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Ericsson this week shrugged off concerns over its business and financial profile to launch the largest ever Nordic corporate bond. The transaction, led by ABN Amro and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, comprised Eu2bn five year and £250m seven year tranches.

* Rheinische Hypothekenbank AG Rating: Aaa

* Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall AG Rating: AA- (Fitch)

* AIG SunAmerica Institutional Funding II Rating: Aaa/AAA

As corporate supply in the dollar global market slowed this week, Fannie Mae priced a welcome $10bn of benchmark issuance on Wednesday. The two tranches, a two year and a 10 year, were priced by leads Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. The 10 year had the most interest, as investors who see the Fed nearing the end of its easing cycle begin to move out of shorter dated paper. The two year, which had less support in the US, generated good international interest.

Fiat has raised the ceiling off its global MTN programme from euro10 billion ($8.57 million) to euro15 billion.

Blue chip Brazilian media company Globopar took advantage of slightly better new issue conditions in the emerging markets this week to launch the first ever three year euro deal by a true Brazilian corporate. Also this week, Banco Bradesco launched a $100m two year deal via ABN Amro, and BNDES, the Brazilian development bank, is planning a $300m offering via JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch after June.

Hewlett Packard, the world's second biggest computer company, has signed a $200 million Euro-CP and certificate of deposit programme. Deutsche Bank has won the mandate to be arranger. It is the first US borrower to join the Euro-CP market this year, and takes the number of new programmes in 2001 to 10. The small size of the programme means that the issuer has only appointed two dealers. They are Deutsche Bank and UBS Warburg. Hewlett Packard also has two US CP programmes and a $3 billion Euro-MTN programme in the market. Last week the company added Banc of America Securities, Bear Stearns and ABN Amro to the MTN dealer panel. This update and the new Euro-CP signing come at a time when Carly Fiorina, Hewlett Packard's president and chief executive officer, warned of a slowdown in consumer spending in Europe. She said the company had seen a slowdown in consumer IT spending in the US and added: "We're concerned that we're starting to see the same pattern in Europe." The issuer is rated P-1 by Moody's and A-1+ by Standard & Poor's. It is only the sixth private corporate that has signed in the last 12 months to be given the top rating by both credit agencies. Hewlett Packard International Bank, the UK-based subsidiary of the company, will issue the paper off the programme. It will allow the group access to a specific short-term investor type that was not available to it with its existing facilities. Only five other issuers from the computing and software industry have Euro-CP programmes. The last to sign was Honeywell. It signed a $500 million facility in January 1999 but has no notes outstanding. The 11 notes it issued when the programme was active were all in sterling. It is the only computing firm in the market to have used the currency.

Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) has dropped ICI Coordination Centre as an issuer off its $5 billion Euro-MTN programme. In addition, Salomon Smith Barney has been added as a dealer.

Sri Lanka Mandated arrangers HSBC and Sanwa are launching the $80m term loan for Bank of Ceylon into general syndication today (Friday).

The eagerly awaited Eu2.4bn IPO of Inditex, the Spanish fashion retailer, roared on to the markets this week and has led many to speculate about a turnaround in the markets. No one has had a bad thing to say about the deal that has shown the way for other IPOs this year. One banker not connected with the deal said: "It shows what you can do with a deal that has a good story and is intelligently priced."

Total Euro-MTN issuance this year by insurance companies has dropped by over $1 billion. The insurance sector is the only one of this year's top ten by volume to have experienced a drop in issuance off private trades during the first five months, compared to the same period last year, according to MTNWare. In January to May 2000, the insurance sector accounted for $4.82 billion of the market. This year's figures gives the insurance sector a total issuance of $3.74 billion. The number of trades has remained quite stable, but the size of trades in the sector have become smaller. The major exception was Allmerica Global Funding's ¥30 billion ($250.5 million) note issued in March. Outside the top ten the food, drink and tobacco sector and industrial conglomerates have also experienced drops in trading volumes. The utility sector has grown the most. Issuance has moved from $980.6 million to $2.36 billion in the respective periods.