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Republic of Italy has ended the week with a 30-year euro150 million ($146.81 million) note that pays a single coupon of 23.19% at the end of the tenor. It is the longest note the borrower has issued since joining the MTN market in July 1998. And euro accounts for over 50% of the issuer's debt off the $24 billion programme, having raised $11.35 billion-worth in the currency to date.

The Republic of Portugal this week announced the establishment of a buyback window to repurchase selected bonds, representing a first step of a larger debt exchange programme that will be carried out by the Portuguese government debt agency (IGCP) throughout 2001. Under this programme, Portugal will repurchase some old less liquid bonds and will refinance them through the issuance of standard Portuguese treasury bonds (OTs) aiming at increasing the liquidity of Portugal's debt by concentrating it in larger issues that can be actively traded on the secondary market.

Ryanair, the Irish budget airline, announced this week that it will issue new shares worth about £120m (Eu188m). The deal will consist of 10m ordinary shares, representing 2.8% of the existing share capital. Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's CEO, also intends to sell 3m shares of the 30m he owns. He will offer the bookrunners 1m shares to cover any over-allotment. The capital raised will be used to purchase 13 new Boeing 737s. The company may also purchase further second-hand aircraft.

Denmark Handelsbanken Markets, a division of Svenska Handelsbanken, has won the mandate to arrange a $100m five year multi-currency revolver for Copenhagen Airport. General syndication will be launched at the end of February with a corporate presentation scheduled for March 13 in Copenhagen, after the presentation of the annual accounts for 2000.

Svensk Exportkredit issued a 31-year yen trade, its second this year. The ¥200 million ($1.73 million) note is non-syndicated and is issued under the issuer's $10 billion Asian MTN programme. The trade pays a final coupon of 8% and is the seventh yen trade to be sold off the Asian shelf.

Sigma Finance Corp (Sigma) has continued a busy week with a euro10 million ($9.79 million) note that matures in February 2011. It pays interest semi-annually. It is the third euro-denominated trade Sigma has issued this year, and takes overall issuance in the currency in 2001 to almost $68 billion. US dollar has been second favourite with $56.5 billion-worth of trades.

SMC Corporation has added ABM Amro as a dealer to its $500 million Euro-MTN programme. The dealer joins a nine-strong dealer panel under the arrangership of Nomura International.

Sol Melia Europe has issued its first trade of the year: a five-year euro340 million ($332.48 million) note that pays a final coupon of 6.25%. The trade was issued at a price of 99.52% and the bookrunner was Deutsche Bank. The note will be issued on February 9 2001, two months after its previous four-month euro206 million note that matures in March 2001.

The bidding war in the Spanish electricity market gained momentum this week when RWE and Energie Baden-Württemberg (EnBW) joined the contest for Hidroeléctricia del Cantabrico, the country's smallest power generator. Three rival bids have been launched for Hidroeléctricia del Cantabrico. The first is from Electricidade de Portugal, which offered Eu2.7bn and is backed by a loan arranged by Citibank/SSSB and Caja Madrid. The second is from Germany's RWE and offers Eu2.9bn for the company, and the third is from Ferroatlantica, backed by Energie Baden-Württemberg, which values the target at Eu25.8 per share.

* Abbey National plc Rating: aa3/A-

Two supranationals have shown an interest in Hong Kong dollar. Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) issued a five-year HK$130 million ($16.7 million) trade that pays a fixed coupon of 5.7%. And Council of Europe Development Bank made a HK$800 million trade that goes out to February 2004. It pays 5.75%. Samu Slotte, senior funding officer at Nordic Investment Bank, is keen to keep an eye on the Hong Kong dollar sector. He says: "We have a budget this year of about euro2.5 billion ($2.32 billion). Although it is hard to say how much of this will come in the form of Hong Kong dollar, we are constantly looking at the area as a good source of funds."

Frenetic business seen in the primary debt markets and the derivatives sector since the year began, calmed this week. Both dealers and customers seemed to be taking a breather after their exertions in the first weeks of 2001. By Thursday (yesterday), the five year dollar swap spread mid-market was about 83bp against the re-opened 5.75% November 2005 Treasury. The 10 year swap had pushed out to 94bp over the new 5% February 2011 Treasury, but this sudden widening of the swap spread is due to the 10bp roll between the old 10 year note and the WI. The actual swap yield at 10 years has remained largely unchanged over the last week -about 6%.