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Yen is up to the level of trading that it was two months ago. The daily average for the last few days has been about 40 trades, though this is still concentrated in the high-grade credits, and sizes average around ¥1 billion ($8.22 million). A few new names were about yesterday too. Republic of Austria has come to the yen market for the fourth time in two weeks and fourth time this year, with a ¥1 billion 15-year note. And BAWAG, the only other Austrian issuer announcing a deal, came back to yen after a few trades in euro and US dollar. Its ¥500 million note goes out to November 2016 and pays a fixed coupon of 3%. Investor made its 2001 debut in yen with a ¥500 million four-year trade. It is the issuer's third note of the year, the other two being denominated in euro. And Islandsbanki-FBA announced its 21st deal of the year with a ¥500 million two-year trade. Its fixed coupon is 0.01%. Oresundsbro Konsortiet, the Swedish triple-A public corporate, did its first trade of 2001 yesterday too. It was a ¥1 billion 10-year deal.

Ten trades were closed in other currencies on Monday. European Investment Bank was responsible for the largest trade. It issued a Z200 million ($48.56 million) three-year note that was issued at a price of 99.875%. The note was led by Toronto-Dominion Bank and will be offered to the market on November 19 2001. Rabobank Nederland saw opportunities in South African rand and added R100 million ($10.68 million) to its existing R100 million ten-year bond that was issued in August. The note was joint-led by Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Rabobank. The trade is non-callable and pays a fixed coupon of 10%. An official at Rabobank says: "There was demand for that issue, primarily in Europe, with investors looking for high-yield." Bank of Scotland Treasury Services went out five years with its HK$80 million ($10.26 million) note. The trade pays interest monthly and will be issued on November 13 2001. NIB Capital Bank also went out five years with its Skr29 million ($2.75 million) issue. The note pays interest annually and will hit the market on November 7 2001. Reuters issued the day's only Swiss franc trade: a Sfr25 million ($15.34 million) two-year note that pays interest monthly. And BNP Paribas issued the day's only Singapore dollar trade: a £

Fifteen trades were closed in other currencies on Tuesday. And it was Singapore dollar and Hong Kong dollar that saw the most activity: five trades were closed in each of the currencies. Swedish krona appeared in two trades: Ford Credit Canada was responsible for both. The largest was a Skr700 million ($66.30 million) three-year trade that pays a final coupon of 5.9%. The other three-year trade was a Skr166 million FRN. Export Finance and Insurance Corp saw opportunities in Australian dollar and issued a A$70 million ($35.52 million) four-year note that was led by Salomon Smith Barney. The dealer also led a C$15 million two-year note off Salomon Smith Barney Holdings's $11.71 billion Euro-MTN programme. Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz issued the day's only Norwegian krone trade. It went out six years with its Nkr400 million ($45.33 million) note that was led Deutsche Bank. The note was issued at a price of 99.165% and pays a final coupon of 5.5%. The largest Hong Kong dollar trades came from Deutsche Apotheker-und Aerztebank and Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Deutsche Apotheker-und Aerztebank's HK$250 million ($32.05 million) three-year FRN will be issued on November 15 2001. Commonwealth Bank of Australia's HK$250 million four-year trade pays interest semi-annually and offers a final coupon of 3.98%. HSBC (Netherlands) was extremely active in Singapore dollar. It closed four of the day's five trades. All of the notes were valued at S$10 million ($5.48 million) and go out one-month.

Following one failed attempt to raise funds through an international public bond issue in the dollar market, Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW) subsidiary PCCW-HKT Telephone successfully returned to the market on Wednesday with an inaugural $750m 10 year bond issue. The 144a Reg S issue was rapidly launched without a fanfare by financial unit PCCW-HKT Capital and guaranteed by PCCW-HKT. The speed and interest in the issue is in stark contrast to the aborted attempt to launch the telecoms company's $2.5bn jumbo dollar issue in July.

The rally at the long end of the Treasury market and a deterioration in investors' opinion of Venezuela forced PDVSA, the country's oil company, to drop the 30 year tranche of a planned $800m global deal this week and price only a $500m 10 year offering of paper backed by oil receivables. The deal, led by Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs, was issued through the PDVSA Finance vehicle the oil concern set up some years ago to issue bonds with investment grade ratings achieved through support from dollar denominated oil receivables.

* HVB Real Estate Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

Rentokil Initial (Rentokil), the hygiene and pest control company, is set to sign a euro2.5 billion ($2.24 billion) Euro-MTN facility next week. HSBC has scooped the arrangership. Roger Payne, finance director at Rentokil, explains the reasons for setting up the programme. He says: "We signed the programme as we wished to rearrange our current financing facilities in a combination of the short, medium and long term. We have been looking at the capital markets for several years and we felt that now was a good opportunity to rearrange our finances. We only recently got our BBB+ long-term rating from Standard & Poor's. This is especially pleasing as it was assigned post-September 11 so has even greater weight." The first decision for Payne was to get together the programme's dealer panel. He says: "We chose the banks on our dealer panel partly on a beauty parade basis and partly due to our existing banking relationships with them. They all had to have competence in the MTN market but it is also part of the culture at Rentokil that we have a preference of doing business with existing suppliers." The programme has already been on a roadshow in the UK and the debut trade was a seven-year £

The round of rate cuts in the US, Europe and the UK this week provided markets with a much needed boost, sending government bonds in all three regions lower and encouraging issuers to revive borrowing plans to lock into the low rates available. The Eurodollar market was dominated by a $1bn five year inaugural dollar bond from CDC IXIS and the success of the issue is expected to prompt further highly rated issuance.

Rosy Blue NV, a privately owned diamond wholesale company in Belgium that is one of the biggest buyers of rough diamonds from DeBeers, this week launched its long awaited securitisation backed by its stock of diamonds. Lead managed by Nomura, pre-marketing started last July, but was hit by a number of delays.

With a new loan for Gazprom, a debt package for Golden Telecom and a pipeline stuffed with bonds, Russian corporates are taking the capital markets by storm. Four banks are close to winning the mandate for a $200m five year debt facility for Russian heavyweight Gazprom.

Finland Syndication of the Eu100m five year deal for KCI Konecranes has been closed. The five year multi-currency revolver pays a margin of 60bp over Euribor.