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The $100m three year facility for United Bank of Kuwait (UBK) is being well received in the market and syndication is due to be closed early next week. Mandated arrangers HSBC and Commerzbank are waiting for commitments from a number of latecomers and then documentation will be sent out.

Rating: AAA (Fitch) Tranche 1: Eu500m (fungible with Eu500m issue launched 28/02/02) Landesschatzanweisung series 128

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA Amount: A$100m

Colombia The Colombian government will today wrap up an unusual exchange of short dated Yankee bonds and Eurobonds for longer dated peso-denominated debt. The deal is not extended to offshore bondholders and is targeted at local pension funds, which hold the majority of short dated Yankees and should be willing to swap them because of the low coupons Colombia achieved when it was investment grade.

The Eu40m one year bullet term loan for Parex Bank has been launched into syndication by mandated arrangers Standard Bank and ING. The deal is heading towards an oversubscription and is due to be closed by the end of this month.

Another round of industry job cuts may be looming as Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan launch investment banking lay-offs in Europe and Asia. Lehman Brothers has shed about 60 investment bankers in Europe, while JP Morgan is reported to be cutting about 100 jobs from its investment banking division in Asia. And the market is anxiously awaiting further lay-offs.

It has been a tough life for the MTNers recently. They have had to put up with anti-capitalist demonstrators cycling through cities (although CSFBÆs Simon Hill will at last be glad for an excuse to drive slowly enough for people to notice him in his Ferrari). The protesters did not get up to much mischief, but the perceptive ones will have seen a prime target in a flash car with the registration ** MTN ** û any guesses who it might be? And it is not Simon Hill... The recent volatile weather will have encouraged most people to put down their phones and decide on which exotic country to travel to for a break. CommerzbankÆs originator/trader Julia Abbott made her mind up long ago. She has decided itÆs all got to stop and is throwing in the towel to go and live in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates with her husband. But just in case there isnÆt enough heat out there for her she has planned holidays in Morocco and Indonesia too. Andrew Devenport from Goldman Sachs, who is reportedly fond of a sun tan as well, will be green with envy. Fiona Doddrell is moving from Commerzbank's CP desk to take JuliaÆs place alongside head trader Gayle Turner. Headhunters, one of whom recently called MTNWeek on the premise he was doing freelance research on the market, should keep their eyes open for a CP replacement.

EuroWeek understands that the commercial close of the London Underground Public-Private Partnership (PPP) should be reached next week. Once this hurdle is reached, the bankers' work will begin in earnest with syndication starting soon after. However, the lead banks have already been sounding out the market and have sub-underwriters more or less in place. The consortiums holding the concessions are Metronet and Tube Lines.

Syndication of the $1bn 364 day facility for Clearstream Banking is progressing well. The borrower refinances its $1bn revolver every year and is therefore well known to the market.

The $608m equivalent financing for Maxis Mobile, Maxis Holdings and Maxis Communications is under way. The financing is divided between a $435m offshore portion and a M$640m domestic tranche.

The £335m seven year acquisition financing for Mall Fund has been closed and oversubscribed by some 50%. HBOS will sign banks into the deal in early June.

Compiled by Holger Kron, Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt