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Deutsche Bank woke up Europe’s dormant equity capital markets on Tuesday with an innovative $1.06bn exchangeable into e-commerce company USA Interactive, a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal.

Fears over war with Iraq and limited funding needs will result in little new corporate bond supply in the coming weeks. However, those still waiting to tap the market include EADS, Deutsche Telekom and Parmalat. Parmalat plans to issue a Eu500m 30 year bond with a seven year put at 375bp over mid-swaps. The issue would mark the first use of this structure in the European corporate market. Abaxbank, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and UBM have been associated with the deal, but no mandate has been officially announced.

Sovereign/supranational borrowers dominated the market this week as investors focused on safe haven product. Italy is reportedly keen to take advantage of investor enthusiasm for sovereign risk and is roadshowing in the US via Merrill Lynch. Bankers are expecting a new global bond for the republic which will have something out of the ordinary either in terms of maturity or structure.

Do we detect some jockeying for position at Barclays Bank, where chief executive, Matt Barrett, may be moving onwards and upwards? The genial Irishman - he has binned his Canadian roots - has had a good run and now has his eye on the office of chairman, Sir Peter Middleton who, at the age of 69, is due to hang up his all-night dancing shoes.

Rating: Aaa/AAA Amount: Huf5bn (fungible with Huf10bn issue launched 09/01/03)

Rating: A2/BBB+ Amount: Skr400m

Guarantor: Yorkshire Water Services Ltd Rating: A2/A/A+

Class A notes: £550m Rating: Aa3

Arrangers ABN Amro, ANZ Investment Bank, JP Morgan and WestLB are waiting on a handful of stragglers to join the A$932m project financing for Australia Magnesium Corp. Around seven or eight banks have joined and a couple have already been formally signed up, with the remainder still being processed.

EuroWeek hears that the £2bn facility for BAe Systems will be launched once the company has released its preliminary 2002 results on February 20. BAe has not yet formalised which banks will be lead arrangers, but likely contenders are BNP Paribas, Citigroup/SSSB, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, HSBC and Lloyds.

Syndication of the $500m 10 year facility for Alba is going well and the deal is already oversubscribed. So far 12 banks have committed. The group is comprised of mainly regional banks, but also some international banks. Banks will be signed in at the end of February or the first week of March.