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Rhineland Funding Capital Corporation is the name of an asset-backed CP programme that has been set up with IKB Deutsche Industriebank as its investment adviser. The programme is for the issuance of Euro-CP notes and the dealers are Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs. The programme was arranged by CIBC, which has two existing global asset-backed CP programmes called Great Lakes Funding and Superior Funding. Moody's has assigned a short-term rating of P-1 to the programme and Fitch has given it an F1 rating. The programme was signed on Friday, March 15 and although it has only been in the market one week, it started funding on Wednesday, March 20, and has already raised $1 billion. The arranger says: "We met our funding target straight away and expect to have $1.3 billion outstanding by the end of March this year."

The Republic of Italy has embarked on an unprecedented borrowing spree in the last seven days, accessing the dollar, euro and yen markets for more than Eu5.5bn equivalent. A $2bn June 2005 global bond was priced last Friday (March 15), a Eu2.5bn tap of the August 2017 BTP was priced yesterday (Thursday) and a ¥100bn increase of the October 2006 global issue will be priced today (Friday).

The Republic of Italy has embarked on an unprecedented borrowing spree in the last seven days, accessing the dollar, euro and yen markets for more than Eu5.5bn equivalent. A $2bn June 2005 global bond was priced last Friday (March 15), a Eu2.5bn tap of the August 2017 BTP was priced yesterday (Thursday) and a ¥100bn increase of the October 2006 global issue will be priced today (Friday).

India The ¥14.24bn 5-1/2 year term loan for Reliance Industries has been closed by co-ordinating arrangers ANZ Investment Bank, Bank of America and Crédit Lyonnais. The co-ordinating arrangers committed ¥1.435bn apiece.

ING completed its first lead managed convertible issue since 1999 this week as it raised Eu125m for Draka Holding, the Dutch holding company. The last time ING led an equity linked issue was for Guillemot, the computer software and hardware developer. The Dutch bank underwrote and led the Eu30m convertible issue in June 1999.

Uncertainty over the funding of the London Underground Public-Private Partnership (PPP) deepened this week with news reports that the UK transport secretary, Stephen Byers, has announced that the provisional letter of comfort issued by the government guaranteeing around 95% of the project debt for the first 7-1/2 years will not feature in the final contract. Bankers close to the deal said that as far as the two financings are concerned there has been no change. However, the news highlights the political risk attached to PPP financing. If the government will not provide an effective guarantee, the deals will not be bankable.

Staff at Lehman have been told to dress up as opposed to down, in an attempt to create a more business-like atmosphere at the bank. And Lehman's Euro-CP boys Jon Ford and Sam Goldwater are less than happy to be digging their old ties and cuff links out of the wardrobe again. Jon had only just thrown his away. Maybe JPMorgan will be next to follow suit, if only to encourage Miles Hunt to refresh his frilly shirt collection. And Australians were out in numbers last night to bid farewell to JPMorgan's head of desk, Rob Nankivell, as he is returning down under. He will be remembered most for catching the biggest fish at the Islandsbanki and Landsvirkjun Icelandic adventure holiday last August. The venue of the farewell party is apt - a high-class Australian bar called Walkabout in London's west end, whose usual clientele includes Australian rugby players, Australian backpackers and more Aussie rugby players. Westpac's Anna d'Ercole and other Aussie issuers were on the guest list. HSBC's MTN desk has seen a surge of activity in recent months. Tickets are being printed like there's no tomorrow. And the reason? The driving force is the new grad trainee, Mark, who has been nicknamed The Brain by Fergus Kiely and his team.

Lehman Brothers is to move most of its Italian fixed income team to Milan, rejecting the current trend of centralising activities in London. While most investment banks have smaller teams in Milan with close links to London, Lehman will transfer around 20 employees to Italy.

With the announcement that Morocco has finally signed up Merrill Lynch and BNP Paribas for its debut unguaranteed Eurobond, and with Tunisia beginning a tendering process for its Eurobond, the Middle East and Africa look likely to take up the slack from central and eastern Europe in the second quarter. Bankers at the eight or nine shortlisted lead managers for the Republic of Morocco deal had been calling Rabat in vain for weeks, trying to find out the result of a beauty contest held in January.

First quarter results from Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns offered another reminder this week of the devastating earnings power of fixed income sales and trading desks. Both firms reported record fixed income revenues for the first quarter. But for Lehman Brothers, the gains in fixed income could not offset losses in other divisions, which cut net income to $298m from last year's figure of $387m. Net revenues were $1.6bn, a 15% drop from the $1.9bn recorded in Q1 2001.

Mediobanca International has increased the ceiling off its Euro-MTN facility to euro5 billion ($4.43 billion). The debt limit was previously euro2.5 billion. However, the amount outstanding off the shelf is nowhere near the previous debt ceiling. At $476.19 million, off 12 trades, the issuer now has a spare capacity of over euro4.5 billion.

Egypt The $250m three year bullet term loan for National Bank of Egypt is due to be launched into the market next week.