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In a surprise move to generate forex inflows, South Africa has tapped the market for $250m via Morgan Stanley. The tap of the 9.125% 2009 bond was a private placement to two institutional accounts, one US and one non-US. The South African finance ministry said that proceeds of the bond would be used to reduce the country's net open forex position (NOFP). The deal was certainly unnecessary from a funding perspective. South Africa had already overrun its $1bn issuance target for the financial year to March 2002 by $170m thanks to a ¥30bn private placement last autumn.

With the merger of the Spanish stock exchanges less than a month away from completion, speculation over the impact of the newly formed entity on the European stock exchange landscape has started in earnest. Some analysts have dismissed the new entity as merely a latecomer to the well established set-up, while others are not as keen to ignore an exchange which, according to a recent press release, has established itself as the fourth largest in Europe in terms of trading volumes.

* Allstate Life Funding LLC Rating: Aa2

* Bank of Scotland Treasury Services plc Guarantor: Bank of Scotland

Technip-Coflexip, the French oil and gas engineering company, took advantage of the seemingly bottomless pockets of equity-linked investors when it completed a Eu793.5m convertible issue this week. Issuers have been quick to take advantage of a market that saw such success in 2001, but according to Andrew Cooke, a managing director in charge of outright convertible funds at CBI-UBP International, the issues in the first month of 2002 have differed in one key respect. Cooke argues that issuers have woken up to the fact that they are able to protect their share price by pricing a deal with enough left on the table for outright investors.

JPMorgan's risk transformation group launched a group of financial repackaged programmes at the end of 2001 under the name of Corsair. Three facilities have already been confirmed. The Corsair brand of programmes are able to cover eight jurisdictions, and extra jurisdictions can be added in future. The bank expects between 100 and 200 deals to be issued off the group of facilities this year. Desiree Fixler is co-head of the risk transformation group's marketing effort and she says: "The Corsair platform allows us to focus on high volume, flow transactions in addition to the highly structured transactions JPMorgan has executed historically." She adds: "Corsair will enable us to tap new investors by giving them access to the credit derivatives and alternative assets markets, in the funded format they require". The launch of Corsair is part of JPMorgan's focus on the financial repackaged business, following the hiring of Stephen Stonberg and several financial repackaged specialists from Deutsche Bank six months ago.

EuroWeek understands that music company EMI Group is on the verge of awarding a group of banks the mandate to arrange its debut syndicated credit facility. The arranging group is expected to comprise Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Citigroup/SSSB, JP Morgan and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Telecom Italia made a strong statement about its improving creditworthiness this week by raising Eu2.5bn split between five and 10 year maturities without credit protection language and without paying a new issue premium. The Italian telco borrowed Eu1.5bn over 3-1/2 years at the end of 2001, also without the benefit of coupon step-ups, setting a precedent for the new bonds. Its previous benchmark issues, launched in April 2001, contained provisions for a 25bp step-up in the case of a downgrade by either rating agency.

United Mexican States has raised the ceiling off its global MTN programme to $30 billion from $20 billion. The shelf was arranged by Salomon Smith Barney in 1993 and has $14.80 billion outstanding off 20 trades.

Globals * Fannie Mae

Over $229 million was raised in US dollar off 14 deals. Nordea Bank Sweden issued a $10 million two-year note via Morgan Stanley. The note pays a fixed interest rate. The issuer changed its name in December 2001 from Nordea Hypotek. Rabobank Nederland closed a $45 million seven-year trade that pays a quarterly coupon of 9%. Goldman Sachs is the manager. And Australian public finance company, Export Finance & Insurance Corp (EFIC), tapped the US dollar market for the first time this year with a $10 million five-year deal.