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Argentina exceeded all expectations yesterday (Thursday) with its blowout $4.2bn exchange swap, the success of which has opened the way for the sovereign to issue a plain vanilla global bond before the end of this quarter.

* Bank of Ireland Rating: Aa3/A+/AA-

The co-arranging and sub-underwriting phase of the syndication of the $1.8bn/£235m credit facility for International Power plc has been wrapped up. Mandated arrangers ABN Amro (joint bookrunner), Citibank/ SSSB (joint bookrunner), Deutsche Bank (agent bank), ING Barings and SG are discussing whether to launch a general syndication.

The scarcity factor helped Venezuela launch a successful Eu300m seven year deal this week which attracted an unexpectedly strong following from European institutional accounts. The deal, led by Credit Suisse First Boston and JP Morgan, was priced to yield 11.05% or 640bp over Bunds.

Westpac Banking Corp (Westpac) has completed its fifth Hong Kong dollar trade of the year, a HK$200 million ($25.64 million) floating rate note lead-managed by Royal Bank of Scotland. It pays a final coupon of 5.7%. The issuer used Hong Kong dollar in 15 trades last year, raising over $350 million. Chris Bannister, senior manager, funding and liquidity at Westpac, says: "Our issuance in the currency this year really depends on the markets. Most of it comes through reverse enquiry so it's difficult for us to judge how busy it will be."

Cyprus Bayerische Landesbank (facility agent), DePfa Investment Bank and NBG International Limited have closed the Eu50m five year amortising term loan for Cyprus Development Bank (CDB).

Are there black flags flying high over No 6, Broadgate, the beleaguered home from home of Tokyo-Mitsubishi International which once promised to light a monster rocket under the Euromarkets? Unfortunately, someone in Tokyo forgot to bring the Zippo lighter and TMI turned out to be more of a damp squib than Guy Fawkes' gunpowder plot. Last week we wrote that the inestimable Philip Porter, whom we have not been able to contact anywhere in the world, had fallen off his perch at TMI. Perhaps Philip is playing a hand or two of gin rummy with Lord Lucan and Jimmy Hoffa, because no one has ever doubted that Philip has friends in high places. Porter always added that touch of class to Tokyo-Mitsubishi International which seemed to be so elusive to the Japanese.

Lehman Brothers has been added as a dealer off Banco Comercial Portugues' euro3 billion ($2.79 billion) global CP programme. The programme was set up in 1999 and Goldman Sachs was the arranger.

Bear Stearns has bookrun its first public trade for Jackson National Life. The gic issuer, which has particularly active since the start of the year, often uses dealers outside of its seven-strong dealer group. And, according to MTNWare, Jackson has now used 15 dealers to sell its trades. Faye Mythen, who runs the MTN trading at Bear Stearns, says that the house did some private trades for Jackson National last year. The Bear Steans deal was a $100 million seven-year FRN. The trade pays 3m Libor + 37 bps on a quarterly basis, paying out on the 12th of February, May, August and November every year. It matures on February 12 2008. This is the issuer's tenth trade of the year.

Bertelsmann, the German family owned media group, has opened the door to a listing by swapping 25% of its share capital, worth Eu4.2bn, for a 30% stake in RTL Group, Europe's biggest radio and TV company. Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL), a Belgian-Canadian holding company, will swap its shareholding in RTL Group for a 25% stake in Bertelsmann.