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* Kommunalbanken AS Rating: Aaa/AAA

Pfandbrief Bank International has made its first trade of the year: a Sfr10 million ($6.08 million) three-year note that pays interest of Sfr Libor-flat quarterly. It is the Luxembourg-based bank's sixth trade off its euro7.5 billion ($7.11 billion) Euro-MTN programme, and takes its outstandings to $947.98 million. Eight other Swiss franc trades have been done this year, including a six-year Sfr1 billion trade from the Republic of Italy. Credit Lyonnais, Earls Four, Akademiska Hus, Bank Austria, Bayerische Landesbank and Vorarlberger Landes- und Hypothekenbank have all been involved in smaller Swiss franc trades ranging from one to 12 years in maturity. Martin Schulte, head of treasury at Pfandbrief Bank, says: "With structures going out of fashion last year it looked like the rapid growth of the MTN market was coming to an end. But we will establish our name with vanilla issuance first, and spreads are starting to tighten so this year should be quite interesting."

* Deutsche Genossenschafts Hypothekenbank AG Rating: AAA/AAA (S&P/Fitch)

* Commerzbank AG Rating: Aa3/AA-/A+

Commonwealth Bank of Australia has issued an A$18 million ($10.02 million) trade managing the deal itself. The note pays a coupon of 5.6% semi-annually and has no structure attached. The issuer has done two other deals this year, but this is the first to be announced publicly. Jacques Lumb, head of new issues at the bank, says: "The majority of our funds this year will come from the US and Japan, with a strong emphasis on the far east. We are quite keen on structures such as callables, bermudans and some types of FX trades too out of that market. We will also be doing one or two public trades this year."

Egypt Five bidding bank groups were obliged to send representatives to Cairo yesterday (Thursday) for the opening of the sealed envelopes containing their bids for fees and expenses on the Arab Republic of Egypt's debut $500m-$1bn five to 10 year bond issue.

DaimlerChrysler this week stole the limelight in the international corporate bond markets when it attracted over $25bn of orders for a $7.1bn multi-tranche issue in dollars, euro and sterling, but left market participants questioning the rationale behind the deal.

The Republic of Croatia is aiming to hit the bulk of its Eu1bn annual funding target by the end of February. It has mandated Daiwa SBCM for a ¥20bn five year Samurai to launch early next month and, on Tuesday, asked 10 banks to bid on a seven to 10 year euro denominated transaction by today (Friday). The ministry of finance will mandate the euro deal in a couple of weeks, but its immediate priority is the Samurai bond - its third such deal in just over a year and the third to be lead managed by Daiwa.

DaimlerChrysler this week stole the limelight in the international corporate bond markets when it attracted over $25bn of orders for a $7.1bn multi-tranche issue in dollars, euro and sterling, but left market participants questioning the rationale behind the deal.

NTT DoCoMo is today (Friday) due to embark on premarketing for its presaged effort to raise around ¥900bn, the equivalent of around $7.75bn. The company wants to sell 460,000 shares and, as reported in EuroWeek last week, has hired Goldman Sachs and Nikko Salomon Smith Barney to handle the deal. The issue will move to a roadshow and bookbuild between January 22 and February 2, with pricing around February 5 or 6, according to senior bankers. The premarketing begins in the US and Europe today (Friday) and in Tokyo on Monday.

Argentina * Province of Buenos Aires

Croatia Hrvatska Elektroprivedna (HEP) is taking bids on the mandate to refinance its DM160m three year facility that was signed in March 1998. That deal was arranged by BCI, BNP Paribas, Chase Manhattan, Dresdner and SG. The margin was 85bp over Libor and banks were offered a top ticket of 45bp for DM7.5m.