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Rating: Aaa/AAA Amount: $500m (fungible with $1bn issue launched 11/01/02)

Rating: Aaa/AAA Amount: $100m (fungible with $500m issue launched 06/02/02)

Eurofima has added Deutsche Bank and Salomon Smith Barney to its $10 billion debt programme.

Bonds don't have to be boring, says Helene Williamson, F&C's global head of fixed income, who is responsible for over Eu50bn of fixed income assets. Appointed to the F&C executive board at the beginning of 2002, Williamson brings a suitably broad view to the asset manager, which was transformed last year from a UK-centric manager into a pan-European firm after its purchase by Eureko. The rebranded F&C retains little but the ampersand from the old name of Foreign & Colonial Management Ltd, providing a less imperial identity under which all of Eureko's asset management activities have been integrated.

Friends Ivory & Sime (FIS), the UK asset manager, was out to prove that biggest is best in the investment management sector when it almost doubled in size this week with the £240m acquisition of the fund management arm of Royal & SunAlliance. "This transaction is transformational for FIS in terms of scale... propelling us into the top 10 active investment managers in the UK," said Howard Carter, chief executive of FIS.

Focus Wickes, the UK home improvement retailer, has appointed Goldman Sachs and ING to lead an IPO before the end of September. The announcement comes a week after Homebase, a competitor to Focus, appointed banks to advise on an IPO, which could come either later this year or in early 2003.

Fortis launched the first undated floating rate convertible in Europe this week, further signalling that momentum is building in a potentially new sector for the market. The convertible, which was lead managed by Fortis Bank and JP Morgan, is the second offering in a week to be treated as equity by rating agencies.

Fortis launched the first undated floating rate convertible in Europe this week, further signalling that momentum is building in a potentially new sector for the market. The convertible, which was lead managed by Fortis Bank and JP Morgan, is the second offering in a week to be treated as equity by rating agencies.

Bookrunners BNP Paribas, Commerzbank and HSBC will launch the Eu4bn dual tranche facility for the European subsidiaries of Canadian transportation company Bombardier into senior syndication today (Friday). The bookrunners hope to sign between three and four banks into the deal as mandated lead arrangers before the loan is launched. These will probably include BayernLB, Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

Guarantor: General Electric Capital Corporation Rating: Aaa/AAA

The Development Bank of Kazakhstan has awarded the mandate to ING to arrange a $25m one year facility. Other banks involved in the deal are ABN Amro, Citigroup/SSSB and Deutsche Bank.

Increased market appetite for Kazakhstani risk is prompting an increasing number of corporate borrowers to push for longer tenors. Two new three year deals to come out of the region prove that arranging banks are confident that longer dated Kazahkstani risk will sell.