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Investors looking for a safe bet will be drawn to Bouwfonds Nederlandse Gemeenten (Bouwfonds) which signed a euro5 billion ($5.16 billion) secured debt issuance programme on Wednesday. The security aspect is something which is also fairly unusual. Set up in 1946 and 90% owned by the municipalities in the Netherlands, Bouwfonds promotes home ownership, particularly with low income individuals. The security is provided through a Trust Agreement backed by mortgages. ABN Amro and BNG have both been mandated to arrange the programme while being joined in the dealer group by Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Haighton & Ruth, ING Barings/BBL, JP Morgan, Nomura, Rabobank, SG and Warburg Dillon Read. Notes issued off the programme will be Aa3-rated by Moody's and will be listed in Luxembourg and Amsterdam.

Investors seeking good Scandinavian credit will welcome Norges StatsBaner's (NSB's) signing of a euro750 million ($800.47 million) Euro-MTN programme, this week. Warburg Dillon Read arranges the facility which is due to kick off with an issue in June 1999. The state-owned Norwegian railway operator, which runs all the country's railways, is the second Scandinavian issuer to come to market this year. It is rated double-A by Standard & Poor's and Aa2 by Moody's. Hans Draagen, finance director at NSB, says: "In theory all of our Nkr5billion ($643.37 million) funding needs over the next two to three years will be met by this programme. We will, however, always consider alternative funding sources to make sure we obtain the most cost efficient funding." NSB has managed to bring its programme to market ahead of Railtrack, the UK railway operator, which has had a facility in the pipeline for the last 20 months (See MTNWeek, issue 118). Railtrack is not due to sign until the end of May. Joining the arranger on the dealer panel are Handelsbanken Markets, Lehman Brothers, Paribas, SEB Capital Markets and Westdeutsche Landesbank.

Kommunalkredit Austria (OKK) is back in the euro sector. The issuer, which specialises in funding environmental projects and used to be known as Osterreichische Kommunalkredit has returned for the first time since its issuing spree in September. It issued a euro7 million ($6.1 million) trade - its smallest to date. It matures December 15 2005 and pays a final coupon of 4.2%. Martha Oberndorfer, head of the issuer's treasury, says that it is possible it may return to the market before the end of the year. "We have a number of trades in the pipeline. But we could wait to do them until next year; it depends on the market. But there seem to be quite a few institutional investors that have funds that they did not expect to have, and they do not want cash on their balance sheets at the end of the year. We may take advantage of this."

The one-year Swiss franc sector has attracted a handful of European banks, with most opting to issue trades that are not eligible for MTNWeek's league table, maturing one-day short of the full year. Commerzbank has sold its 17th Swiss franc deal of the year with a Sfr12 million ($7.3 million) note, which matures December 20 2001. The issue date is December 21 2000. It pays a single final coupon of 11.5%. Credit Lyonnais Finance (Guernsey) is issuing a Sfr10 million and a Sfr15 million trade December 28. Both mature December 27 2001. The Sfr10 million trade pays a single coupon of 9.35%; the Sfr15 million trade pays 11.25%. HypoVereinsbank has gone for a trade that has a full one-year tenor, issuing a Sfr10 million note, December 14, which matures Deceber 14 2001. It pays a 5.5% coupon. However redemption is either paid in cash or 14,457 shares of Civic Financial Services at a strike price of 691.7064.

Orix USA Corp will issue two ¥5 billion ($45.14 million) trades off its $3 billion Euro-MTN programme on December 21. Both are fixed rate and bring the number of trades issued by Orix USA to 14 this year, all in yen. One of the trades goes out to June 21 2000, the other matures a few weeks' later: July 18 2000. Liam Meehan, MTNs at Orix's Dublin office, explains that most of Orix's trades are dealt out of Tokyo and this explains why yen predominates. Meehan says: "We usually back out of currency transactions and swap into US dollar."

* Süddeutsche Bodencreditbank AG Amount: Eu100m Hypothekenpfandbrief series 308

* Volkswagen Financial Services NV Guarantor: Volkswagen Financial Services AG

Strong retail demand helped Portugal Telecom (PT) raise Eu2.2bn this week, despite a lack of interest from foreign investors, who continue to ignore the Portuguese market. The stock was priced at Eu9.4, in line with the closing price last Thursday. The shares rose above issue price on the first day of trading on Monday and stayed there, closing yesterday (Thursday) at Eu9.56. Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, BES Investimento and La Caixa led the deal.

Pinault Printemps Redoute (PPR) launched an Eu250m three year floating rate offering yesterday (Thursday) via lead managers HSBC CCF and Natexis Banques Populaires, which were awarded the mandate last Friday. Priced at par, the paper yielded 55bp over Euribor at the re-offer level, which is in line with earlier price talk. By the end of the first day, the lead managers reported healthy sales at between plus 55bp and 58bp, with some investors still awaiting authorisation for credit lines. Appetite was keen, as few investors hold much PPR paper, but there was concern over the timing of the offering so close to the year end.

Railtrack will set up a Euro-MTN programme after eyeing the product for nearly 18 months, as first reported in CPMonth issue 6. Railtrack owns almost all of Britain's railway infrastructure, including track, signalling, bridges, tunnels, stations and depots. This is despite experiencing some difficulty after the privatisation of Britain's railway network in the 1980s. Deutsche Bank has been awarded the arrangership for the Euro-MTN programme which is expected to be euro3 billion ($3.37 billion) in size. The facility is being set up in conjunction with a $750 million Euro-CP programme which was signed in December 1997 and which Deutsche Bank also arranges. Together the facilities will be used to finance a £

Portman Building society has made only its third appearance in the market this year. It plumped for its favourite style of trade: a medium-length sterling FRN. "We were looking for three-, four- or five-year funding," says Gil Rosen, treasurer of Portman. And it went for a £

Renault Credit International has increased the limit off its euro4 billion Euro-MTN programme to euro6 billion. The Merrill Lynch arranged facility was isgned in 1994 and has over $3.4 billion outstanding.