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Vivendi Universal this week exercised the extension clause and the greenshoe on its mandatory convertible to raise Eu1bn from what has turned out to be a highly controversial deal. Vivendi managed to raise the money to shore up its balance sheet and fund its planned bid for Cegetel, an impressive feat considering how close it came to bankruptcy just a few months ago.

Envestra and Insurance Australia Group (IAG) demonstrated how tough Australia's market conditions are becoming as they struggled to get new issues away this week. Envestra, an Australian power utility, managed to arrange an Excel wrapped A$175m seven year deal on Monday. IAG followed, after having widened the pricing of its A$300m 10 year non-call five subordinated issue. The bond is Australia's first such sub debt deal from an insurance company.

China Hainan Meilan Airport made a solid debut in Hong Kong this week, with its shares rising 4.5% on their first day of trading on Monday. The stock closed at HK$3.90 yesterday (Thursday), having reached HK$4.15 on Tuesday.

Rating: A3/A-/BBB+ Amount: $700m

ating: Aaa/AAA Amount: $3bn

Barclays Bank, HSBC, HVB Group, Nordea and Svenska Handelsbanken signed banks into the Eu850m five year deal for M-Real on Tuesday. The facility was launched for Eu600m, but was increased to Eu850m at signing. BNP Paribas, Citigroup/SSSB, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole Indosuez, Danske Bank, Sampo and RBS joined as arrangers for takes of Eu50 for a fee of 25bp. DnB Markets, LB Kiel and SEB Merchant Banking joined as co-arrangers for takes of Eu30m for 20bp. Senior lead managers BayernLB, CIC, Crédit Lyonnais, JP Morgan, NordLB, OKO Bank and SEK joined for Eu20m for 15bp.

Investor confidence in Ford Motor Credit's ability to find alternative sources of funds to the unsecured global bond markets was boosted this week when it sold $3bn of auto loans to Bear Stearns. The deal, the first of its kind, helped reassure investors that FMCC means what it says and that Ford will be able to raise the $22bn-$32bn of funding needs next year entirely outside of the unsecured debt markets if it has to.

Bank of America, Royal Bank of Scotland and SG have been mandated to arrange a Eu500m five year loan for Franco-Swiss recruitment company Adecco. Bankers that lead syndicated facilities for telecommunications company Alcatel are working on waiver requests to allow the borrower more financial flexibility.

Gazprom has launched a R5bn ($157m) bond with a 7.5% semi-annual coupon, the largest corporate transaction to be placed on the Russian domestic market. The offering, which matures in three years, has a 360 day put option and a yield to the first put option of 16.86%. The option allows investors to sell back the bonds at face value.

Rating: A2/BBB Amount: $1bn

EuroWeek hears that banks have put forward bids for the financing of a new company Aurelis. Deutsche Bahn is putting Eu2.5bn of its property up for resale through Aurelis and the borrower needs funds to buy the assets.

GUS, the retail and business services group, is planning to use its recently signed EuroMTN programme to refinance its acquisition of one of the UK's biggest DIY chains, Homebase. The purchase, as well as GUS's near term maturities, will be funded by a bank bridge facility, which is to be refinanced during 2003 by longer term debt. GUS signed its £2bn EuroMTN shelf last month via UBS Warburg. The borrower has yet to issue from the shelf, but is now planning its first trades following the £900m buy-out. "The acquisition will be funded on a long term basis throughout 2003 with a variety of bonds and I expect a significant element of this funding to be drawn from the MTN shelf," said Peter Blythe, GUS's finance director.