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Two private corporate trades were enough to take a 24% share of the yen market by volume, second only to supranational issuers with a 38% share. Hitachi Asia and Sumitomo Chemical (UK) announced respective ¥1 billion ($7.81 million) 17-month and ¥3 billion six-month deals. European Credit (Luxembourg), the corporate finance borrower, did a ¥1 billion two-year trade. It was the issuer's first yen note of 2002. Power reverse dual currency deals did not sweep the board as they usually do. Landesbank Baden-Wurttemburg went for a callable step-up reverse floating rate note via HSBC. The ¥1 billion 10-year trade has a coupon of 1% for the first year and is then steps up by 62 basis points each year minus the 6m ¥Libor rate. And Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank announced a step-up note via Mizuho. The first two year's coupon is 1% and then it steps up by 35 basis points every two years. There are semi-annual coupons and the trade is callable at each coupon payment date. Kommunalbanken stuck to PRDCs however, with two notes for ¥950 million and ¥300 million. The first goes out to March 2022, and the second goes out to March 2027 and was led by Mizuho. Credit Agricole Indosuez did a ¥300 million 15-year note and a ¥200 million 30-year note.

The governments of what used to be the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have agreed terms with the IMF that should lead to the extension of an $800m three year loan, it was reported last night. The arrangement will strengthen the country's reform programme, through conditionality including full currency convertibility and fiscal consolidation, and should lead to debt relief from the Paris Club.

It was a busy start to the week in yen yesterday, with 46 deals raising almost $400 million-worth for the issuers involved. Financial borrowers were responsible for 36 of these, but other sectors did see some action. Government-backed Kommunalbanken announced two trades for ¥1.1 billion ($8.59 million) and ¥500 million. They have terms of 20 years and 30 years and were led by Kokusai and Mizuho. And Kommuninvest I Sverige, the only other public finance company, did a ¥300 million 25-year power reverse dual currency (PRDC) trade. After an initial coupon of 4% for the first year it is linked to the US dollar-yen exchange rate. It is callable after a year and annually thereafter, and Tsubasa was the bookrunner. MEC Finance USA did its 2002 debut with a ¥1 billion seven-month note that has a fixed coupon of 0.11%. It is the third real estate borrower to use the Euro-MTN market this year. But the highly rated financials were drawing most of the attention. KfW International Finance did a ¥1 billion 25-year deal via Commerzbank. The PRDC has an initial coupon of 4% and is then linked to the US dollar-yen exchange rate, and has annual call options. Nederlandse Waterschapsbank went for a ¥1 billion 30-year deal via Nomura. It is also a US dollar-yen PRDC, but has an initial fixed coupon of 3.6%. Pfandbriefstelle der Osterreichischen LandesHypothekenbanken announced a ¥1 billion 30-year PRDC via Nomura that is callable after a year-and-a-half. The initial coupon is 3.55%. Of the supranationals, European Investment Bank out-issued World Bank for once, doing seven trades that raised ¥14.3 billion. Salomon Smith Barney was dealer for at least four of these notes.

The State of Qatar this week launched a $450m five year refinancing facility. This is the first loan from a Middle Eastern sovereign to hit the market in 2002 and it is stirring considerable interest in the market. Joint arrangers are ABC, Sumitomo and Gulf International Bank. GIB is also the facility and documentation agent.

Nigeria Royal Dutch/Shell, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Eni and TotalFinaElf have announced plans to invest some $7.5bn over the next three years in the Nigerian energy sector. Key projects linked to the financing include the Bonny LNG plant which will be doubled in size, making it the biggest facility of its type in the world.

Asia Pacific * Eden Park Trust No 5

Transactions increased: * Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale

Brazil made a less than spectacular return to the euro market yesterday (Thursday) with a Eu500m seven year offering widely criticised for being too large, too long and too tightly priced. The deal, led by ABN Amro and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, was priced at 99.769 to yield 11.55% or 626.5bp over the January 2009 Bund. But even before it was launched it was being sold at 50-70 cents below its re-offer price in the grey market as traders roundly condemned the offering.

Bayer AG, one of Europe's largest chemicals and pharmaceuticals companies, will next week launch its long awaited debut benchmark issue, a possible Eu5bn multi-tranche offering via Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan. The company will finish today (Friday) an extensive European roadshow in Madrid, during which the management has been grilled on the company's future structure and business focus.

Bombardier, the Canadian aircraft and rail manufacturer, has signed a euro500 million ($442.89 million) Euro-CP programme. Citibank is the arranger and is joined on the dealer panel by ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale. Bartlomiej Muszynski, treasurer at Bombardier, explained the motivation behind the signing of the debt facility. He says: "The funding off the programme will mainly be used for the transportation side of our group in Europe. It will allow us to be much more liquid and flexible." Bombardier has already issued five trades off the programme, which have ranged between euro10 million and euro30 million in size. Muszynski says: "Our funding target this year depends on our liquidity, but we will not reach the euro500 million limit as we have no need for so much money." The issuer is rated A- by Standard & Poor's and A3 by Moody's. Bombardier recently announced full-year results for fiscal 2002 (year ended January 31). Net income fell to C$391 million ($247.63 million) from the previous year's level of C$975 million, reflecting special charges of about C$1.1 billion related to programme re-valuing in Bombardier's aerospace division, restructuring charges in its transportation programme and asset re-valuing at its finance subsidiary, Bombardier Capital.