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Australia Co-ordinating arranger JP Morgan will launch the A$850m fundraising for APN News & Media early next week.

Zurich Financial Services launched a Sfr600m index-linked convertible bond this week, as it sought to send a bullish signal to shareholders about its growth prospects. The embattled Swiss company, which spun off its reinsurance arm in December and had to issue four profit warnings last year, launched a market index-linked security (Miles) via UBS Warburg, which originally devised the structure in December 2000 for German insurer Allianz.

We have received a flurry of telephone calls from Barclays, deep in the heart of the Dead Canary where the sun rarely shines and muggers lurk on every corner. We are pleased to report that during the whole of 2001 we never visited Canary Wharf once, and that the same resolution is high on our list of priorities for 2002. Our story about BarCap's CEO, Bob Diamond, and his £10m bonus, has certainly caught the eye of opportunistic ladies across the land. Many of our calls were from doe-eyed lovelies who wanted to become members of Mr Diamond's fan club, known as Bob's Babes. Calm down, girls. All you have to do is call Bob's charming assistant, Jane, and ask for an application form or how to access the fan club website. However, don't delay as membership might be restricted due to overwhelming demand.

Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau took the first step in its bid to position itself closer to US agencies this week, with the first of two $3bn deals the German agency has committed to launch this year as part of a more strategic approach to the dollar market. After the haphazard three year issuance of the first two weeks of the year, bankers applauded KfW's carefully marketed five year deal, which was led by Citigroup/SSB, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch.

The Kingdom of Belgium's new Eu5bn 10 year OLO, launched using a syndicate structure, attracted a book of Eu9.6bn this week, despite coming at a historically tight 25bp over the Bund and 1bp-1.5bp under the sovereign's interpolated curve. The transaction, which represents 20% of Belgium's funding for 2002, was led jointly by Deutsche, Fortis and JP Morgan.

BHW Holding, the German financial services group, looks likely to be the first company to launch a fully marketed transaction on the European equity capital markets this year when it undertakes a Eu1.5bn capital increase at the end of January. BHW and its major shareholder BTA Betriebs- und Anlagegesellschaft, the German civil servants union, are collectively selling a 32.5% stake in BHW, in what a banker close to the deal described as a quasi-IPO. The banker explained that due to tight holding of the stock, BHW had a freefloat of about 10%. The placing of such a large percentage of the company will transform the freefloat and liquidity of the stock.