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Brazil is considering a $2.4bn deal that would be backed by payments Poland owes to the country through the Paris Club. The deal - linked to JP Morgan, Bank of America, UBS Warburg and Salomon Smith Barney - would offer the sovereign an alternative to the exorbitant prices it faces in the dollar market. "Brazil is definitely interested in this idea of monetising Polish Paris Club obligations," said one banker in New York. "The thing is, they can't come back to the dollar market with yields where they are, there is not much demand in euros for a large amount of new Brazilian paper, and they have tapped out the yen market for the time being."

The Republic of Chile is planning to return to the international dollar bond markets in September for the first time since 1999, with a $500m-$1bn 10 year global bond. The sovereign is expected to award a mandate early next week. The transaction is aimed at providing a new 10 year benchmark in the US market for Chilean corporates, and also as a demonstration by the government of the country's economic strength and its distance from the continuing Argentine financial crisis.

Peter Cuckovic has started work at ING Barings as a telecoms research analyst in the London-based high yield team. Cuckovic was previously at Lehman Brothers where he was an analyst in the high yield telecommunications group.

DaimlerChrysler (South Africa) has issued the first ever South African domestic bond guaranteed by a non-South African company. The bond is a R1bn six year issue via Deutsche Bank and Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank, and will be priced today (Friday). "This is the first ever Yankee style foreign guaranteed issue in the South African domestic market," said Neil Morrison, managing director of Deutsche Bank's South African division in Johannesburg. "In a sense, we and Standard Bank are flying a balloon to see whether the company's credit will be respected by local investors."

The European Central Bank cut rates by 25bp to 4.25% yesterday (Thursday) in response to slowing inflation and the slowdown in economic growth, leaving the door open for further cuts before year end. Short dated government yields fell sharply on the news, but the bond market was largely unchanged, with the focus very much on the ballooning corporate pipeline. But ahead of the September rush, new issuance was again thin on the ground. Nevertheless, the rapid digestion of transactions such as a Eu400m deal for Charbonnages de France and a Eu1bn issue from WestLB testified to the liquidity available for new product.

Dana Petroleum, the UK oil and gas exploration and production company, has announced its intentions to raise £24m, net of expenses, through a placing and open offer. Dana is looking to raise funds to maximise the value from its recent exploration successes and to finance its continuing programme.

Congratulations to Morgan Stanley's Mary Meeker who had the cases brought against her by grumpy Stanley customers thrown out of court. Life has not exactly been a bed of roses for the homely Mary and the last thing she needed was a lot of moaning minnies saying that she had led them up the garden path. As we have said before, Mary's only real fault was that she fell in love with her own recommendations, and who is to say that every lady shouldn't be allowed her own flight of fancy? If Amazon.com had gone belly up this year Mary might have had to walk the plank, but Amazon is still there hanging on for dear life and some of Mary's other favourites, including Priceline and Lastminute.com, are refusing to be wheeled away to the knacker's yard. They might even make it. For Mary's sake let's all keep our fingers crossed.

Deutsche Telekom (DT) sought to give further assurance to investors this week by outlining its future debt reduction strategies and predicting how much DT stock could be expected to come on to the market as lock-ups expire on 590m DT shares next week. In conjunction with the publishing of its first half results this week, DT has attempted to clarify its future position. And to stop the speculation over changes both inside and outside the company, DT has made public its strategies.

Deutsche Telekom (DT) sought to give further assurance to investors this week by outlining its future debt reduction strategies and predicting how much DT stock could be expected to come on to the market as lock-ups expire on 590m DT shares next week. In conjunction with the publishing of its first half results this week, DT has attempted to clarify its future position. And to stop the speculation over changes both inside and outside the company, DT has made public its strategies.

Bulgaria BayernLB will close syndication of the Eu10m 364 day facility for First Investment Bank next week the EIB, carries a margin of 350bp over Euribor.

The European Investment Bank this week established itself as one of the premier international names in the global dollar arena by providing investors with a $3bn five year bond, the bank's third dollar global this year and its largest dollar issue by a margin of $1bn. At the same time, the EIB achieved its goal of increased penetration into the US investor base, placing around one-third of the paper in the States.