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BP Trinidad & Tobago (BP) put pen to paper on a $2 billion Euro-CP facility on September 21. The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is the arranger. BP's new shelf, which will run alongside its existing $2 billion Euro-CP programme under the name BP Amoco, started trading on Tuesday September 25 and is one of the few facilities in the market to offer coupon-bearing notes as opposed to issuing paper at a discount. Gary Admans, senior capital markets executive at BP, explains: "The coupon-bearing structure allows us to issue CP at the most efficient after-tax rate." Trinidad and Tobago has tax laws which state that you can either pay a withholding tax of 20% or pay the investor a coupon of 10%. Barry Gartner, head of Euro-CP at Barclays Capital, one of the dealers off the programme, says: "It's different in the CD market where notes offered at a discount are the less common form. But in CP this kind of coupon-bearing paper is quite unusual." The tax laws also mean that only four jurisdictions are accessible to the issuer at the moment. These are France, Italy, Switzerland and the UK. Admans, at BP, says: "Japan is an investor base that we are looking into, and is something we may do later, but for now we are restricting our activity to the jurisdictions that suit our requirements." It is the first corporate to have signed a Euro-CP shelf since July, and is one of only 16 that have signed all year. The same period last year saw 23 new corporate programmes. The dealers are the arranger, Barclays Capital, National Westminster Bank (NatWest) and UBS Warburg. It is likely that NatWest will be dropped at the next update, as it will be trading under the RBS name from October 8 this year as a result of their merger.

The loan market's response to Middle Eastern deals has moved from genuine panic to a respectable calm two weeks after the attacks on the US. Talk in the loan market during the first seven days after the tragedies was that lines were being pulled from Middle Eastern institutions. But despite the US's promise of retaliation, bankers are reviewing facilities on a case by case basis.

Out there in the Euromarkets, life is grim. The sheer volume of casualties in New York and Washington, and the passengers on the hijacked planes, means that many houses have lost friends and colleagues. Three weeks after the disaster we are still walking around in a daze. But every professional Euromarketeer knows they must pick up the pieces while continuing to grieve for those who died or were wounded. The world's stockmarkets are in their most precipitous decline since the Autumn of 1998. Valuations of even the best investment, and commercial banks, have tumbled. The M&A game seems to be on indefinite hold. IPOs are virtually non-existent and household names such as Prada have been forced to postpone their stockmarket flotations.

Coca-Cola Amatil has updated its $2 billion debt instrument programme and has dropped ABN Amro as a dealer.

Utilities deliver and dispose of the vital needs and functions of society. As such, they are prized by investors for their stable, non-cyclical attributes. But now, more of Europe’s energy utilities are slipping towards lower, riskier ratings. Market liberalisation is driving the change, and the leaders have responded with aggressive cross-border, multi-utility consolidation strategies. Quentin Carruthers reports on how the capital markets are funding this increasingly competitive industry

Dollar swap spreads continued to narrow sharply this week. At close yesterday (Thursday), the 10 year market was at 67bp over Treasuries while the five year market was at 76bp over. At the long end of the curve, swaps to Treasuries trade at 49bp. These prices are between 4bp and 6bp tighter than a week ago. Swap spreads mushroomed after the events of September 11, but have subsequently tightened to lower levels than before the terrorist attacks.

Dow Chemical Company signed a euro2 billion ($2.95 billion) Euro-MTN programme on Wednesday September 26. Deutsche Bank arranged the programme and the dealer panel comprises ABN Amro, Credit Suisse First Boston, JPMorgan, BNP Paribas, Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, UBS Warburg and the arranger. The issuer has mandated Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan as lead managers of the inaugural public deal. Moody's rates Dow Chemical Company A1 and Standard & Poor's rates it slightly lower at A.

Triple-A rated utility Electricité de France (EdF) will be in Paris today (Friday) to roadshow its long dated euro benchmark, which is set to attract strong support from a European investor base keen to buy utility paper. The sector is being seen as a defensive play by investors looking for safety in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US and the likelihood of a sharper slowdown in the global economy.

Bulgaria Signing of the Eu10m guarantee facility for the First Investment Bank of Bulgaria has been delayed. The loan was due to be signed this week.

Sightseers in Rome this week may have noticed an influx of a slightly better dressed crowd than the usual backpacking fraternity, given the bank meetings being held there yesterday (Thursday) and today (Friday) to mark the launch to general syndication of the loans for Wind and Endesa Italia. The key similarities between the two credits would appear to end with the choice of venue for the meetings, the nationality of the borrowers, and omnipresent energy company Enel.

Although liberalisation in central and eastern Europe is driven by the need to join the EU as soon as possible, utility sector reform in the region can be slow. But, while governments remain reluctant to sell off core assets, restructuring and IPOs have opened up acquisition targets to foreign predators. And those utilities that can shake off state support may also help to shake up the sector. Laurence Knight reports