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* Bank Austria AG Guarantor: City of Vienna

Standard & Poor's (S&P) last Friday (November 2) upgraded Railtrack plc's corporate and senior unsecured ratings to BB+, a move that some observers considered a U-turn. The agency had lowered the ratings from A to CC and C, respectively, on October 9, two days after the UK government put Railtrack, which owns the national railway infrastructure, into administration.

Nasdaq, the major growth exchange in the US, announced yesterday evening (Thursday) that it wants an outright merger with one of the big European exchanges, in a move that could settle the battle for European exchange dominance. Nasdaq's move follows a turbulent time for the European exchanges. Last week saw the conclusion of the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (Liffe) sale, with Euronext emerging the winner. This has left the London Stock Exchange (LSE) out in the cold and looking for a new partner.

Nasdaq, the major growth exchange in the US, announced yesterday evening (Thursday) that it wants an outright merger with one of the big European exchanges, in a move that could settle the battle for European exchange dominance. Nasdaq's move follows a turbulent time for the European exchanges. Last week saw the conclusion of the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (Liffe) sale, with Euronext emerging the winner. This has left the London Stock Exchange (LSE) out in the cold and looking for a new partner.

* BAA plc Guarantors: Gatwick Airport Ltd, Heathrow Ltd, Stansted Airport Ltd

Stepstone, the Norwegian internet-based recruitment company, is planning to launch a Eu35m capital increase to strengthen its balance sheet and ensure its survival. The struggling company announced on Monday that it will hold a shareholders' meeting on November 20 to approve its plans to raise between Eu20m and Eu35m.

* Ford Motor Credit Company Rating: A2/BBB+/A+

UBS Warburg completed two secondary trades in the space of two days this week, when it sold stock in UK software company Marlborough Stirling and the mining group Anglo American. On Tuesday, the bank completed a £19.6m accelerated bookbuild for Marlborough Stirling, on behalf of private equity house Apax Partners. Marlborough was followed on Wednesday by a £87.2m risk-based trade in Anglo American.

Guatemala and Panama moved quickly to take advantage of a sudden rally in emerging market bond prices this week, ironically caused by Argentina's decision to force investors into a "voluntary" debt restructuring. On Monday, Guatemala priced a $325m 10 year bond via Morgan Stanley at 593bp over Treasuries. Panama, seeing the success of that transaction and a strong bid sparked by the prospect of a reweighting of Argentine assets in the EMBI Plus index, was persuaded by Morgan Stanley yesterday (Thursday) to re-open its old 2008 bond, first issued in 1998, for a further $250m.

Toyota Motor Credit Corp this week successfully completed its first benchmark euro deal targeted at European institutional investors, a Eu750m five year issue priced through the auto company's outstanding euro denominated bonds. "We have done retail issues in the past and will continue to do them if demand is there," said Jean Liao, TMCC's national treasury manager. "But there is a vast pool of institutional investors that we have not accessed before and we have wanted to put a benchmark transaction into the euro market for a long time."