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Barclays Cairo has backed the $20m management buy-out of food business El Rashidi El Mizan by CDC Capital Partners - the first Egyptian MBO. The UK bank has provided $8m for the transaction, but the debt will not be syndicated. The transaction has no subordinated debt. Senior net debt to Ebitda is 50%. Unilever, the vendor, has opted to sell the company as it no longer fits with its growth strategy.

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA Amount: Eu100m (fungible with Eu300m issue launched 11/07/01)

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA Amount: Sfr500m

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA Amount: Eu500m Öffentlicher Pfandbrief series 6 (fungible with Eu1bn issue launched 21/11/02)

Royal Bank of Canada this week closed a £165m deal to refurbish and service government offices in London. The deal is the first of many bond issues to be launched under the UK government's PFI and PPP schemes this year, including the £1.2bn bond issue for London Underground consortium Metronet, expected in March via Barclays Capital, RBS Financial Markets and UBS Warburg.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein this week closed a $200m loan to Goldman Sachs Mezzanine Partners, one of the largest and oldest mezzanine loan funds. The short term senior facility is secured on the fund's assets - US and European mezzanine loans. Dresdner is the only lender.

Hungary will look to securitise a portion of its student loans later this year, according to the managing director of the Hungarian government's debt management agency (AKK), Laszlo Buzas. The country has been planning such a scheme for several years. The technique is well-suited to this sector, which is driven by government initiatives requiring ready and immediate sources of capital - an opportunity that banks can find hard to exploit.

One of Europe's largest issuers in the asset backed market came under fire this week as rating agency Standard & Poor's questioned the Republic of Italy's use of securitisation and placed the country's credit on negative outlook. The rating action, threatening Italy's double-A credit rating, coincides awkwardly with the republic's planned three year dollar global issue, which was to be priced this week. According to a London sovereign banker Italian foreign currency bonds widened by 1bp-2bp on news of the rating action, despite the very remote probability of a downgrade.

Federal-Mogul ticked up from the mid-to-low 60s into the 67 1/2 to 68 1/2 range with more than $20 million in trades this week. The paper climbed after the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and the Official Committee of Asbestos Claimants filed a motion to terminate Federal-Mogul's exclusive right to file a plan of reorganization. "Serious negotiations are going on," said Michael Lynch, Federal Mogul cfo. "It's a sign that the process is proceeding," he added, declining to comment further citing the private nature of the negotiations. The hearing to discuss this motion will be held on Jan. 29.

Five-year credit-default swap spreads on U.K. grocer Safeway tightened substantially as news of an accepted takeover bid from Wm Morrison Supermarket hit the market. Mid-market swaps narrowed to 50-60 basis points on Thursday from 80-95bps earlier in the week. Traders said volumes spiked approximately to three times typical levels of two to three trades per day. The rest of the retail sector took a hit last week, however, with many announcing poor December sales. Five-year mid-market protection on Dixons Group widened to 100bps Wednesday from 80bps earlier in the week as it announced a profit warning. The news had a knock-on effect as protection on retailer Kingfisher widened to 90bps/105bps from 75bps/90bps and German retailer METRO Group to 130bps from 115bps.

Rentenbank, a Germany agency which finances agricultural projects, has entered an interest rate swap to convert a recent EUR100 million (USD104.76 million) offering into a synthetic floating-rate liability. In the swap, Rentenbank is receiving the 4.125% fixed-rate coupon on the bond and paying a Euribor-based rate. A treasury official in Frankfurt said it is the agency's policy to keep borrowing costs Euribor-based to match its lending portfolio. Barclays Capital is the counterparty on the swap and was chosen because it was the underwriter on the bond. Rentenbank requires derivatives counterparties to have a minimum rating of single A.

American Express Bank has hired Albert Chang, a principal business specialist in sales at Integral, a software vendor in New York, as a director to build up its foreign exchange options trading and marketing operation. Part of this process may include further hiring, Chang said. He reports to Matt Porio, global head of fx spot and options in London and New York. Before working for Integral, Chang traded options at Rayner & Stonington, a Greenwich-based hedge fund.