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Swiss medical implants manufacturer Centerpulse has launched a Sfr255m rights issue to help pay for a $1bn court settlement that has gone against the company in the US. The capital increase is being 78% underwritten by 12% shareholder Incentive Capital, with the remainder underwritten by UBS Warburg.

CIF Euromortgage successfully navigated the challenging debt markets this week to raise Eu1.75bn of 10 year funding in the obligations foncières market via Barclays Capital and Crédit Agricole Indosuez (CAI). In only its second obligations foncières issue, the borrower was able to achieve a size in the upper end of its targeted Eu1bn-Eu2bn range and price its transaction within its guidance of 11bp-12bp over mid-swaps, at 12bp over.

Gloom prevailed in the US corporate bond market this week as third-quarter earnings warnings and continued anxiety over a potential US invasion of Iraq dominated investor sentiment. Only a little more than $5bn of high grade issues came to market this week, as investors, despite having high cash levels, refused to invest in anything but the best quality issuers.

Rating: A3/A- Amount: $2bn

Credit Suisse Group has pumped a further Sfr1.4bn into its struggling insurance business Winterthür, and warned investors that it will report an operating loss for the third quarter as it continues to hemorrhage money from its insurance business. Winterthür absorbed Sfr1.7bn in cash in the first half of this year, making roughly Eu2.15bn equivalent this year. The statement also implied that Credit Suisse First Boston would fail to report a profit in the third quarter.

Lehman Brothers has closed syndication of Europe's largest senior secured LBO financing and largest mezzanine facility underwritten on a sole basis supporting Charterhouse Development's acquisition of Coral Eurobet. The deal was closed 40% oversubscribed with 16 banks and eight institutional investors committing to the deal.

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA Amount: A$100m

Development Bank of Kazakhstan (DBK) reaped the benefits of pent-up investor demand for Kazakh risk last Friday with the launch of a blowout debut international bond. The $100m five year issue was more than three times oversubscribed, allowing sole bookrunner UBS Warburg to price the issue with a 7.125% coupon and an issue price of 98.97. This gives a yield of 7.375% - in the middle of the pre-launch 7.25%-7.5% price guidance.

Royal Bank of Scotland, Rabobank and WestLB are syndicating a £120m acquisition facility for chilled dairy foods company Dairy Crest plc. Dairy Crest will use the proceeds for the proposed acquisition of the business and assets of the St Ivel spreads business from the Uniq Group for a £86.5m in cash.

Guarantor: Deutsche Telekom AG Rating: Baa1/BBB+/BBB+

Mandated arranger RZB is completing the documentation for the Eu20m five year facility for Roskilde Bank, and banks will be signed in over the next two weeks. The deal has been oversubscribed to Eu32m and an increase will be accepted.

Depfa was this week taking on board the lessons of its first foray into the global dollar market last week, when its inaugural global dollar Pfandbrief issue had to be cut from $3bn to $2bn as demand from the US proved weaker than expected. According to Wally Höfer-Neder, global head of capital markets at Depfa Bank, one of the hurdles the bank failed to overcome was the 144a structure of the bond. She said that, in line with syndicate managers' suggestions, Depfa had made an internal decision to issue true global bonds in the future.