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It is rumoured that Lettuce Asset Finance has signed a ¥30 billion ($257.87 million) limited recourse secured Euro-MTN programme. Notes off the programme, according to Moody's, are ultimately backed by unsecured consumer loans originated by the KK Lettuce Card. Moody's rates the notes Aa2.

Bahrain The Bahraini authorities are looking to raise up to $350m to finance an expansion at the Al Hidd power complex. A non-recourse loan facility is a likely source of financing, although one market observer said a bond financing was possible.

Monumental Global Funding has increased the ceiling off its $2.5 billion note issuance programme to $5 billion. The programme, rated AAA by S&P, has $2.54 billion outstanding off 29 issues.

France The book for the Eu2.2bn engineering group Alstom secondary issue is already over 75% covered, with a whole week of bookbuilding to come. The achievement is impressive, as secondary offerings usually only attract investors into the book in the last couple of days. "The management is doing a great job on the roadshow," said a banker close to the deal. The roadshow will move from Europe to the US next week.

Following the successful recruitment of Andy Clapham before Christmas, Bear Stearns has further bolstered its securitisation unit by recruiting Nitin Bhandari, a former colleague of Clapham from Nikko Principal Investments. Bhandari, who joins as managing director, will report to Clapham who now heads the asset backed finance group at Bear Stearns. He will focus on principal finance. At Nikko, Bhandari was responsible for originating and executing principal finance and private equity transactions. Bhandari is the fourth person to leave Nikko for Bear Stearns, following Scott Dickens and Adam Wilton as well as Clapham. Bear Stearns now has a securitisation team of eight, but intends to increase this to around 15 by the year end.

Egypt There has been no word from the Arab Republic of Egypt about the mandate for its $500m-$1bn bond, despite repeated promises. One banker on the shortlist said bidders were at their wits' end.

NIB Capital Bank has issued its first euro-denominated trade for almost a year. Deutsche Bank managed the euro5 million ($4.89 million) credit-linked note that pays a coupon of 3m Euribor flat. If Scala SA defaults then the note will be redeemed. NIB Capital Bank focuses on the yen market. Of the 136 trades it has done since the beginning of 2000 125 have been in yen. Niek Allon, treasury assistant at the issuer, says: "The yen market offers good funding levels. We do access other currencies, but it then depends on the swap-rate."

Nordic Investment Bank has done its second 26-year yen trade of the year: a ¥3 billion (27.04 million) note that will be issued on February 15 2001. The latest note marks the bank's fourth yen trade of the year. Samu Slotte, senior funding officer at triple-A Nordic Investment bank, explains why so many of their yen denominated trades are attached to the power reveres dual structure. He says: "We have seen a steady flow of these types of structure over the last two years because Japanese investors are looking for strong credit names to avoid credit risk on a already structured transaction."

Eksportfinans has returned to the Hong Kong dollar sector for the first time since October 2000. The HK$100 million ($12.85 million) five-year trade matures on February 8 2006 and pays an annual coupon of 6%. The Norwegian agency issued in the currency twice in 2000, both fixed rate notes via UBS Warburg.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Commerzbank are close to a mandate for Sasol, the South African oil and gas company, EuroWeek hears. The structured non-recourse acquisition loan will finance the company's Eu1.3bn acquisition for Condea, the chemical arm of German energy company RWE. Sasol Financing tested the water last year with a $400m five year revolver, guaranteed by Sasol Limited. The facility proved popular in syndication, closing oversubscribed and increased from $150m. That deal established a five year benchmark for South African borrowers.

Caja de Madrid has been mandated by Banco Latinamericano de Exportaciones SA (Bladex) to arrange a $50m three year term loan. The initial margin is 50bp over Libor moving up to 55bp in year two and 60bp in year three. Fees are 35bp for $10m, 30bp for $5m and 25bp for $2.5m

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