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Hong Kong HSBC and WestLB have sent out invitations to potential sub-underwriters to join a $150m five year term loan/FRN facility for China Merchant Holdings Co.

Europe * Bankinter 3 Fondo de Titulización Hipotecaria

* Western Australia Treasury Corp Guarantor: State of Western Australia

Banque Internationale a Luxembourg has added Nomura as a dealer to its $5 billion Euro-MTN programme. The facility has $3 billion outstanding.

You have to feel slightly sorry for the good folk at Merrill Lynch, the firm that seems to find itself in the press almost every day, but for all of the wrong reasons. At the beginning of the year, the firm was in its customary position as the cornerstone of the US financial services industry. It had seen off blue-collar upstarts such as Charles Schwab, which had the impudence to try and tweak Merrill's tail. To its many admirers around the world, Merrill looked more solid than the Rock of Gibraltar. But 2001 has been an annus horibilis for Merrill. Rather than resembling the Rock of Gibraltar, the firm began to wobble like a blancmange at a summer staff picnic. Merrill discovered too late that it had too many eggs in the equities basket. When demand for equities disappeared, firms like Lehman caught a cold, but houses such as Merrill, Goldman and Morgan Stanley, whose investment banking businesses thrive in rising stockmarkets, contracted pneumonia.

Barclays Bank, acting through its Australian branch, has signed a $2.5 billion Euro-CP programme. It replaces the shelf of the same size under the name Barclays Australia International Finance. And although it has used Barclays Capital as arranger, the issuer has appointed several other banks in roles on the facility. The dealers are the arranger, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Hong Kong), Deutsche Bank and Macquarie Asia. The IPA is HSBC.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) successfully tapped into short dated demand this week with the launch of a $350m November 2005 bond issue, despite long dated Philippines paper suffering from persistant market volatility. The four year Reg S transaction, BSP's second international bond issue of the year, gained praise for its performance in taxing market conditions. However, some bankers highlighted the relatively high new issue premium paid by the borrower.

The stage is set for a competition between the UK government's proposal - being prepared by Schroder Salomon Smith Barney - to turn Railtrack into a company limited by guarantee and WestLB's bid to take over the rail infrastructure company. The government placed Railtrack in railway administration on October 7, rather than inject more cash to ensure it could pay its debts.