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Chesapeake Corp, the specialty packaging company, took advantage of strong investor demand to increase its issue of senior subordinated notes from £90m to £115m this week. The borrower was also able to price its deal at the tight end of the range, moving from 11% to 10.5% during premarketing, before finally settling at 10.375%. Joint bookrunners and lead managers were Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs.

Colombia and Pemex this week sold $1.3bn of bonds and Uruguay will come to market today (Friday) with a $250m deal via Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch to take advantage of a wave of investor buying in the Latin bond market. Pemex sold $750m of 10 year bonds into the investment grade market on Wednesday via Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, and Colombia followed with a $500m 10 year benchmark offering underwritten by Credit Suisse First Boston and JP Morgan. Both deals traded strongly in the aftermarket.

Continental, the German auto-part supplier rated Baa2/BBB, will launch the debut public bond deal off its Eu1bn EMTN programme next week. The firm is roadshowing with lead managers Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Merrill Lynch in Germany until Tuesday, with launch expected soon after. Bankers suggest the Eu500m plus, seven year fixed rate issue should be priced at around 250bp over mid-swaps, with possibly the largest rating sensitive step-up seen in the market. The highest so far was 125bp, but should the rating agencies downgrade Continental to sub-investment grade, the step-up could be 150bp.

* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

DG Bank has changed the issuer name off its euro5 billion ($4.42 billion) multi-currency CP programme to DZ Bank.

Croatia The three year Eu50m deal for the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) has been closed oversubscribed by 50%.

Singapore * Singapore Telecommunications Ltd

AT&T finally priced its $10.09bn equivalent dollar and euro denominated offering yesterday (Thursday). The deal was increased from an originally planned $5bn. It comprised a $1.5bn five year line, a $2.75bn 10 year and a $2.75bn 30 year in the dollar market, and a Eu2bn five year straight and a Eu1.5bn three year floater in euros.

AT&T offered large new issue premiums to get a $10.09bn multi-currency global bond issue away yesterday (Thursday), the US telco's biggest ever deal and second only this year to WorldCom's $11.9bn offering in May. The transaction, led by Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs and Salomon Smith Barney, was split into three dollar and two euro tranches and increased from an original $5bn after attracting a book of $30bn, $25bn of which was for the dollar pieces.

Australia Arranger JP Morgan has launched into general syndication a A$156.9m debt facility to finance the purchase of Smorgon Steel Group's steel division, Bradken, by Champ (Castle Harlan Australia Mezzanine Partners). The arranger has underwritten Champ's debt requirements for the transaction.

Would you believe that ABN Amro in London has joined the glitterati jet set and that if you venture to 250 Bishopsgate you may have to fight your way through lines of paparazzi and a throng of nubile groupies waving autograph books? What has happened to change ABN Amro's image? Normally the most exciting event on ABN Amro's social calendar is a demonstration of clog dancing by selected employees from Amsterdam HQ, followed by a Bols gin and Red Bull drinking competition. Perhaps chairman Rijkman Groenink has hired Claudia Schiffer as head of sales? Has Prince William signed up for the graduate training programme in 2004? No, the popping cameras and crowds of autograph hunters are all the result of the sensational news that an ABN Amro employee, a Mr Tim Attias, is escorting the vivacious and still frisky Jerry Hall, who was once married to Mick Jagger and is considerably richer thanks to that association. This is the best publicity that ABN Amro has had for ages and we hope that chairman Groenink has given the orders to milk the story with all the resources the bank can muster. How about a photo shoot on the steps of 250 Bishopsgate? Could Ms Hall be persuaded to be seen instructing her broker to buy 10,000 shares of ABN Amro - heaven only knows the stock needs all the help it can get.