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The European corporate bond market is expected to remain shut until the outbreak of war with Iraq.

The European corporate bond market is expected to remain shut until the outbreak of war with Iraq.

Four of Italy's largest companies were this week making preparations to simplify their complicated corporate structures. Pirelli & C, the Italian holding company, is merging with Pirelli, the Italian tyre manufacturer, in which it owns a 42% stake. Pirelli & C will launch a Eu1bn rights issue in the coming weeks and will use the funds to finance the purchase of the 58% of Pirelli shares that it does not already own.

Syndication of the $25m two year revolver for Bank Amerykanski w Polsce (American Bank of Poland) has been postponed. Mandated arrangers Bank Austria Creditanstalt and RZB will bring the deal back to the market at a later date. The borrower decided to pull the facility after alternative financing became available.

Rating: Aaa Amount: Sfr260m Öffentliche Pfandbrief series 371

The City of Prague has priced a Eu170m 10 year bond via lead manager Deutsche Bank, the first from its newly arranged Eu1bn EuroMTN programme. The bond was priced at 99.123 with a 4.25% coupon to give a spread of 53bp over Bunds, or 33bp over benchmark euro denominated swaps.

Despite its tight pricing the Eu500m three year revolver for Electricidade de Portugal (EDP) looks set to close fully subscribed this week. The deal was launched at the end of February.

Marco Tronchetti Provera, chairman of Telecom Italia and Pirelli, this week outlined his plans for the merger of Telecom Italia and Olivetti into the new Telecom Italia.

Marco Tronchetti Provera, chairman of Telecom Italia and Pirelli, this week outlined his plans for the merger of Telecom Italia and Olivetti into the new Telecom Italia.

Slack issuance in the primary loan market, increased portfolio management by most banks and asset disposal programmes in some institutions has driven activity in the secondary loan market since the start of the year, with some traders claiming to have had a record start to 2003. The lack of consistently lucrative underwriting or fee earning opportunities for banks active in the loan market means that, besides the lucky few that have clinched M&A mandates, most banks are attempting to reach trading targets through buying assets in the secondary market.

Scientific publisher Reed Elsevier has verbally mandated a group of banks to arrange the refinancing of a $2.5bn three year portion of a deal signed in 2000. The banks are thought to be Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup/SSSB, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Scotland and SG.

The mandate to arrange the $130m three year unsecured facility for Transneft was awarded on Wednesday to RZB. A second mandated arranger may join the deal before launch. The groundbreaking facility will pay a margin of 250bp-300bp over Libor and has attracted a good deal of interest in the market due to the fact that it is the first unsecured facility for a Russian corporate since before August 1998 and that it will pay less than 300bp.