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The yen market this year has yet to see many trades over ¥5 billion, but the triple-As are keeping volumes ticking over until the market finds top gear. CDC IXIS Capital Markets, KfW International Finance, Kommunalbanken, Lloyds TSB Bank and World Bank were all involved yesterday, announcing a variety of trades from ¥500 million to ¥5 billion. Salomon Smith Barney led a ¥5 billion 30-year deal for World Bank, which also did four other deals for ¥1 billion (10-year), ¥2.5 billion (20-year), ¥1 billion (30-year) and ¥3 billion (30-year), and Salomon also helped Lloyds TSB Bank place its ¥1 billion 15-year note. CDC IXIS Capital Markets did three ¥500 million trades, two with terms of 30 years and the other with a term of 10 years, and also did a ¥700 million 29-year-and-10-month trade. Cadbury Schweppes announced its first yen note of the year: a ¥1 billion three-year deal with a fixed coupon all the way to maturity of 0.35%. ING Barings/BBl was the bookrunner. Nikko Bank (Luxembourg) did the smallest note of the day: a ¥100 million three-month trade with Salomon as bookrunner. Salomon also led a ¥1 billion three-month deal for Sumitomo Chemical (UK), and Nippon Oil (USA), the only other private corporate in the market, announced a ¥1 billion six-month trade. Private corporate finance issuer Suntory Capital went for a ¥1.2 billion six-month note, also via Salomon. Svensk Exportkredit did a ¥300 million trade and a ¥250 million trade, both with terms of 30 years. Earls Seven announced a ¥1 billion two-year-and-one-month deal.

Power reverse dual currency (PRDC) trades and CMS-linked notes were back as favourites in the yen market yesterday, after a couple of weeks of inverse step-up floating rate notes. Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten announced a ¥1 billion ($7.53 million) 20-year PRDC trade with Nomura as bookrunner. It is immediately linked to the Australian dollar-yen exchange rate, with a coupon of 8% multiplied by a certain time period, divided by 67.8 and minus 5%. Kommuninvest I Sverige did a ¥300 million 25-year PRDC deal with Mizuho as dealer. It pays an initial fixed coupon of 4% for the first year. The issuer also did another ¥300 million 25-year trade. Vorarlberger Landes- und Hypothekenbank did two trades. One was a ¥500 million 25-year note that pays an initial coupon of 4%. It is then linked to the Australian dollar-yen exchange rate and is callable after a year, semi-annually thereafter. Its other deal was a ¥500 million 30-year trade with the same structure, except for an initial fixed coupon of 5%. Also issuing 30-year deals was Kommunalbanken with an ¥800 million note that goes out to February 2032. Kokusai was the bookrunner. Hypo-Alpe Adria Bank announced its second trade of 2002: a ¥500 million 20-year deal with Credit Lyonnais as bookrunner. The note is CMS-linked (20-year rate minus the 6m ¥Libor rate). Oberosterreichische Landesbank also went for a CMS trade. The ¥900 million deal was led by Mizuho and goes out to February 2017. The first year's coupon is fixed at 2.5%, and then it is linked to the 20-year rate minus the two-year rate, plus 55 basis points. It is callable after the first year and annually thereafter. Eksportfinans self-led a ¥1.1 billion 20-year note. And Svensk Exportkredit did the day's biggest yen deal: a ¥2.07 billion six-month trade.

South Africa Absa Bank is looking for a one year rollover of its March 2001 $360m 364 day loan. The borrower has approached banks in the existing syndicate to negotiate the one year extension.

Lehman Brothers has set up a $9.7 billion asset-backed CP facility backed by Abbey National's paper. James Peterson, at Lehman Brothers's short-term ABS origination department, says: "This is an extremely innovative conduit - it is the first totally synthetic conduit and is the first vehicle to take advantage of a variety of new technologies available to sponsors." He continues: "This conduit is unique for several reasons: first the credit exposures are all done via a credit default swap. Second ,because the proceeds from the issuance of commercial paper are held in cash instruments, there is no need for a liquidity facility. This makes the conduit sympathetic to the proposed changes to the Basle Accord. The third benefit is the funded credit enhancement in the form of rated notes that were sold to market." The paper was signed on January 18 and the dealers are Abbey National Treasury Services, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers (also the arranger).

ABN Amro has underlined its confidence in the Asian semiconductor industry with the appointment of Eric Wang to the new position of head of client coverage for technology semiconductor firms in the region. Wang had been working in Taipei as head of global semiconductor research for ABN Amro equities. He has already moved to Hong Kong to take up his new role, at the level of senior vice president. The firm has yet to replace Wang in Taipei.

Dublin-based Anglo Irish Banks launched a Eu64m equity placing on Wednesday to provide cash for future acquisitions. Davy Stockbrokers lead managed the deal, which comprised 15.25m shares sold at Eu4.25 each, a discount of 2.8% on the previous day's close. The deal was four times oversubscribed and the stock rose to Eu4.45 later in the day as investors showed their enthusiasm for the bank.

Hong Kong The HK$4.5bn five year facility for Kerry Properties has been completed.

Uridashi * European Bank for Reconstruction & Development

Australia Lead arrangers ANZ Investment Bank, JP Morgan, National Australia Bank and National Bank of New Zealand have launched the A$850m acquisition financing for APN News & Media through special purpose company Biffin Pty.

Asia Pacific * Oracle Epsilon Funding

Banco Comercial Portugues has upped the limit off its Euro note programme to $8 billion from $6 billion. The programme was signed in 1998 via UBS Warburg.

Robert Lambert has joined BNP Paribas as head of US high yield trading in New York, arriving from SG where he spent the last 18 months of a six year stint as head of European high yield trading. At the same time, John Ong has been promoted to global head of high yield origination and capital markets, based in London, having performed the same role within BNP Paribas at a European level. Both report to Kathryn Swintek, global head of BNP Paribas' high yield group, who said of Lambert's appointment: "The head of high yield trading is a key position which leverages off our investment in research and sales. In the secondary markets, our strategy is to build the investor base and client flow."