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Fiera Milano and Socotherm had lacklustre debuts on the Milan Stock Exchange this week after both completed their IPOs over the weekend. Milan conference centre operator Fiera Milano raised Eu97.5m after it sold 13m shares at the bottom of its Eu7.5-Eu8.75 pricing range.

Loan market practitioners spent much of this week discussing Schemaventotto's Eu10bn acquisition facility. The deal backs Schemaventotto's takeover of a 30% share holding - worth Eu8bn - in Italy's biggest motorway company Autostrade. The maturity of the refinancing of the Eu10bn deal, which will take place 18 months after signing, has moved in from an initial 16 years, to 12 years to seven years, after complaints from the market that the deal had an unacceptably long tenor.

The Italian government surprised investors on Monday when it sold its remaining stake in Telecom Italia. The sale was lead managed by Morgan Stanley and raised Eu1.4bn to help reduce the government's debt. Bankers had been expecting Italy to reduce its holding in oil company Eni or electricity company Enel long before Telecom Italia, which has seen its share price slide this year. NM Rothschild advised the Italian treasury.

Amount: Eu756m Legal maturity: December 2047

Rating: Aaa/AA+/AA+ Amount: $150m (fungible with $1bn issue launched 30/10/02)

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA Amount: $2bn

Rating: Aaa/AAA Amount: $3bn

Mandated arrangers Barclays (sole bookrunner), JP Morgan and Nordea signed banks into the Eu400m five year revolver for Fingrid Oyi this Monday. Commerzbank, Danske Bank and Sampo Bank joined as arrangers. ING, Handelsbanken and Garras Bank joined as co-arrangers.

The bond market this week was supposed to be winding down ahead of the Christmas break, but issuers and investors remain active in dollars, euros and sterling, absorbing an unusual number of benchmark transactions for the time of year. The success of France Télécom's euro and sterling bonds shows that investors have well and truly bought into the company's restructuring plans, allowing the euro tranche to be increased from Eu1.5bn to Eu2.5bn. The pricing of the 2009 bond at 290bp over mid-swaps - at the tight end of the 290bp-300bp price talk - attracted a book in excess of Eu5bn with, said the lead managers, very little switch interest.

Banks that submitted bids for Electricité de France's new Eu6bn dual tranche facility (EdF), expect a reply from the borrower before Christmas. Pricing will be tight with a margin of around 15bp offered on the five year tranche.

Rating: Baa3/BBB-/BBB- Tranche 1: Eu2.5bn