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THE ITALIAN government is limbering up to float several middle to large cap corporates as its privatisation programme enters a new stage. After scoring a major success last year with the jumbo sale of shares in Telecom Italia, Italy this year is planning to sell stock in Autostrade, Eni and possibly electricity utility Enel. There will also be a sale of shares in Siapem, which is indirectly owned by the government through majority shareholder Eni.

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* Banque Internationale à Luxembourg Rating: A1/A+

INVESTMENT bankers are lining up a handful of equity offerings from the Middle East as investors cautiously consider investing in emerging markets once more. In the first of the next wave of issues from the region, Merrill Lynch last week launched the sale of stock in Banque du Liban et d'Outre-Mer (Blom). The deal is gathering pace with a book which is particularly well subscribed from local institutional investors.

Turkey Arrangers Sakura Bank, Union National Bank and WestLB have closed syndication of a $15m one year pre-export finance facility for Turkey's Alternatifbank.

DIAGEO, the international food and drinks company formed from the merger between Grand Metropolitan and Guinness plc, has established an $8bn US commercial paper programme through its wholly owned subsidiary and borrowing vehicle Diageo Capital. Issuance under the programme should start next week. The size of the new facility is larger than the combined size of the existing programmes for Grand Metropolitan and Guinness so it can accommodate the planned share capital repayment of 70p per share.

JP MORGAN this week disclosed that it has won the top slot to lead manage the forthcoming $1bn sale of stock in Gillette, the personal care products company. This is a major coup for the US firm, which has been patiently building a niche for itself in the domestic and global equity capital markets, as it had to beat off competition from most of Wall Street for the deal.

MORGAN STANLEY Dean Witter this week completed the first bought deal of the year -- and also one of the largest such transactions in recent months. The £260m deal was for shares in Great Universal Stores, owner of Burberry and retail mail order businesses and a financial services group. The company is publicly traded in London and widely owned by institutional investors.

ANZ INVESTMENT Bank has won the mandate to arrange an innovative five year limited recourse financing for Village Cinemas of Argentina. The proceeds of the loan, which has initially been set at $100m but may be increased, will finance a network of 160 screens in Argentina over the next two years. The novelty of the deal is that it marks the first time that limited recourse debt has been used to finance such an ambitious project. This type of venture has not even been tried in the developed markets, let alone the emerging markets.

THE REPUBLIC of Argentina abandoned a tentative plan for a $500m to $1bn 10 year bond this week, confirming fears of a dismal first quarter for the Latin new issue market.

THE REPUBLIC of Argentina abandoned a tentative plan for a $500m to $1bn 10 year bond this week, confirming fears of a dismal first quarter for the Latin new issue market. The borrower, last year's most successful from the emerging markets, was not willing to pay the prices that would likely have been demanded of it.