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Burns Philp, the multinational natural food ingredients company, is on course for its A$2.4bn acquisition of Goodman Fielder, Australia's largest food company, after the takeovers panel insisted on only minor changes in conditions attached to the offer. The changes enable Goodman Fielder shareholders to withdraw their acceptance of the offer until 10 days after Burns Philp publishes the final terms and conditions of its finance facilities. Additionally, Burns Philp agreed to withdraw its right to scrap the bid should some adverse change occur or if financial markets fall sharply.

The Republic of Austria this week added the 15 year maturity to its benchmark government bond curve with the launch of a Eu4bn January 2018 transaction via Citigroup/SSSB, Deutsche Bank and UBS Warburg. Price talk for Austria's transaction, which was officially launched on Wednesday, began at 9bp-12bp over the 2016 OAT. The wide range was designed to attract as many investors into the deal as possible. It then became clear that a single-digit spread over the OAT would be too aggressive but, at the same time, 12bp was quickly discarded and talk refined to 10bp-11bp over.

Rating: Aa2/AA- Amount: Eu3bn Cédulas Hipotecarias

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA Amount: £100m (fungible with £100m issue launched 15/08/02)

Rating: Aa2/A+ Amount: $1bn

Bank of Canada deputy governor Malcolm Knight is to become the first non-European general manager at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). He is to replace Andrew Crockett, who announced his departure in July. Crockett is a favourite to replace Andrew Davies as head of the UKs Financial Services Authority. Knight was selected by Nout Wellink, president of the BIS and chairman of its board of directors, helped by a committee that included senior representatives of the Federal Reserve and the central banks of Italy, France, Japan and Switzerland.

Amount: Sfr100m Maturity: February 24, 2011

Barclays Cairo has backed the $20m management buy-out of food business El Rashidi El Mizan by CDC Capital Partners - the first Egyptian MBO. The UK bank has provided $8m for the transaction, but the debt will not be syndicated. The transaction has no subordinated debt. Senior net debt to Ebitda is 50%. Unilever, the vendor, has opted to sell the company as it no longer fits with its growth strategy.

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA Amount: Eu100m (fungible with Eu300m issue launched 11/07/01)

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA Amount: Sfr500m

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA Amount: Eu500m Öffentlicher Pfandbrief series 6 (fungible with Eu1bn issue launched 21/11/02)

Royal Bank of Canada this week closed a £165m deal to refurbish and service government offices in London. The deal is the first of many bond issues to be launched under the UK government's PFI and PPP schemes this year, including the £1.2bn bond issue for London Underground consortium Metronet, expected in March via Barclays Capital, RBS Financial Markets and UBS Warburg.