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The mandate to arrange the $15.3bn leveraged buy-out of Danish telecoms company TDC has been won by Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Royal Bank of Scotland. The LBO by Apax Partners, Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Permira and Providence Equity Partners — acting through Nordic Telephone Company, the bid vehicle — is the biggest since the 1989 acquisition of RJR Nabisco and sets a new record for the European market.

As the seconds counted down to Mizuho's karaoke evening yesterday (Thursday), some curmudgeonly bankers refused to enter into the spirit of the occasion. "It's almost as if the people on stage aren't singing for the audience, they're singing for themselves," said one.

The Chicago Board of Trade said on Monday that Refco LLC's clearing business had been transferred to Man Financial, a subsidiary of UK futures broker Man Group, while the markets were closed for the weekend. The sale of almost all Refco's US regulated commodity futures business was completed last Saturday (November 26) after Refco LLC filed a voluntary Chapter 7 petition with the bankruptcy court for the Southern District of New York. This enables a court to collect and liquidate a debtor's property to pay off creditors.

Rating: Ba2/BB- (Moody's/Fitch)

Markit launched a valuation service for inflation swaps this week. Twelve dealers are submitting prices to the service. It will provide verification of UK RPI (retail price index), US CPI (consumer price index), Euro HCPIx (harmonised consumer price inflation excluding tobacco) and the French CPIx (consumer price inflation excluding tobacco) zero coupon swaps.

Guarantor: Merck KGaA Darmstadt, Germany

With a strong chance of an interest rate rise next year, the Ministry of Finance is keen to ensure it has uninterrupted access to debt. That means reaching out to foreign and retail investors, and using its yield curve astutely to tap different pockets of demand. EuroWeek interviewed officials at six of the leading investment banks and securities firms for their views on the JGB market, as well as Japan's corporate and quasi-government bond sectors.

Rating: BBB+ (Fitch)

Rating: Aa1/AA

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

Agence France Trésor's 50 year OAT and the European Investment Bank's 30 year Earn have taken euro benchmarks into previously uncharted waters this year. And behind these flagships have come a flotilla of other issuers seeking to ride the wave of liability-driven investment.

Japanese domestic liquidity runs so high that many equity or equity-linked deals have not made it offshore. But the J-Reit market has outperformed and the rising tide of stock valuations as well as escalating M&A activity augur well for the Japanese equity market.