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Cupid has been busy on HSBC's MTN desk. It was red roses all round for Annemarie Ganatra, Evie Christodoulidou and Fergus Kiely on Valentine's Day two weeks ago. Although Leak suspects that Fergus sent a bunch to himself, it seems that Annemarie has got followers in high places - her bunch was from the local dry cleaner. Leak wishes the cheeky chappie the best of luck - at least he'll be nice and clean on the first date. Also washed out were the Royal Bank of Scotland boys at their annual Scottish Bankers' Burns Night Supper at London's Grosvenor House Hotel. After a melee of haggis, whisky and wine the evening moved on to the Dorchester Club where the boys were having the time of their lives grooving to the sounds of Abba and Kylie Minogue. They were spotted crawling home at 3.30am. But there is one man you wouldn't catch out that late. Salomon's Richard Proudlove has confessed to Leak that the streets are no longer safe for MTN dealers. Fearless on the trading floor, Richard says he has resorted to travelling by taxi in his South-London hometown. But after Richard's heavyweight drinking at the Islandsbanki party last week Leak is more concerned about the safety of any potential mugger.

Bahrain The $300m financing for the second phase of the Al Hidd power and water desalination expansion project is unlikely to be syndicated. The debt for the project, which is split between a $200m export credit agency tranche and a $100m commercial facility, will be held by the four arrangers on the deal - Bank of Bahrain & Kuwait, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, BNP Paribas and HSBC Investment Bank. A further bank may be brought in at a later stage.

After the disappointing levels of M&A in 2001 loan houses in Europe are anxious to recover lost business. Liberalisation of the European water, gas and electricity markets will affect the buying and selling of utility assets and bankers are hopeful that M&A in the European utilities will create much needed business.

Morgan Stanley this week offered investors their first chance to gain exposure to the euro credit market through a single security, with the launch of a Eu510m seven year "Euro Tracers" issue secured on a portfolio of 30 Eu1bn-plus investment grade bonds in four to seven year maturities. The simplicity of the unleveraged structure - the underlying securities are in a Jersey-based SPV that issues the bonds - mirrors that used by the bank in the US, where its inaugural $700m 10 year Tracers deal launched last October has been increased to $3bn and grabbed over $10bn of trading, according to Morgan Stanley.

The Republic of Finland this week made a triumphant return to the dollar market after an absence of six years with a blowout $1.5bn five year transaction, capitalising on the rarity of the country’s paper in dollars and the scarcity of pure sovereign debt in the global dollar market.

France Standard & Poor's has assigned an AA- rating to Autoroutes du Sud (ASF), the French toll road operator, ahead of its privatisation flotation within the next few months. HSBC is sole bookrunner for the issue, while HSBC and Crédit Lyonnais are global co-ordinators.

Estonia The Eu100m five year debut Eurobond for the Republic of Estonia is back on track. A necessary constitutional amendment has again been passed by parliament, although the president has yet to sign it. The president has previously vetoed such legislation.

The Republic of Finland this week made a triumphant return to the dollar market after an absence of six years with a blowout $1.5bn five year transaction, capitalising on the rarity of the country’s paper in dollars and the scarcity of pure sovereign debt in the global dollar market.

Citibank and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein have been added as dealers to ABB Capital's $3 billion Euro-CP programme.

John Mullen has been appointed global head of asset securitisation at ABN Amro in London. He replaces Tariq Rafique, who resigned from the bank last summer and moved to Nomura. Huibert Boumeester, global head of sub-investment grade origination, took overall control of securitisation until a replacement was found and began talking to Mullen in October.

South Africa The $100m three year loan for the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC) will be wrapped up early next week.

Allied Domecq, the UK drinks company, found little trouble in placing £152m of its stock on Wednesday as investors scrambled to show their support of Allied's recent purchases of Malibu, the coconut rum brand, and Mumm Cuvée Napa, the Californian sparkling champagne. The funds raised from the issue will partly pay for the £587.5m acquisition of the two assets that Allied bought from Diageo, the UK drinks company.