Pre-migration untagged articles

The long awaited high yield bond for Danish cleaning group ISS will be launched in the next few weeks, after it announced plans to roadshow in Europe and the US after Easter.

Some senior bankers love the limelight, but why can't they see that on many occasions they are simply being drawn into a trap? The prospect of favourable publicity is the tempting piece of cheese. They are the confident, unsuspecting mouse. As soon as the banker begins his first chorus of "I am the greatest", the trap is sprung. Another mouse banker bites the dust.

Jumbo bonds sold to refinance big takeovers dominated the European corporate bond market in the first quarter of 2006, which was the busiest first three months since 2003.

Rating: BB (Fitch)

French media group Lagardère and German car maker DaimlerChrysler reduced their stakes in European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) on Wednesday through deals that raised a total of Eu3.98bn.

The Republic of Lebanon successfully executed a long-awaited liability management exercise this week when it returned to the international markets to sell three new Eurobonds, totalling $2.618bn, in exchange for its debt maturing this year.

Legrand, the French electrical fittings company, completed a spectacular Eu1.01bn initial public offering this week, in what equity specialists hailed as the most successful equity sale of the year so far.

From windswept Vienna, one of our favourite cities if you are not looking for an exciting time with the local ladies, the talk is all about the life and times of Bank für Arbeit und Wirtschaft AG, affectionately known as Bawag, which was supposed to look after the retirement interests of its trade union shareholders, but instead became a rock'n'roll quasi-hedge fund, making daredevil derivatives trades from faraway Caribbean islands.

The US hybrid capital market was fed with deals that steered clear of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and its contentious views on some structures this week.

Rating: B3/CCC+