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The European Investment Bank (EIB) shunned the attractions of the dollar market this week to launch its inaugural EARN issue of 2000, a Eu3bn transaction that takes its Eu2bn 4.875% April 2006 line up to Eu5bn. However, syndicate officials expect the supranational to launch a five year dollar global in the coming days. Pricing of around 3bp over the US agencies is anticipated.

German mobile operator E-Plus has reformed the arranger group from its last facility to raise a Eu2.5bn loan. Discussions are in the early stages and the group has not been officially mandated. Citibank/SSSB, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America and JP Morgan were arrangers on the company's loan last year, which was used to fund its German UMTS licence.

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

* Abbey National Treasury Services plc Guarantor: Abbey National plc

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. Two companies revealed on the same day this week that they would sell exchangeables with a combined worth of over $5bn into the two biggest mobile phone operators in Europe. The announcements of Hutchison Whampoa notes into Vodafone and France Télécom notes into Orange sparked a burst of activity in the exchangeable market, as Hutchison sold its deal immediately and other issuers sold theirs before Orange comes to market.

Two of the brightest stars in the gic galaxy have managed to move out along the maturity curve. Principal Financial issued a 13-year sterling trade and Jackson National Life went with a 20-year FRN. Since the beginning of 2000, only 6.4% of gic-backed issuance has fallen in the 12-year plus part of the curve, with Principal achieving the longest maturity at the beginning of this year with a 31-year dollar trade. Principal's trade, a £

The new year is customarily a time of enormous activity in the capital markets and, if anything, this week exceeded the usual busy levels. The markets were very volatile, while prodigious amounts of new debt were offered in dollars. Approximately $25bn was launched during the week and much more is in the pipeline. Much of the new supply was swapped, which exerted tremendous downside pressure on swap spreads. At the week's lows, five and 10 year dollar swap spreads were trading at 83.5bp over the comparable Treasuries. It is salutary to remember that in the first week of December, 10 year swap spreads were close to 120bp over the 5.75% August 2010 Treasury.

Hamburgische Landesbank issued a euro5 million ($4.79 million) subordinated FRN, the first euro trade from the issuer to be announced this year. The trade matures in 2030. Deutsche Bank was the bookrunner and the note pays a coupon of 3m euribor+36 on a quarterly basis. The issuer has already issued a Z300 million ($73.54 million) zero coupon and a 21-year ¥1.1 billion ($9.44 million) note. Brigitte Wuenniker, at Hamburgische Landesbank's Euro-MTN desk, says that there are no plans to issue any more debt in the coming week.

Helaba International Finance issued the first Australian dollar trade off its euro10 billion ($9.45 billion) debt issuance programme. The A$100 million ($56.4 million) note pays interest annually and has a final coupon of 5.5%. It matures in 2006.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) is to meet in Vienna next Wednesday, and analysts expect the cut in production set to be agreed at the meeting to offer oil companies a short term boost in credit quality. There has been recent speculation that Opec members have agreed to cut production by 1.5m-2m barrels a day. While this might not push oil prices back to the highs of 2000, analysts believe that oil prices might start climbing towards the Opec target of $25 per barrel.

Following his departure from Citibank, Avinder Bindra will be joining HSBC as head of syndicated finance for Asia Pacific on January 29. Bindra, one of the most respected figures in the Asian financial markets, announced his intentions to leave Citibank last August (EuroWeek 664), where he had headed up global loan products, Asia Pacific for the US bank, but was asked to stay on a number of months by the company. Bindra was replaced at Citibank by Mohsin Nathani, who recently joined from ABN Amro.