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Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francais (SNCF), the French rail operator, has mandated Barclays Capital and UBS Warburg to lead-manage a benchmark sterling deal off its euro7 billion ($6.09 billion) Euro-MTN programme. Reuters reports that the trade will go out between 20 and 30 years. An official at UBS Warburg said that the size and structure of the deal would be confirmed after the issuer finishes its investor roadshow in two weeks. The announcement comes a week after Reseau Ferre de France, another French rail company, closed a 50-year £

Stadtsparkasse Köln this week launched its inaugural Pfandbrief issue, a Eu100m three year transaction that is the first ever Pfandbrief from a German savings bank. The Sparkassen are to diversify their funding sources following the EC ruling that means the government support mechanisms of Anstaltslast and Gewährträgerhaftung will not apply to Landesbank or Sparkassen issuance from 2005.

Mizuho (Fuji) has relaunched syndication of the Skr5.6bn financing package backing the buy-out of Sweden's Electrolux's leisure appliances business by private equity firm Northern Equity. The business has been rebranded Domestic Appliances.

The Kingdom of Spain is poised to issue its first syndicated government bond, a 15 year transaction, to be led by BBVA, BSCH, CAI, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan - banks named by the kingdom as the most dynamic primary dealers in the Spanish debt market. Launch is planned for the week of March 4, following a roadshow, which so far is scheduled to visit the UK, Holland and Italy, with the possible addition of France.

* Bank Austria AG Rating: Aa3/AA (Moody's/Fitch)

* Réseau Ferré de France Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

* Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale Rating: Aaa/AAA

With 11 European telco deals worth $48.67bn up for refinancing in 2002, the telecoms sector is under the scrutiny of loan bankers hungry for business in a dry market. All eyes are on the secondary trading of France Télécom's (FT) refinancing, the primary syndication of Ericsson's $743.676m loan and H3G in Italy.

ThyssenKrupp, the German steel and engineering group, took advantage of a good stock run this week to sell a Eu89m stake in Kone, the Finnish lift manufacturer. The deal was led by UBS Warburg and Evli Securities, and according to a banker the company was an ideal stock for the current economic environment. "Kone is a cyclical stock, but a large part of its business is services which are stable," the banker said. "We felt confident that it was the right kind of stock in this environment."

Televisa, keen to take advantage of an extraordinary flight by high grade US investors out of the troubled corporate dollar market into Mexican bonds, will next week begin a roadshow for a $250m 20 or 30 year bond. The deal will be jointly led by Citigroup/SSB, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan, the Mexican media company's three relationship banks, which extended the company a bridge loan last year that it now intends to refinance.

Thirty-two notes were announced in US dollar and Freddie Mac's $250 million five-year note took nearly half the volume. HypoVereinsbank announced a $20 million FRN via Bank of America. The coupon is linked to 3m $Libor +7 basis points and the trade goes out to March 2005. Oesterreichische Kontrollbank issued a $94 million note with a maturity of four years and six months via Mizuho. The coupon is paid annually at a rate of 4.07% and the note is sold as a Uridashi offering in Japan. At the long end Salomon Smith Barney was bookrunner off two notes for Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg (LBBW) and for General Electric Capital Corp. LBBW's $10 million note goes out 10 years and General Electric Capital Corp's $20 million note goes out to 2017.

Lloyds TSB and Aareal (formerly DePfa Bank) have the mandate to arrange a £335m six year facility for The City of London Office Unit Trust. Deutsche Postbank, Landesbank Sachsen Girozentrale and Westdeutsche Immobilienbank have joined the loan in senior syndication.