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One to three year trades accounted for over 30% of all business in the EuroMTN market this week. Over $2.3bn was closed through 46 trades in this maturity range. French names were among the most active borrowers. Compagnie de Financement Foncier closed three trades for Eu10m each. One of the deals pays a coupon of 3bp under three month Euribor and matures in July 2005. Morgan Stanley was the bookrunner.

Private corporate issuance topped $1bn this week, including some big yen trades. Fuji Xerox Finance closed a ¥3.4bn two year trade via Daiwa Securities SMBC Europe. The note pays a coupon of 0.2%. Linde Finance went out to three years with a ¥3bn note. The annual coupon is 0.493%.

Rating: Aaa/AAA (Moody's/Fitch) Amount: Eu455m (fungible with six issues totaling Eu1.077bn first launched 13/03/02)

Triple-As improved on last week's strong issuance trend and accounted for over 50% of total issuance this week. Of the 121 trades closed by triple-A names, Norwegian borrowers were especially active. Eksportfinans issued nine trades, split between seven yen and two dollar notes. The agency's biggest yen deal was for ¥320m and pays an annual coupon of 4.3%. Kommunalbanken issued in yen, but also tapped other currencies. Deutsche Bank placed a Sfr50m note for the local authority borrower. The 12 year note has an annual coupon of 3.08%.

Rating: A3 Amount: Eu75m

Citigroup/SSSB is set to arrange the first EuroMTN programme from Central America since 2000. The new $750m multi-currency facility is for Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI). A treasury official at CABEI told EuroWeek that the programme is still in its initial phase and that it is difficult to forecast an exact signing date. However, the official did expect the programme to be ready by early next year.

China Telecom officially priced its revised and reduced IPO at HK$1.48 yesterday (Thursday). That was the bottom end of the price range, despite the deal having been slashed from a maximum 17.3bn shares to 8.69bn, including the greenshoe option. Although officials said the book was "more than covered", the deal was widely viewed as a flop - or mediocre at best. One head of syndicate described it as "a case study in how it can all go wrong". Another described the lack of institutional participation as giving a "Pyrrhic victory at best".

Rating: Aa1/AA-/AA+ Amount: Eu1.75bn

Deutsche Bank's Eu141m placement of stock in German tyre company Continental on Tuesday boosted the bank to the top of the European bookrunner league tables. Deutsche's equity syndicate desk has benefited from the benevolence of its parent in the past weeks as it looks to take advantage of the recent equity market rally to continue its asset disposal programme. This week's sale, which represents Deutsche Bank's entire 7.5% stake in Continental, follows the bank's sale of its remaining 9.3% stake in Deutsche Börse in October.

Guarantor: Small Business Corporation Amount: $350m

The rally in international bond markets, inspired by a 50bp cut in the Fed Funds rate to a new 40 year low of 1.25%, quickly foundered yesterday (Thursday) as equity markets nose-dived, with the Dow Jones losing 2.11% on the day to close at 8,586.24. And hopes that the UK and Europe would follow the US were dashed as the ECB and the Bank of England kept rates unchanged.