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It has been a week in which German banks have hogged much of the limelight. Deutsche has loaded its largest artillery pieces for a new summer offensive, and DrKW is reshuffling the pack and preparing to move up a gear or perhaps even two. But Commerzbank also doesn't want to be left off the front pages, and ever since Peter Muller became chairman, the bank gives the impression of having a totally new determination. No one is saying that Commerzbank is out of the woods, but don't you get the impression that there may be a small light at the end of the tunnel?

The exotic currency Eurobond sector notched up a new member this week when Deutsche Bank lead managed the first public international issue to offer Turkish lira currency risk since a short-lived spate of issuance in the spring of 1998. The EBRD issued $200m of three year zero coupon currency-linked notes under its MTN programme.

The mezzanine tranche that is part of the debt facility refinancing a $208.704m leveraged loan that backed the buy-out of LM Glasfiber by Doughty Hanson & Co in 2000 will be reduced as a result of the cancellation of the IPO for the company. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (bookrunner), Bank of Scotland and Nordea (facility agent) are arranging the refinancing of the original deal that was originally divided into a Eu180m senior portion and a Eu53m mezzanine tranche. The scrapping of the IPO means that the mezzanine tranche will not now be reduced and the senior debt will have to be increased. The original syndicate and a handful of new banks had been invited to join the facility. (See Equities section for more details.)

Deutsche Bank has set up a secured note programme under a new special purpose vehicle (SPV) called Earls Eight. The size of the facility is $10 billion. Deutsche Bank already has programmes signed under Earls, Earls Two, Earl Three, Earls Four, Earls Five and Earls Seven. Most issuance this year has been done off the Earls Four facility û $566.73 million from 40 trades. Earls Seven has closed 25 deals for $342.19 million while Earls has closed a ¥10 billion ($78.43 million) note. Deutsche Bank is the leading SPV issuer in the Euro-MTN market. Its closest rival is JPMorgan (see the financial repackaged league table on page 15).

Rating: Aa2/AA/AA+ Amount: Eu250m

Dollar swap spreads crunched lower this week, and the differential between five year and 10 year spreads all but evaporated. By yesterday afternoon (Thursday), the five year spread was 54bp and the 10 year 54.5bp. Two year spreads were around 41.5bp, while the 30 year was 52bp. These levels were not the lowest of the week; the five year had traded as low as 49.5bp and the 10 year had hit 52bp earlier on. Nonetheless, swap spreads have not been this narrow since the summer of 1998 before the Russian debt crisis and derailment of LTCM occurred. Thereafter, swap spreads blew up and were close to 100bp by October.

Rating: AA Amount: Sfr74.8m

Amount: Sfr250m (fungible with Sfr250m issue launched 20/03/01) Maturity: April 9, 2010

The $250m three year facility for National Bank of Egypt is due to be closed in the next two weeks. A healthy oversubscription of up to $320m is expected, but the borrower has yet to decide on an increase.

Guarantor: General Electric Capital Corp Rating: Aaa/AAA

LM Glasfiber, the Danish wind power company, pulled its Eu250m flotation yesterday (Thursday) afternoon as ECM bankers fumed over claims that investors were not yet ready to buy IPOs. Books for the offer of the manufacturer of wind turbine blades closed yesterday, but leads Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Nordea Securities cancelled the issue after it became clear that investors were unwilling to buy into what they believed was an unconvincing and risky business model.