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AOL Time Warner (AOL) and AOL Time Warner Finance Ireland have put their names to a $2 billion Euro-CP programme. Lehman Brothers arranged the shelf. The programme has been assigned an A-2 rating by Standard & Poor's. The signing comes as AOL reports that its preliminary results for all of 2001 and for the fourth quarter of 2001 fall short of previously lowered targets. For the whole of 2001, AOL forecast revenue growth of about 5% to just over $38 billion. But earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for 2001 are expected to grow by 18% to just under $10 billion. AOL is the third issuer to join the Euro-CP market from the media sector since the start of 2001. RTL Group set up its euro1 billion ($891.54 million) facility in May 2001 and Walt Disney signed its $4.5 billion programme in December 2001. And, as both of these issuers also have Euro-MTN programmes, AOL may also venture into the Euro-MTN market. AOL's A-2 rating has been given a stable outlook by Standard & Poor's. The dealers are the arranger, Barclays Capital and JPMorgan.

The Republic of Austria this week built on its successful track record of syndicated government bond issues by launching its largest to date, a Eu5bn transaction, which attracted oversubscription of over Eu11bn despite being priced through the sovereign's outstanding debt. The overwhelming response to the issue, led by Citigroup/SSSB, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, necessitated an early closure of the book and an acceleration in pricing. "By close of business on Monday, we had an order book of Eu5bn," said Giles Hutson, syndicate manager at Morgan Stanley. "As a result we were able to execute the transaction on a relatively short time scale, closing the books on Tuesday lunchtime and pricing it on Wednesday morning, a day ahead of schedule."

* Rabo Australia Ltd Guarantor: Rabobank Nederland

What did the league table for the primary market tell us in 2001? Remember that this was a scorching year for debt, and anyone who suggests that the final positions don't really matter either has something to hide or needs to go and see their local psychiatrist at the earliest opportunity. It was always going to be Citigroup/Salomon Smith Barney's year and to be honest, they never looked like losing. One year ago, in EuroWeek's End of Year Review, we had made the bank clear favourite for the primary Gold Cup. It was a good bet: SSB was on a roll and this was a prize that it badly wanted to win. Merrill Lynch was considered to be the main opposition. We didn't agree. One year ago we said that Merrill's engine appeared to be stuttering and needed a change of oil. We thought that Deutsche Bank would give SSB the closest run for our money and that wasn't a bad call either.

The Railtrack Shareholders' Action Group (RSAG) is to take the government to court. In the latest stage of its battle for compensation over the Railtrack fiasco, RSAG has instructed its lawyers to serve the UK treasury solicitor with the necessary papers after the government failed to produce the documents relating to the decision by trade and industry secretary Stephen Byers to put Railtrack into administration. "We cannot put up with the Department of Transport, Local Government and Region's (DTLR) delaying tactics any longer," said Simon Haslam, chairman of RSAG, yesterday (Thursday). "All we have requested are the documents relating to the decision by Stephen Byers, to put Railtrack into administration. They have given us no option but to pursue the matter in the courts and this we will do."

The first big syndication of the new year was launched earlier this week, when France Télécom invited banks to join the senior selldown of its jumbo Eu15bn refinancing. Interest has been strong - not only because the borrower is one of the European loan market's biggest names but also because banks see this deal as the first real test of liquidity in 2002. With the final quarter of 2001 as difficult a period as many professionals could remember, lenders want to see a return to normality and to consistent dealflow.

BMW opened the corporate euro market for the year on Monday, with a Eu750m seven year deal that demonstrated the company's resilience to the troubles of the auto sector. Volkswagen (VW) will soon seek to follow its peer's success with what bankers expect to be its largest ever bond issue. Citigroup/SSSB, Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) won the mandate for the benchmark, which is set to be launched next week. Bankers expect a dual tranche bond offering, split into Eu1.25bn of three year paper and Eu750m in 10 years.

The first big syndication of the new year was launched earlier this week, when France Télécom invited banks to join the senior selldown of its jumbo Eu15bn refinancing. Interest has been strong - not only because the borrower is one of the European loan market's biggest names but also because banks see this deal as the first real test of liquidity in 2002. With the final quarter of 2001 as difficult a period as many professionals could remember, lenders want to see a return to normality and to consistent dealflow.