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SAMSUNG Electronics, Korea's flagship exporter and the world's leading manufacturer of semi-conductor chips, squared up to an inhospitable primary market this Tuesday with a surprise $130m GDR offering via Goldman Sachs and Samsung Securities. Although the company's desire to complement its recent Yankee offering with a new equity deal had been well known, bankers and analysts nevertheless expressed a mixture of astonishment and confusion at the group's determination to press ahead. The issue comes at a time when most experts are predicting that Korea will need assistance from the IMF to hold up its insecure fiscal position.

THE ROADSHOW for palm oil plantation PT Astra Agro Lestari (Astra Agro) ends today (Friday). Bankers close to the deal say the price will be set on Monday at a ratio to earnings of 10% to 25% of the p/e of London Sumatra's (Lonsum), the only listed crude palm oil plantation listed in Indonesia. Astra Agro's bookbuilding price range is between Rph1,550 and Rph1,650 per share. Some 125.8m shares, representing a 10% stake, are for sale to raise between $57.7m and $61.4m, according to global co-ordinator ABN AMRO Rothschild. Co-leads are Astra Securities, Bahana Securities, Crédit Lyonnais, Jardine Fleming and Mitra Duta Sekuritas.

THE LONG DELAYED rights offering by Benpres, the holding company of the diversified Philippines-based Lopez family, was finally launched last week, but the terms surprised several bankers. In addition to being priced at a steeper discount than initially expected in September when the deal was last primed for launch, bankers said that the long lead time before the issue closes on December 1 creates significant investment risk in volatile market conditions.

A FOURTH supranational seeking to access Taiwan's domestic bond market has filed an application with the republic's SEC, although bankers believe that the issue is unlikely to emerge this year unless the currency markets show signs of stability. The European Investment Bank (EIB) has mandated Citicorp to raise NT$6bn ($193m) via a five year fixed rate bond and the borrower is applying for tax exempt status.

ELETROBRAS, Brazil's federal power utility, plans to issue about $6bn in securitised bonds backed by receivables next year as the government attempts to reduce its fiscal deficit. The securitisation proposal is a first for Brazil and would form part of the utility's efforts to reduce the R$9bn debt it owes to the Brazilian treasury. Brazilian development bank BNDES will co-ordinate the issue, which is expected to take place in the first half of 1998.

LATIN loan syndication heads report dwindling interest among second-tier banks towards Latin American loans in the wake of the market downturn. Most deals that were in the market before the recent crisis struck are going ahead: Société Générale's $1.1bn one year term loan to Argentine cable TV company Cablevision is being syndicated at a margin of 137.5bp and the United Mexican States this week officially announced the signing of its $2.25bn 12 year liquidity facility.

VENEZUELAN finance minister Luis Ral Matos Azocar vowed this week to continue to restructure the country's Brady bond debt, despite controversy over the recent $4.4bn Brady bond retirement in a $4bn 30-year global bond exchange offer which led to calls for his dismissal in the Venezuelan congress. "I don't believe the process of reducing debt can be delayed just because of congress's attitude, or rather some of its members," Matos said this week.

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AGGREKO PLC, formed following its demerger from Christian Salvesen earlier this year, arrived as a newcomer to the syndicated loans market this week. At the time of the demerger, Christian Salvesen's chief executive Chris Masters and senior members of its treasury team moved across to Aggreko.

THE European management buy-out (MBO) market was this week invigorated by the news that Unipoly SA had agreed to acquire the bulk of BTR's Polymer Products Group for £515m as part of a £620m funding package. In addition, Bankers Trust has started syndicating a major loan facility to support the Nomura International-backed £700m management buy-out of the William Hill betting business from Brent Walker.

THE INTERNATIONAL public offering of stock in Italy's second largest bank, Banca di Roma, has been launched via global co-ordinator Mediobanca and joint global co-ordinators Goldman Sachs and Schroders. The offer involves the sale of 44.8% of the bank's equity capital and will help to recapitalise the institution following a first-half loss of Lit2,794bn.

THE SPANISH government this week launched its sale of stock in steel company Aceralia to a mixed reaction from investors and bankers. Investors are being extremely selective in their choice of stock and salesmen fear that steel is one of the least likely industries to capture their interest as they close their books ahead of the end of the year.