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CDC IXIS Capital Markets North America has lured a 31-staffer strong securitization team from CIBC World Markets as part of its push into the U.S. securitization market. Ken Wormser, managing director and head of the asset securitization group at CIBC, is leading the charge, and will report to Ramine Rouhani, head of the capital markets group at CDC, in New York, according to an official familiar with the situation. Neither Wormser nor Rouhani returned calls.

The asset backed Euro commercial paper (ABCP) market looks set to continue its phenomenal growth this year. Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba) is planning a synthetic programme in the next few months, a new Brazil-linked programme has been launched and a host of other issuers have facilities in the pipeline. Rheinhard Redeker, part of the treasury team at Helaba, confirmed that the bank is in talks with various dealers about launching an ABCP conduit, Optus Alpha. The issuer has been working on the programme for the last six months and is expected to produce a rare synthetic structured facility, using the default swap market to take on credit risk.

ABN Amro has strengthened its financial institutions and public sector (FIPS) team for Asia Pacific in a bold effort to steal more market share. Mark Stadler was appointed in September to head ABN's FIPS business in Asia Pacific, central and eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Since then he has worked to improve Asia Pacific coverage, which accounts for about 35% of total revenues of his group.

Amount: Eu50m Maturity: April 4, 2008

Guarantor: Anglo Irish Bank Corp plc Rating: Baa2/BBB+ (Moody's/Fitch)

Shares in French engineering group Alstom crashed 60% this week after the company said it was selling two of its most valuable businesses and raising Eu600m in new equity. The company raised Eu636m last year through a rights issue led by BNP Paribas and JP Morgan, under its Restore Value plan. The capital increase, however, was not enough to help turn the company around and Alstom's share price has continued to fall.

Rating: Aaa/AAA Amount: A$220m

Spreads in the Asian bond markets ballooned this week following news of an accounting scandal at Korean conglomerate SK Group, raising concerns that the pipeline of Asian deals could close for weeks to come. On Tuesday, 10 executives of SK Group were indicted for fraud over allegations that SK Global, the chaebol's trading subsidiary, overstated its profits by $1.2bn.

Gas distribution company Gas Natural this week made an unexpected and audacious Eu15.3bn share and cash bid for Spain's second largest electricity utility, Iberdrola. Although the bid is mostly a share offer, the cash portion is funded by a Eu6.3bn acquisition loan. SG, Goldman Sachs and La Caixa have clinched the mandate to underwrite the jumbo facility.

Launch of the A$225m fundraising for Linfox has been delayed as banks have asked arrangers ABN Amro Bank Australia and ANZ Investment Bank for further information about the borrower. Proceeds will finance the acquisition of Mayne Logistics and Armaguard businesses from Mayne Group. The cost of the deal is A$250m. The purchase will add over A$500m to the borrower's annual turnover, pushing it to A$1.2bn.

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA Amount: Eu3.8bn cédulas hipotecarias

Mandated arrangers Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Gulf International Bank (bookrunner), HSBC (bookrunner), Mizuho (bookrunner), National Bank of Abu Dhabi, National Bank of Bahrain (bookrunner), Qatar National Bank and Sumitomo will sign banks into the $500m 10 year facility for Alba next week. The deal has been oversubscribed, but will not be increased. The bank list comprises 20 banks, primarily regional banks but also some international lenders.