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* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

Hysan Development launched its $200m 10 year Eurodollar bond issue to a rousing reception last Friday, but had to pay up for the privilege. With price guidance of 185bp over US Treasuries, the transaction eventually came out at 200bp - a price that joint lead managers Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley attributed to the property rental corporate's ambition to appeal to a broad investment base.

ING Bank has been added as a dealer to TNT Post Group's euro500 million ($430.87 million) Euro-CP programme.

ICI, one of the world's largest speciality chemicals manufacturers, was forced yesterday (Thursday) to reveal plans for an £800m rights issue, after rumours about the impending deal circulated in the market. ICI's share price fell 3.7% on Tuesday and a further 4.4% on Wednesday, leading ICI to confirm the existence of the refinancing plans.

New Flag Asset Management, the specialist high yield fund manager, has continued to build out its senior staff with the appointment of two marketing directors, Leendert Meijaard and Andrew Holmes. The moves follow the recent announcement that Robin Monro-Davis, CEO of Fitch ratings agency until retiring at the end of last year, is to increase his involvement at New Flag by becoming executive chairman. Meijaard joins from Fidelity, where he was director of institutional marketing, while Holmes comes over from CSFB where he was director of acquisition and leveraged finance origination. He was previously at JP Morgan for six years.

The Republic of Italy, the largest and most innovative European sovereign borrower, is to launch its first ever syndicated BTP and its first with a 15 year maturity. The deal will be launched in February by Citigroup/SSSB, ING Barings and UniCredit Banca Mobiliare. Maria Cannata, director general for public debt at the Italian treasury, told EuroWeek that the change in law on the fiscal treatment of BTPs for foreign investors, which became effective on January 1, 2002, has produced strong interest in Italian debt from accounts that were unwilling to participate before because of the difficulties of reclaiming withholding tax. "This increased interest makes us confident that a new maturity in the format of BTPs has a great chance of being a success," she said.

Investec PMG, the US investment banking arm of South Africa-based group Investec, has expanded in TMT and life sciences, two of its three focus areas. A team from UBS Warburg LLC is among those hired.

KBC Aim, the hedge fund manager, has launched a new convertibles arbitrage fund following the resounding success of its initial fund. KBC Aim's first Convertible Opportunities Fund was launched in July 2001, and by January it had returned 9.5% and increased in size from $50m to $500m. This compares with an average return of 14.5% for convertible arbitrage funds for the whole of 2001.

Brazil ABN Amro has been mandated to arrange and underwrite a $380m export credit facility for Compania Votorantim de Celulose e Papel. The three year loan is secured on the borrower's pulp and paper exports.

Marrionnaud Parfumeries, the French perfumes retailer, continued the run of French issuers in the European convertible bond market when it completed a Eu150m offering this week. French issuers have dominated a slow start to the year for the equity-linked market - of the five issues this year three have come from France. But the response from investors to Marrionnaud's issue was subdued.