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Next week Vasakronan, the Swedish state-owned real estate company, will become the second Swedish issuer to join the Euro-MTN market in 2002 when it puts pen to paper on a euro1 billion ($939.24 million) Euro-MTN programme. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (Dresdner) has been awarded the arrangership, but the dealer panel is yet to be announced. It is the first programme Dresdner has arranged since Michael Stump joined the Euro-MTN desk to lead its origination operations in September 2000. Previously that year it arranged Enersis's euro1 billion Euro-MTN facility. But it is the 23rd Euro-MTN dealership the bank has won in the same time, putting it ahead of The Royal Bank of Scotland, SG and Westdeutsche Landesbank in a league table of dealerships for that period. The new issuer has not been involved in the debt capital markets before, but its rating of BBB+ from Standard & Poor's, which is independent of its relationship to the Swedish government, should assure investors of its financial credibility. It has a negative outlook.

Mandated lead arrangers ABN Amro, Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Citigroup/SSSB have launched the Eu15bn revolver for A1/A+ German carmaker Volkswagen into syndication. The facility is split between a Eu10bn 364 day revolver, which will be used as a backstop facility for Volkswagen's commercial paper programmes, and a Eu5bn revolver, which will refinance existing debt.

The £660m senior debt post-IPO facility for betting chain William Hill will be launched into syndication once the Citigroup/SSSB and Deutsche-led IPO has been wrapped up next week. The debt is split into two tranches: a £450m five year bullet revolver and a £210m 4-1/2 year amortising term loan.

The Eurodollar market, too often the poor relation of the global dollar market, staged a revival this week with two benchmark transactions, a $750m straight five year for TMCC and a $650m long five year for Unilever. Both issues offered the borrowers more competitive funding than they would have achieved in the global market and were sold out by pricing. TMCC tightened 3bp from 60bp over Treasuries to 57bp bid, and Unilever broke syndicate re-offer bid at 70bp over.

Rating: A1/A- Amount: Eu250m Inhaberschuldverschreibung Series 302

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein is hoping to launch YTL's £545m debt facility into general syndication in mid-June. The loan backs YTL's acquisition of Wessex Water. Banks to be targeted in retail have been well primed and the market should be receptive to the deal.

Rating: A+ (Fitch) Amount: Eu200m (fungible with Eu300m issue launched 24/04/02)

Rating: A1/A+/AA- Amount: Eu100m

Atlas Copco has added ING Bank as a dealer to its $200 million Euro-CP programme. The update was completed on May 24 and the arranger of the programme is Enskilda Debt Capital Markets.

The arranger off Avery Denison's $450 million Euro-CP programme is Barclays Capital. JPMorgan joins the arranger on the dealer panel.

Did you have a good Golden Jubilee weekend? Did you remember just for one moment to think of the British royal family or were you glued to the World Cup football? We suspect that the only people who hummed "God Save the Queen" in their shower were the Eurotunnel asylum seekers who will now live, relative to their countries of origin, the life of Riley on UK benefits and housing subsidies. We live near Ascot in the county of Berkshire, where almost everything carries a "royal" prefix - the proximity to Windsor Castle helps, and then there's the race-course. In such an area you might have assumed that loyalty towards the British monarchy would run high and the celebrations would have been at least equal to the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977.

European loan bankers' spirits were lifted this week by the news that Bank of America, Barclays and Citigroup/SSSB have won the mandate to arrange a £1bn facility for drinks company Bacardi, which promises to add spice to the loan market ahead of the summer holidays. So far this year activity in the Euroloan market has been pedestrian, with most issuance coming from investment grade industrial corporates, a few mid-cap borrowers and acquisitive companies, and the pace of loan business has failed to excite.