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SALOMON Brothers brought a rare public securitisation from Colombia on Wednesday, backed by crude oil supplied by Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos (Ecopetrol). Oil Purchase Co 1997 Series A sold $290m of Euro/144A bonds with a legal maturity of October 2002, and expected maturity of April 2002 and average life of 2.66 years. The deal is rated Baa3 by Moody's and BBB by Standard & Poor's, and was sold at 99.933 to yield 125bp over Treasuries with a 7.1% coupon.

THE BELGIUM securitisation market is set to burst into action in coming weeks, with most of the country's top banks involved. Among the headline grabbers: asset-backed firsts for Generale Bank and Kredietbank. Those debutantes look set to be reinforced by repeat issues from both BBL and Bacob.

MERRILL Lynch Credit Corp launched its first home equity and mortgage securitisation of the year on yesterday (Thursday), with a $363.791m deal sole managed by Merrill Lynch. ML Revolving Home Equity Loan Asset-Backed Certificates Series 1997-1 issued floaters with a legal final maturity in September 2007 and average life of 3.7 years. The 10% par clean up call is expected to be exercised on March 25, 2004.

* UBS has completed a rare securitisation of store card receivables for Sears Financial Services Ltd, a subsidiary of the UK retailer. Sold through CP conduit Mont Blanc, the transaction will finance store cards accounts for a range of High Street names including Selfridges, Wallis and Warehouse. "It is essentially a revolving facility," said Peter Timothy, an associate director at UBS's securitisation group in London. "It assists Sears in freeing up working capital." As an asset class UK store cards provide attractive material for securitisation; while industry loss rates may be a little higher than for multi-use credit cards, yields are dramatically higher, in the high 20s, rather than the mid teens.

* Moody's has assigned a first time, non-investment grade rating to Union Bank of India (UBI). India's sixth largest commercial bank received a Ba1/Not Prime long and short term rating allied to a bank financial strength rating of E+. In its statement, the agency said that on the positive side the rating reflected the bank's "government ownership, close supervision from the Reserve Bank of India and UBI's extensive nationwide branch network". On the negative side was its "low profitability, undiversified income stream and unstable operating environment as well as its weak balance sheet".

INDONESIA'S only privatisation of the year, the $200m flotation of nickel and gold mining company PT Aneka Tambang (Antam), is entering its final stages. Syndicate members are confident of a strong response from domestic and international investors, despite the problems that have buffeted Indonesian financial markets in recent weeks.

THE $4.56bn flotation of China Telecom, Asia's largest ever equity offering, was priced as expected near the top of its revised indicative range in Hong Kong yesterday (Thursday). The smooth execution of the deal against a backdrop of extreme volatility across all sectors of the Hong Kong stockmarket drew widespread plaudits from market participants, many of whom were nevertheless extremely nervous about the 2.9bn share deal's likely performance in secondary market trading next week.

THE primary market for Korean equity appears to be on the verge of a complete shutdown, with a fifth deal officially cancelled this week and the immediate pipeline thrown into ever-increasing uncertainty. Concerns that an autumn pipeline totalling over $4bn would swamp an already fragile market have been wide of the mark, with most issuers from the republic still unprepared to accept the pricing levels now being demanded by investors.

ROADSHOWS for the $700m to $800m privatisation of the Gas Authority of India (Gail) are to begin next week in Bombay. Led by BZW, Jardine Fleming and Morgan Stanley, the 20% sell-down of government stock represents the first of three privatisations scheduled to be completed before the end of the Indian fiscal year. Under the structure of the offering the company will offer 175m shares with an additional 25m share greenshoe under a indicative pricing range believed to be around the Rp130 to Rp150 level. Bankers and analysts said that the government's decision to adopt a more flexible pricing policy than has traditionally been the case augurs well for the deal's success.

CITIBANK will launch HK$500m to HK$750m of five year securities backed by credit card receivables from its Hong Kong branch later this month. The single tranche deal, the first denominated in the Hong Kong currency, will be guaranteed by Singapore based monoline insurer Asian Securitization and Infrastructure Assurance (ASIA Ltd), rated AA by Duff & Phelps and A by Standard & Poor's.

THE prospects for the immediate China-related stock pipeline remain uncertain, as market participants debate the reason for this week's secondary market volatility. They question whether this was largely the result of liquidity being sucked out in anticipation of China Telecom, or due to a growing disillusionment at the slowness with which asset injections into the Red chip sector are taking place. Bankers commented that China National Aviation Corp (CNAC) will have a particularly tough job getting a firm book together while most accounts are waiting to see how China Telecom fares.

THE LONG delayed flotation of cellular operator Smart Communications has been revived at significantly sweetened terms to attract investors back to the Philippines' primary equity market. Nearly a year after the company originally hoped to list, the revised 375m share deal has been primed for a November 10 to November 21 offer period under the lead of the Philippine National Bank.