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Sole mandated arranger Barclays has closed oversubscribed the £122.5m loan for the HSBC Private Equity led buy-out of Caradon Plumbing Holdings. The success of the deal, which one or two banks initially questioned, is a sign of renewed investor confidence in the UK LBO market.

Globals

Rabobank Nederland was the only issuer to go out past five years. It closed a $15 million 10-year trade via Credit Suisse First Boston. The note pays a fixed coupon of 8.500%. It then becomes floating rate, paying a fixed rate of 11% (which will increase by 50bp every year) minus 12m $Libor flat. The trade is a non-call-one and callable yearly after the first call. Bawag (Bank fur Arbeit und Wirtschaft) closed a $20 million one-year note via Goldman Sachs. The note is a straight fixed rate trade that pays one coupon of 2.315% at maturity. It is the issuer's 38th note this year. IBJ Australia Bank was also at the short end with a $8.50 million two-week trade and Freddie Mac issued a $20 million two-year trade and a $10 million two-year trade. World Bank was in the mid term with a $11 million four-year note, while McDonald's Corp issued a $200 million five-year trade. The non-syndicated trade pays a final coupon of 4.240%.

The private bank sector dominated in the US dollar sector, but supranational World Bank and private corporate Volvo Treasury also closed trades. Volvo Treasury did a $20 million six-month note via BNP Paribas. The note is a straight 3m $Libor +18bp floating rate note. World Bank issued a $250 million four-year trade and Rabobank Nederland closed a $93.31 six-year deal via UBS Warburg. It pays a fixed rate of 5% annually. Dexia Credit Local de France closed a $100 million 10-year note that pays interest quarterly.

Twenty trades were done in US dollar and public financials were at the forefront off issuance. Swedish public issuer, Kommuninvest I Sverige, traded a $80 million five-year trade that pays a fixed coupon of 4.600%. Tsubasa Europe is the bookrunner. The trade is part of a three-note multi-currency tranche with the other tranches in Australian dollar and euro. The borrower also closed a $5 million four-year note that pays a coupon semi-annually. And Canadian public sector borrower, Export Development Corp, has done a $230 million note with Mizuho as bookrunner. It goes out four years and three months and pays a coupon of $4.25 million. The issue will be sold to Japanese retail investors. The other public borrower was Freddie Mac with a $20 million six-year note. Caisse Centrale du Credit Immobilier de France (3CIF) did a $10 million eight-year note via JPMorgan. The note pays a fixed yearly coupon and the coupon at redemption is linked to the performance of the Nikkei225. There are no calls and the note is not capital guaranteed.

* Unilever NV Guarantor: Unilever plc

Volkswagen has dropped two dealers and increased the limit off its euro10 billion ($8.89 billion) multi-currency CP programme. The new debt limit is euro12.5 billion and Commerzbank and HypoVereinsbank have been dropped as dealers. Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs, ING Barings, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley have been added as dealers.

Vivendi Universal, the French media group, used some clever tactics to sell off a Eu1.2bn block in its subsidiary Vivendi Environnement, the French water treatment group. Universal sold the 9.3% block, representing 32m shares, at a price of Eu37.9 per share in Environnement on Tuesday through SG and Deutsche Bank. The shares sold by Vivendi were those that underpinned Universal's Eu1.8bn exchangeable issue that it sold in February through the same two banks. The media group has in effect sold the same shares twice within a year. Universal was forced to sell the same 9.3% because its remaining 63% stake in Environment is locked up until 2003.

Walt Disney signed a $4.5 billion Euro-CP programme on Tuesday, December 4. Goldman Sachs is the arranger, signing its seventh Euro- or global CP arrangership of the year. The issuer is joining a turbulent sector. Standard & Poor's has given the new programme an A-2 rating and Moody's rates it P-2, along with its two US CP programmes that are rated A-2 and P-2. But the volatile nature of the A-2/P-2 sector has not kept others from signing. Eleven other A-2/P-2 issuers have joined the Euro-CP market this year, and all but two of those have paper outstanding. Walt Disney will be able to exploit its global name, however, and will already be known in the debt capital markets through its $3 billion Euro-MTN programme signed in May 1996. That facility has $2.1 billion outstanding off nine trades. The dealers off the Euro-CP programme are the arranger, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers.

Do we hear the sound of falling bodies on the pavement outside the offices of HSBC Investment Bank in the City? Ambulances with screaming sirens are racing to the scene. The telephone lines of Rent-a-Priest are jammed in the search for suitably ordained people to read the last rites. Sharp traders from Petticoat Lane Market are doing a roaring business in body bags. What's going on? Just as we were warming towards HSBC, we are told that technology and software investment banking groups were ambushed at dawn by the cut-throats from human resources and were massacred almost to the last man. The Red Cross medical teams say that 25 professionals bit the dust. The only survivors, Alastair Morton and Julian Gray, just saved their scalps by seeking refuge in the main UK M&A group.

Hopes that the recession in the US is coming to an early close were raised by the National Association of Purchasing Managers (NAPM) index released on Wednesday, which was much stronger than expected. US and euro-zone government bonds fell sharply, and credit and stock markets globally rallied on the news. While the spectre of Enron continues to haunt the markets, bankers report a positive reception to primary issues despite the surrounding volatility.

France Crédit Agricole Indosuez has signed the Eu450m 364 day credit for Groupe Charbonnages de France. The loan was oversubscribed and increased from Eu300m.