement for Capital and Income Group (CIT), reported in EW 358, has put securitisation on the London map -- literally. The second largest commercial property securitisation in Europe after 1997's Canary Wharf deal, the UBS-arranged transaction is backed by six landmark office buildings in central London. These include Sea Containers House, rented by the UK Customs and Excise and Sea Containers; Farringdon Court, occupied by Merrill Lynch, and British Telecom's headquarters at 120 High Holborn.

In a previous learning curve (DW, 1/5), we introduced a notion of convexity cost in the option adjusted valuation.

NOMURA SECURITIES and Merrill Lynch this week launched Toyota Motor Corp's first public bond offering in Japan, raising ¥200bn ($1.6bn) in 15 minutes, and buoying hopes of a revitalised domestic bond market. Toyota's turn toward financing at home coincides with a revival in Japan's straight bond market as banks continue to tighten their balance sheets before the BIS deadline at the end of the financial year on March 31.

THAILAND'S PTT Exploration and Production is on the starting blocks for a 31m share selldown which could raise up to Bt17bn, after the government selected five banks this week to run the process. Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse First Boston have been mandated as joint global co-ordinators, while Phatra Securities and Thai Investment and Securities will act as joint domestic co-ordinators.