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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.