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DRESDNER KLEINWORT Benson, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and SBC Warburg Dillon Read are emerging as frontrunners for the mandate to float Neste IVO, the Finnish holding company, which will be awarded by the government next week. The company is being created by the merger of oil company Neste and power utility Imatran Voima (IVO), for which Dresdner advised Neste and SBC Warburg advised the government.

THE REPUBLIC of Argentina will today (Friday) make its 1998 new issue debut with an inaugural Ecu300m-Ecu500m five year bond that redenominates into euros once the single currency is adopted. The deal, led by SBC Warburg Dillon Read, is expected to be priced within a spread of 370bp to 390bp over the relevant OAT French government bond and is taking advantage of what appears to be a much greater receptiveness to Latin new issues from European investors than their US counterparts.

* The Kingdom of Morocco is the latest addition to the growing pipeline of Arab sovereigns looking to tap the Euromarkets for the first time in 1998. The Moroccan authorities are said to be planning a debut issue of up to $400m in size with an expected three to five year tenor.

THE NATIONAL Bank of Hungary (NBH) this week returned to the Eurobond market for the first time since April 1996, launching a DM500m five year floating rate note transaction via DG Bank. The deal was also its first wholly investment grade issue in the Euromarkets. With a coupon set at 37.5bp over three month Deutschmark Libor the deal was priced to yield 44.4bp at the 99.685 re-offer -- a record low for the Baa3/BBB- rated issuer in the Euromarkets and, controversially, 5bp inside the trading spread on the Baa1/ BBB- rated Hellenic Republic's most recent Deutschmark floater.

THE TOP Latin American sovereign borrowers are calling on bankers to prepare for poss- ible international bond issues sooner rather than later in case conditions in the new issue markets worsen in the months ahead. While none of the Latin sovereigns want to be viewed as desperate for funds, all the issuers are making sure they are ready to launch deals at short notice -- despite the unsettled state of emerging debt markets around the world.

SATELLITE company Satelites Mexicanos (Satmex) gave the Latin new issue market a much needed tonic yesterday (Thursday), when it became the first issuer from the region this year to tap the plain vanilla US dollar bond market. The $320m offering of seven non-call four year bonds, jointly led by DLJ (books) and Lehman Brothers was a blow-out success -- being increased from an original size of $295m and priced at 10.125%, below its 10.25% to 10.5% coupon talk.

THE REPUBLIC of Turkey this week became the first emerging market sovereign to brave the international fixed income markets this year, with the B1/B rated issuer launching a DM1bn five year transaction via Westdeutsche Landesbank. With a 7.25% coupon and a re-offer level of 99.125 the transaction was priced to yield 284bp over the 7.125% January 29, 2003 Treuhand at launch.

INSTITUTIONS IN London this week gave a cautious nod of approval to the Lit670bn ($350m) rights issue from Italian mobile telecom and electronics group Olivetti. The company will use the funds for an extensive restructuring programme in which it is transforming itself from an ailing producer of PCs to a mobile telecom operator.

RHONE-POULENC this week announced plans to float Rhodia, its specialty chemicals division, giving international investors a new chance to buy into one of their favourite industries. UBS has won the mandate for the transaction, which should take place in the second or third quarter. Between 20% and 40% of Rhodia's equity will be sold after which it will be listed in Paris and possibly New York.

GLOBAL CO-ORDINATORS Argentaria, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Santander Investment Bank and BBV are moving into the final weeks of marketing the Spanish government's final sale of stock in Argentaria. Market participants in London, New York and Madrid report a strong reception by international investors keen to buy the stock.

* Morgan Stanley Dean Witter is marketing a $400m secondary offering of stock for St Joe Corp. A total of 12m shares will be offered to US and international investors, of which 1.8m will be offered outside the US. Selling shareholder the Alfred I duPont Testamentary Trust will receive all the proceeds. It will continue to own a 54% stake in the company following the sale.

THE BOOM in the equity linked debt market continued this week as international investors were offered two successful but contrasting deals providing them exposure to European equities. The first issue was an exchangeable launched by Allianz, the top German insurance group, via joint lead managers Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and SBC Warburg Dillon Read. Société Générale, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, JP Morgan and Salomon Smith Barney as co-managers.