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Guarantor: Diamond Sakha-Russia ZAO - Alrosa Rating: B3/B

Rating: A2/A-/A Amount: $500m

A busy week for issuers from the CIS has seen diamond monopoly Alrosa price a debut $500m year offering, and Russia's MDM Bank and Kazakhstan's Kazkommertsbank tap existing deals. Having wrapped up a European roadshow in London on Monday, Alrosa wasted no time in taking advantage of strong market conditions to price its offering, increased from an initial $300m size, at the tightest end of the price talk yield range of 8.375%-8.625%.

Guarantor: Financial Security Assurance Amount: £14.799m

Guarantor: Financial Security Assurance Amount: £30m

Bankers registered optimism this week for the prospects of EuroMTN activity in spite of a drop in trading volumes. Factors such as the end of the war in Iraq, the beginning of the new fiscal year in Japan last month and an upturn in US consumer confidence are creating a positive tone in the market. More immeditately, Golden Week in Japan, May Day in Europe and the coming Bank Holiday in the UK have combined to limit EuroMTN issuance. One banker said he had printed less than half his normal number of trades over the last few days.

Morgan Stanley raised $75m for Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASM International on Monday through an overnight convertible. The bond will allow ASM International to repay short term debt and take advantage of an improvement in sentiment in the technology sector over the past few months to strengthen its balance sheet.

Do those increasing number of rich lists leave you intellectually poorer and just slightly frustrated? The headline, "Harry Potter is richer than the Queen", is eye-catching but is no more accurate than the classic in the Sun newspaper many years ago with an aggrieved member of the working class claiming "Freddie Starr ate my hamster". The present senior members of the Royal Family would, if they were a football team, be playing in the fourth division on their recent performance and in danger of relegation to the non-league Conference.

Rating: A3/BBB+/A- Amount: $500m subordinated debt

Banks are bidding for the arranging mandate for a new facility for Bank of Bahrain&Kuwait. The bank announced earlier this year that it will seek up to $200m in funding from the loans market this year. The borrower last tapped the market in September 2001 with a $100m three year loan paying 50bp.

Arrangers Bank of America (Australia), National Australia Bank, RBS Australia and WestLB (Sydney) have closed the A$1.25bn 15 year fundraising for Westlink Motorway Partnership. The deal was oversubscribed with a further nine banks committing to the facility. As a result, a general syndication is not needed.

Norwegian telecoms operator Telenor on Wednesday sold half of its 18% stake in Greek telco Cosmote Mobile Tele-communications through a Citigroup-led accelerated bookbuild. The Eu272m placing comprised 29.7m shares priced at Eu9.16 at a tight 1.7% discount to the previous close. Telenor retains a 9% stake which is locked up for the next six months.