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NATIONAL Bank of Greece is to raise between $250m and $500m through a convertible bond offering to be launched in the next two weeks. Merrill Lynch and Warburg Dillon Read will act as bookrunners on the offering. The deal has been mooted for some time and will be the first equity linked issue from Greece since the privatisation bonds in 1998. The notes are likely to be sovereign bonds backed by ordinary shares in National Bank of Greece, a structure that analysts this week hailed as the ideal way to attract investors interested in Greek bank stocks.

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* National Australia Bank Ltd Rating: Aa3/AA

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Greg Lomas has resigned from Warburg Dillon Read and will join CIBC. At CIBC he will focus on acquisition finance, including leveraged deals, on the distribution side. Lomas was a director in WDR's loan syndicate where he specialised in LBOs and reported to Jonathon Macdonald.

THE PORTUGUESE government will shortly embark on the fourth phase of its privatisation sale of Portugal Telecom (PT). The operator has been a firm favourite with sector specialists over the last four years, since the group's IPO in the summer of 1995. Lead managers Banco Essi, Merrill Lynch and Warburg Dillon Read will run the deal which involves the state sale of around 13.5% of the group's equity capital - some 25,650,000 shares.

SPECULATION that Pernod Ricard was in discussion with relationship banks over raising a jumbo facility to back a bid for Allied Domecq's branded drinks business was rife this week. The talk was of the French company tapping the Euroloan market for between Ffr40bn and Ffr50bn through as many as four banks - possibly Banque Nationale de Paris, SG, Chase Manhattan and JP Morgan.

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GLOBAL co-ordinator Credit Suisse First Boston has released an indicated price range of between Sfr300 and Sfr360 at which investors can buy shares in the Swiss bathroom and sanitary group, Geberit. This implies a market capitalisation of around Sfr1.5bn ($976m) - at the conservative end of analysts' forecasts. The UK private equity firm, Doughty Hanson, will sell 2.47m shares or 60% of the group's enlarged equity capital and is erring on the side of caution in its pricing expectations.

SENTIMENT towards Germany's Neuer Markt deteriorated further this week with deals continuing to underperform in the after1market and demand for primary offerings evaporating. Although the correction is regarded as long overdue, bankers are concerned that even large, liquid offerings from hi-tech groups are failing to attract sufficient interest. This week Goldman Sachs pulled its proposed flotation of Elmos, a manufacturer of semi-conductor parts for the auto industry. This was due to be one of the largest Neuer Markt deals ever and should have raised around $400m. Despite the liquidity, there was not enough interest among potential investors.