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* Akademiska Hus AB Rating: AA

The Region of Tuscany has finally signed its euro1.5 billion ($1.31 billion) Euro-MTN programme. Most of the details on the programme were published in MTNWeek last month (see issue 268), but the dealer panel had yet to be chosen. The borrower has now decided that the three arrangers - Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and UBS Warburg - will be joined as dealers by ABN Amro, Banca IMI, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, BNP Paribas, CDC IXIS Capital Markets, Depfa Bank Europe, Dexia Capital Markets, HSBC, JPMorgan, MPS Finance and Nomura International.

* Royal Bank of Scotland plc Rating: Aa2/A+

US dollar has been the currency of choice for double-A issuers. Royal Bank of Scotland has issued several US dollar notes recently. It announced two callable range accrual notes via JPMorgan for amounts of $5 million and $5.09 million. The first is an 18-month note that pays a fixed coupon of 4% whenever $Libor is between 0% and 4.25%. The second note pays a coupon of 4.5% when $Libor is between 0%and 5% and goes out two years. Both notes are callable quarterly. The issuer also did a $5 million three-year straight FRN via Mitsubishi Trust and a $350 million FRN via UBS Warburg. The trade pay 3m $Libor +40 basis points up until the call, which is at five years, and then it pays 3m $Libor +90 basis points. And Aa1-rated Hamburgische LB Finance announced a $5 million five-year note led by Deutsche Bank. And Lehman Brothers led a $100 million two-year FRN for Aa2-rated Westland/Utrecht Hypotheekbank. Triple-A borrowers did well too. Rabobank Nederland did a $10 million fixed rate note via BNP Paribas. It goes out three years and there is a call after six months. The issuer also did two range accruals: a $20 million four-year note via Nomura and a $10 million four-and-a-half-year note via Morgan Stanley. And KfW International Finance did a $10 million five-year note via Mizuho and the dealer also led a $10 million five-year note for Export Development Canada. And K2 Corporation did a $25 million one-year note.

UK directories business Yell has appointed Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to lead an IPO, just nine months after British Telecom sold the group. The sale of Yell, which some analysts have valued at as much as £4bn, will lock in an impressive profit for venture capitalists Apax Partners and Hicks Muse, which paid £2.1bn for the business.

* CDC IXIS and SG will price a Eu738m club funding CDO for Iccrea Banca on Monday, backed by 117 bonds issued by Italian co-operative banks. Price talk is 23bp over Euribor for the single tranche, rated triple-A by Moody's and Standard & Poor's with a 5.7 year average life. Expected and legal maturities are December 2007 and 2009. Four junior notes, totalling Eu151.6m, will be retained by Iccrea Banca.

UK mortgage lender Northern Rock issued the first prime UK mortgage deal of the year when Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch launched Granite Mortgages 02-1 plc. This was the first Granite deal to include a euro tranche and the lead managers reported strong demand.

Deutsche Bank this week launched MBNA Series, a Eu750m securitisation of the US credit card issuer's US credit card portfolio. It is the first euro issue from its Credit Card Master Note Trust established last year. The single fixed rate tranche repays as a bullet with a legal maturity of July 2014. The triple-A rated notes were issued below par with a coupon of 5.6% and launch spread of 25bp over mid-swaps.

The auction for Gen Re Securities' credit derivatives portfolio is down to the last two firms: BNP Paribas and Société Générale, according to a senior banker. The firms are rumored to be bidding USD12-15 million for the portfolio, which consists of 400 single-name credit-default swaps and eight portfolio swaps. The auction is expected to end Friday.

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