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SG THIS WEEK launched Eu600m of convertible bonds for Promodes, the French retail group. The issue underlined the vibrancy of the market for hybrid securities in the new currency, as well as the pole position rapidly grabbed by SG in the new sector. SG kicked off the year with a Eu1.5bn convertible for Vivendi, the French utility and media group.

Market commentary: Compiled by Tawanda Nyandoro, RBC DS Global Securities, London. Tel: 0171-653 4870

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THE UK MARKET is set to host a huge number of straight equity and convertible deals in the next few weeks. The London market has reaped enormous benefits from the strength of global stockmarkets and held up remarkably well in recent turmoil as the devaluation and ultimate flotation of the Brazilian currency pushed Brazil into economic crisis.

* Bradford & Bingley Building Society Rating: A1

* Crédit Local de France Rating: Aa1/AA+

* Merrill Lynch is to launch the sale of stock in Gilat Satellite Networks, the Israeli manufacturer of satellite telecommunication network hook-up systems. The group already has a full listing in the US market on Nasdaq after going public in 1993 in a deal that was led by Oppenheimer. Since then it has established a secure core of established shareholders that was further enhanced through its secondary stock offering in 1995 led by Goldman Sachs. The forthcoming deal could raise up to $275m and will involve the sale of stock to international and local investors.

GLOBAL co-ordinators ABN Amro Rothschild and Nomura have launched the sale of stock for Estonia Telecom. The deal is the first of the year's large flotations from central Europe and is an important test of investor appetite for this kind of stock from the region. Last year redemptions in emerging market funds reached a peak as investors ran for cover during the turmoil of the third quarter. But bankers in the local markets, London and New York say that buyers are starting to return and that the main beneficiaries of the recovery in investor confidence will be new issues.

* Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA Rating: A1/A-

Euro Straights --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DEUTSCHE Bank and Goldman Sachs are now set to join JP Morgan and Warburg Dillon Read as lead managers on the Republic of the Philippines' $500m equivalent euro transaction, heightening doubts over the deal's eventual fate.

DEUTSCHE Bank and Goldman Sachs are now set to join JP Morgan and Warburg Dillon Read as lead managers on the Republic of the Philippines' $500m equivalent euro transaction, heightening doubts over the deal's eventual fate. Although the seven to 10 year transaction was always likely to prove a tough sell among an investor base unfamiliar with the BB+/Ba1 rated credit, bankers argued that the inclusion of four lead managers is a recipe for confusion and disaster.