Search results for

Rating: Aaa/AAA Amount: A$210m

It hasn't been the happiest of times for Swiss banks over the past six months. Poor Credit Suisse is being hammered by the local Zurich press and chairman, Lukas Mühlemann, is hanging on by his fingertips. The chances of Credit Suisse First Boston staying independent is now, according to the bookmakers, 18 months at the outside. Profits at Vontobel and Julius Baer, have dropped off and Switzerland's wealthiest investor, Martin Ebner, has run into a brick wall in Scandinavia. Is UBS therefore the country's last great hope of maintaining some credibility in the global banking amphitheatre? We always thought that UBS was a rather underrated shop - the impression is that it genuinely wants to be a Bergdorf Goodman or Saks Fifth Avenue, but when you open the door, you find yourself in a local 7-Eleven.

A dismal showing by AT&T, which had to widen price talk by 25bp-30bp to execute a $3bn three tranche issue, sent spreads on telecoms issues some 15bp wider, making life difficult for Olivetti, which is expected to launch a Eu2bn issue today (Friday) via Barclays, Citigroup/SSSB, Lehman and UBM. The two tranche Olivetti deal has had to be repriced, with the five year portion upped from mid-swaps plus 135bp to 160bp and the 10 year element from plus 165bp to 190bp.

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA Amount: R150m

Sole arranger and sub-underwriter Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein has quietly approached a handful of banks to underwrite the £545m three year deal backing YTL's £1.24bn of acquisition of Wessex Water. EuroWeek understands that Dresdner has received numerous reverse enquiries about the acquisition facility that will go out to general syndication after April.

Rating: Aa2/AA/AA Amount: Eu1.25bn

Danske Bank has signed an impressive group of banks into the Eu150m 18 month facility for AEP Energy. Joining the deal as co-arrangers taking Eu20m for 17.5bp are BayernLB, Den norske Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland.

ABN Amro has hired Merrill Lynch's global head of EMTNs, Anthony Everill, to bring its MTN business up to speed. As head of the MTN group, Everill will be based in London and report to Niall Cameron, head of debt syndicate and investment trading.

Penauille Polyservices, the French airport services group, gave another warning of the temperamental state of the market. For the second time in two weeks, a French equity deal failed to attract sufficient investor interest. Penauille, which had initially planned to tap the market last September, launched its Eu160m secondary offering last week. But a banker close to the deal said the market moved against the company during the offering period, forcing Penauille to pull the deal. The deal was scheduled to close yesterday (Thursday) but a fall of 1.8% by the CAC 40 on the day finally killed off the offering.

Guarantor: Argenta Banque d'Epargne, Argenta Societe d'Investissement, Argenta Bank en Verzekeringsgroep Amount: Eu50m

Alfa Laval, the Swedish specialist engineering firm, kicked off premarketing for its Skr9bn (Eu990m) IPO this week. Alfa Laval has appointed Credit Suisse First Boston and Enskilda Securities to lead one of a slew of IPOs that are scheduled for the second quarter in Europe as issuers and investors alike seek to take advantage of improved macro-economic conditions.

Ark Therapeutics, the UK biotechnology group, has announced its intention to list on the London Stock Exchange in an IPO that could be worth as much as £40m. This will be the first listing of a biotech company on the London exchange since 2000 and it is a deal that is sure to test investors' appetite for risk. In 2001 investors made it clear that the growth stock IPOs that had seen so much success in 1999 and early 2000 were no longer part of their strategy.