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Standard & Poor’s is working with the Loan Market Association (LMA) to construct the first independent European leveraged loan index. They are aiming to launch the index in the first half of 2004.

Romtelecom, the Romanian telecoms company, is soliciting bids for what will be the first non-government guaranteed corporate loan out of Romania. EuroWeek hears that every bank active in the region is drawing up a pitch for the borrower, which is looking to raise around Eu200m.

he founding fathers of European Monetary Union wanted to enhance European political stability and economic welfare by fostering further political, economic, and financial integration among European countries. Considerable progress towards these objectives has been made during the first five years of EMU, but further efforts are needed to secure the achievements and master the challenges still lying ahead. Most importantly, euro area governments must give higher priority to policies aimed at raising the medium-term economic growth prospects of the currency area.

German investment company WCM Beteiligungs und Grundbesitz yesterday (Thursday) sold 19.7m shares in Commerzbank through an accelerated bookbuild, raising Eu316.9m.

European investors’ appetite for credit showed no signs of abating this week, and corporate borrowers took the opportunity to fit in bonds before year end.

Rating: A3/BBB-/BBB+

France will bring its budget deficit below 3% by the end of 2005 by cutting spending on health, freezing overall spending and relying on growth to increase revenues, its finance minister Francis Mer said this week.

The Eu900m loan supporting the acquisition of SchlumbergerSema by Atos Origin is due be signed on December 15. EuroWeek understands the loan is 50% oversubscribed.

Rating: Aaa/AAA

The dollar and sterling bond markets kept up a hectic pace this week. The dollar sector absorbed almost $10bn of high grade product while sterling buyers took down £2.9bn, almost twice the quantity issued in December 2002.

The dollar and sterling bond markets kept up a hectic pace this week. The dollar sector absorbed almost $10bn of high grade product while sterling buyers took down £2.9bn, almost twice the quantity issued in December 2002.

The immense success of the euro is plain for all to see in 2003. But back in the early 1990s, the prospect of a European single currency coming into being was far from certain. Indeed, what with Denmark rejecting European monetary union and then France accepting it by the slenderest of majorities, even the project’s most ardent supporters were seriously questioning its future by the end of 1992.