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Four companies in the Asian Formosa Group have issued the largest simultaneous four-in-one convertible bond in the region to date, for $1 billion. Formosa Petrochemicals, Formosa Plastics, Nan Ya Plastics and Formosa Chemicals & Fibre have each simultaneously issued $250 million in bonds exchangeable into shares of Formosa Petrochemicals.

The leveraged lending market is heading for its best year since 1998 due to an increased number of M&A deals, according to a report from Piper Jaffray, the securities firm. Arrangers launched $124 billion of leveraged loans in the first half of 2004, up from $80 billion in the second six months of 2003 and on course for 1998?s year-end figure of $256 billion.

Russia?s gas monopoly Gazprom has increased its debt issue to $1.25 billion after being swamped with demand for the country?s first investment grade bond. The company sold an extra $250 million after it received $6 billion in investor demand for the bonds, which are also the first securitized notes to be issued out of Russia.

ABN AMRO has launched MiniSwaps, a product allowing corporates, fund managers and institutions to trade and hedge interest rate risk. Regulatory or credit legislations has prevented some market participants from trading derivative contracts but the open-ended securities, says ABN AMRO, will open the market. MiniSwaps are priced at intrinsic value with no time value element and, importantly, trade like securities rather than derivatives with price linked to the prevailing level of the underlying interest rate.

A House vote in the US on July 20 has quashed the proposed expensing of stock options by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). A number of industry bodies in the US ? notably the IT industry ? have been lobbying for the dismantling of FASB?s expensing proposals; they have clearly succeeded. The legislation, HR 3574, would require that only those options granted to the top five officers of a corporation be expensed and options granted to other employees would require footnote notation only. Further, the expensing model required under the legislation would use zero as the volatility factor in the equation.

Almost two-thirds of US companies have accepted Sarbanes-Oxley as part of their wider approach to corporate governance while 30% still view the requirements as a separate goal. This is the finding from PricewaterhouseCoopers? latest management barometer report. The majority of surveyed corporates stand in agreement. Sixty-two per cent have integrated Sarbanes-Oxley into their regulatory compliance processes, while over a third have yet to do so.

More than half of US companies have not completed preparations in meeting their Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 filing requirements. This, according to a survey by ACL Services and the Centre for Continuous Auditing (CCA), is despite an extension of the 404 deadline from June 15 to November 15 2004. Section 404, which requires corporate management teams to assess internal controls, is just one component of the Sarbanes-Oxley issues. Fines and jail time, claim the surveys? authors, can be the result of non-compliance with Section 404. So it is surprising that more than two-thirds of US corporations possess no annual budget to maintain its compliance.

Islamic finance has broken another barrier with news of the first European based and backed Islamic bond (sukuk) to be issued by the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The ?100 million of sukuks will be issued at the end of July. The bonds, which must comply with sharia?ah rulings, do not represent borrowing by the named entity, the most notable prohibition with sharia?ah compliance being the illegality of interest bearing accounts. A further complication is the existence of four schools of Islamic law which can provide differing interpretations on compliance.

M&A transactions in the mid-market look set to grow by volume and value over the next twelve months, according to a survey of venture capitalists (VCs) and brokers by Grant Thornton?s quarterly mid-market barometer. More than two-thirds of respondents predict increased volume for mid-market transactions while a further 43% foresee a rise in valuations ? just 6% of VCs and brokers forecast a fall in either volume or valuation. Three main sectors, suggests the research, will see the benefits of improved confidence: business services, healthcare and financial services. Retail, media and telecoms, however, are not considered bright prospects.

Europe?s top 1,000 companies are more concerned about customer services, operations and M&A transactions than they are about Sarbanes-Oxley or IAS compliance. That?s just one conclusion from research by Handysoft, the global software solution provider. The major concerns for finance managers are: customer services and operations; integration difficulties following M&A activity, and; technology procurement and financial risk management.

SG Corporate and Investment Banking (SGCIB) has announced the hire of Mauro Brunelli as head of M&A for its Italian market coverage. Based in Milan, Brunelli will report to Thierry Aulagnon, head of investment banking for Europe, and Paul Dalle Molle, SGCIB?s country manager for Italy. Brunelli was formerly head of M&A at Banca Intesa, a position he has held since 2001, and also brings experience from a number of Italian brokerage-houses. He takes on the responsibilities of Lorenzo Costanzo who will now devote his time as SGCIB?s senior banker for Italian industrial companies.

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has issued its amendments to IAS39, the financial standard set to affect corporates? accounting transactions from January 1 2005. Two of the amendments are designed to add further guidance on issues raised by the business community; the third amendment hopes to ensure that a guarantor?s balance sheet includes all guarantees issued.