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* Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

German corporates wasted no time this week in lining up loan facilities after the new year break, with three big deals that are set to test the market. The first deal to launch is an extremely tightly priced debut facility for Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.

* European Bank for Reconstruction & Development Rating: Aaa/AAA

The Czech government has cancelled its plans to issue a Eurobond this year, disappointing bankers keen to see a sovereign issue from the country in the international market. Another first wave EU accession candidate, Estonia, looks increasingly unlikely to go ahead with its debut issue. "There will not be an issue this year because of problems with the appreciation of the Czech koruna," deputy finance minister Eduard Janota told EuroWeek. "The premier, the central bank governor and minister Rusnok discussed and agreed this on Tuesday."

DaimlerChrysler this week launched the first dual currency jumbo bond of the year within the auto sector, selling Eu1.5bn of five year and $1.5bn of 10 year paper and enjoying strong oversubscription by an investor base eager for corporate debt. Intense demand allowed both deals to be executed within 24 hours, priced well inside guidance, and increased from the originally planned Eu1bn and $1bn sizes. Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs led the issue.

The dollar market struggled to digest heavy supply this week as deals for the European Investment Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank sought to emerge from the shadow cast over the three year sector by the $3bn World Bank issue of last week. The World Bank's January 2005 global bond continued to struggle this week. It was launched at around 29bp through Libor and 12bp tighter against its Treasury benchmark than a $3bn three year Federal Home Loan Banks issue launched shortly afterwards. By Monday, it had widened from 93bp to 96bp over Treasuries, and bankers could find few investors in Asia or Europe that were interested in the paper.

The tumble in dollar swap spreads was arrested by the middle of this week as there was some abatement in the furious supply of swap-driven new issues. Nonetheless, 10 year swap spreads have come in almost 10bp since the end of 2001 to a mid-market of 70bp yesterday (Thursday). The five year mid-market is around 69bp and the two year 41bp. The intra-day lows of the week were reached on Tuesday, when both five and 10 year spreads were said to have dealt at 66.5bp. But thereafter the swaps market was given time to digest the wave of swapped deals as the pace of new issuance slackened.

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.