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Many well-known faces were to be seen at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in London on Thursday for Websters MTN conference. The whole HSBC crowd was there, which makes Leak wonder who was left to answer their phones. Other names at the conference included Royal Bank of Scotland's Sanjay 'Slimfast' Sofat, the suave Cyril Bonnet from CNCEP, SEK's Ulrika Bohlin and Mike Timms, the ex-IFR journalist. The ever-popular Timms is having to recycle his business cards now. Leak received a lovely one which already had someone else's number scribbled on the back. We hope she wasn't anyone special, Mike. If Leak receives a phone call in a month's time asking for it back, we'll know he's remembered her name. But some of the gadgets at the conference were of a higher standard than anyone could have hoped for. And, with its quality diaries and phone holders, BNP Paribas would have got the best freebie-giver award. Unfortunately there isn't one. The pre-conference parties went off very well and it seems all and sundry headed for London's Piccadilly on Wednesday night. BNP Paribas hosted a wild caviar and vodka evening at Caviar House next door to the Ritz. The caviar went down a treat and apparently the vodka tasted like orange juice, which sounds dangerous. And Mizuho started its evening with some drinks and dinner at the Ritz, followed by a trip to the theatre. Very grown up. After nine years in MTNs and having seen the market grow from just 20 issuers, Deutsche Bank's leading MTN star, head trader Tiina Lee, has left the desk. She has moved over to UK and Scandinavian financial institutions. Chris Jones, Mike Bransford and Ali Hussain are left by themselves, but if Chris Jones can go fishing in Iceland in shorts, we are sure he can manage an MTN desk.

European equity capital markets are preparing themselves for a dramatic change in the way they do business as the stock exchanges of Europe ready themselves for battle. Tom Illsley looks at what strategies the major exchanges are putting in place to make sure they come out on top in the race to consolidate

UK retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) this week continued its impressive turnaround with the launch of its first public bond since 1999, a dual currency offering in euros and sterling. Lead managed by Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley, the transaction offering included a euro denominated debut Eu550m five year tranche and a £375m 10 year piece, which together amounted to the company's largest ever capital markets fundraising.

Sonera's announcement this week of a Eu1bn rights issue and Moody's confirmation yesterday (Thursday) of Sonera's Baa2 long term debt rating has helped ease concerns among loan bankers about their exposure to over-leveraged corporates. These concerns arose following the problems of Marconi, Kvaerner and Enitel. Because of Sonera's debt load, its aggressive 3G strategy, and bearish tech sector sentiment, the ratings agencies had been expecting a downgrade.

UK retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) this week continued its impressive turnaround with the launch of its first public bond since 1999, a dual currency offering in euros and sterling. Lead managed by Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley, the transaction offering included a euro denominated debut Eu550m five year tranche and a £375m 10 year piece, which together amounted to the company's largest ever capital markets fundraising.

Bahrain Arrangers Arab Banking Corporation and SMBC have launched general syndication of the $107m deal for Aluminium Bahrain (Alba).

* Bear Stearns has laid off five senior members of its European leveraged finance team in Europe. The former head of the leveraged finance team, Simon Clarkson Webb, is believed to be one of the five. Richard Knight, who has been with the American firm for seven years, will move across to take responsibility for the operation, now reduced to 11 staff. Knight is already a senior managing director in charge of high yield capital markets, and will retain that responsibility. His new appointment is a sign that Bear Stearns remains committed to its existing - albeit reduced - leveraged finance and syndication team.

Negri Bossi, an Italian manufacturing company, and Numerica Group, a UK accountancy firm, both demonstrated that investor sentiment is beginning to turn, with the announcement of primary offerings. Numerica is close to completing its £30m institutional placing, which has been underwritten by Collins Stewart. The deal has been placed with 18 blue chip investors.

Nestlé, the world's largest food company, has announced its intentions to float a minority stake in Alcon, its wholly owned eye care business. Nestlé believes that a partial IPO would highlight the hidden value in the unit and also give both Nestlé and Alcon financial flexibility. Nestlé indicated that any money raised from the sale would be used to further develop its core food, nutrition and beverage businesses and to strengthen Nestlé's triple-A rating.

Russia * The City of Moscow's Eu300m 2004 bond has traded back up above par, and was quoted at 100.47 late yesterday (Thursday). The bond was issued last week at par, but initially fell a quarter point as retail intermediary accounts were slow to pick up paper.

In a further sign of its intentions in the euro debt markets, Nomura International has announced four new hires in debt capital markets origination this week - including Merrill Lynch's MTN head Rodolfo Diotavelli. The appointments, along with the recruitment of 13 salespeople under the head of fixed income sales, Barry Nix, will continue the work carried out by Stefano Ghersi, Najib Canaan and other senior figures to develop the Japanese firm's business outside its traditional strengths.

The French government this week launched its maiden OATei to a rapturous reception. Launched by the Agence France Trésor (AFT), it was the first government bond to be linked to euro zone inflation. The transaction, which marked a change from previous OATi offerings pegged to the domestic inflation rate, was seen as an attempt by France to broaden its international investor base, although it also clearly expanded the worldwide market for inflation linked product.