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US banks Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley reported third quarter profits this week. Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers stepped forward on Tuesday and reported stronger results than their US rivals Bear Stearns and Morgan Stanley, which reported on Wednesday. Bear Stearns' net profits fell by about 20% to $283m in the three months to the end of August as a result of lower capital markets revenues compared with the second quarter of 2004.

Rating: Aa3/A+

Grupo Santander's bid for UK financial institution Abbey in July this year was testament to the Spanish group's aggressive policy in the financial markets, a policy Santander has taken in to the capital markets. Sebastian Boyd reports.

Few issuers could have made their debuts in the capital markets as spectacularly as the Hong Kong government did in July when it launched a groundbreaking HK$20bn five tranche global bond. Nick Parsons reports.

When the European Commission ruled in July 2001 that state support mechanisms gave Landesbanks an unfair funding advantage over their banking rivals and decided to phase the guarantees out, the Landesbanks were given four years to put their shops in order. Jonathan Sibun talks to HSH Nordbank to assess how the financial institution has prepared for the new commercial realities.

UK-Dutch steelmaker Corus celebrated reporting its first profits since its formation in October 1999 from the merger of British Steel and Koninklijke Hoogovens by issuing a Eu600m seven year non-call four offering yesterday (Thursday). Two other issues, from auto repair chain ATU and Illinois-based water supplier Culligan, have helped to ensure another active week for the European high yield market. Germany's Auto-Teile-Unger Investment (ATU) is set to price a Eu150m 10 year non-call one deal today (Friday) at 725bp over Libor, the tight end of the 725bp-750bp guidance range.

Dollar swap spreads dived to five month lows this week as 10 year Treasury yields slid below 4% for the first time since April. Continued sales of new debt, some of which has been swapped, the liquidation of spread longs and some mortgage portfolio hedging have exerted formidable pressure on dollar swap spreads.

Telecoms operator Tele2 has submitted an all-cash bid for Song Networks, the pan-Nordic broadband operator. The offer is for Dkr4.4bn (Eu591m). EuroWeek hears that Nordea is providing funding for Tele2, but ABN Amro, CIBC and Royal Bank of Scotland are institutions that are close to the company and there is speculation they would be included as well.

JP Morgan outperformed its rivals in EuroWeek's league tables this week, moving up to third in table one ahead of Morgan Stanley and first in the corporate table, above Citigroup. JP Morgan printed a range of products in the structured market, including CMS, currency and equity-linked deals. Those included a ¥1.3bn 10 year CMS-linked trade for Mitsui & Co, a $19.7m three year currency-linked deal for NIB Capital Bank and a $7.1m equity-linked issue for Dexia Banque Internationale à Luxembourg.

Amount: ¥35.1bn

Alexander Health Club has mandated Industrial Bank of Taiwan to lead a NT$800m four year multi-tranche credit.

The telecom sector led the spread tightening in European corporate bonds last year and remains firmly in favour with investors keen to put their cash to work in an improving sector.