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Garanti Bankasi this week announced that it would be absorbing Osmanli Bankasi in an unexpected domestic merger on October 31. Garanti and Osmanli have kept their plans quiet and the announcement has surprised the international markets.

GMAC Commercial Mortgage Bank (Ireland) has been added as a new issuer to GMAC's euro7.5 billion ($6.76 billion) Euro-CP programme. GMAC can now also issue CDs off the facility.

Hansabank has added Nomura to the dealer panel off its $500 million debt issuance programme.

Heidelberger Zement has slashed four dealers off its euro3 billion ($2.71 billion) Euro-MTN programme. Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and UBS Warburg have been replaced on the dealer panel by Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, CDC IXIS, Bankgesellschaft Berlin, Schroder Salomon Smith Barney and SEB Merchant Banking. Christian Kammann, treasurer at Heidelberger Zement, says: "We put our programme together in 1996 and we have kept the same dealer panel throughout that time. But we were beginning to see that a fair amount of our deals were being done via reverse enquiry. So what we have done is to reward those dealers that have provided us with the big volumes." The issuer also upped its programme limit from euro2 billion to euro3 billion. Kammann says: "We began the programme with a euro1 billion benchmark and this ate into much of our limit. We set up the programme with the aim of being flexible and upping the limit allows us to do that."

Household International was rewarded for its strong performance during harder economic times this week when it launched a blowout $2bn 10 year global bond. The deal, led by Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Salomon Smith Barney, attracted more than $6bn of orders, enabling Household to increase the deal from $1.5bn and price at the tight end of its 180bp-185bp guidance.

The $685m loan for Imperial Chemical Industries plc (ICI) has been signed after a rough reception in the market for the famous Euromarketeer. The prevailing caution in the loan market since the attacks in the US on September 11, and the low ebb of the chemicals sector, dogged the deal through syndication.

Sri Lanka Banks have been signed into the $80m short term trade related facility for Bank of Ceylon. The deal was launched at $75m and because of strong market response, it was closed oversubscribed and increased to $80m.

ASML launched the first European convertible since the US terrorist attacks, but despite overwhelming investor demand the deal performed abysmally in the aftermarket. Morgan Stanley launched the deal on Wednesday for the Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer. The deal was 10 times oversubscribed, but suffered when the terms were revised and the size increased from $350m to $500m. The stock price fell by 11% on the day, effectively giving the bond a conversion premium of 40%.

Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and BNP Paribas offered some hope to the markets this week by showing that investors were prepared to take some risk in small capitalisation stocks. BNP Paribas completed a Eu20m accelerated bookbuild in Genesis Conferencing, the French teleconferencing company. The sale, representing 10% of Genesis's market capitalisation, was priced at Eu14.70 to offer a 7.3% discount to the last trade and a 12% discount to the previous day's close.

The Republic of Italy has this week taken steps to promote liquidity in its dollar global securities by setting up a dealer programme and inaugurating the programme with a $3bn five year global bond. The republic has appointed a core dealer group of 10 banks that are committed to trade Italy's global bonds from their agency trading desks and to use their best efforts to have the bonds eligible to trade on TradeWeb. In addition, bookrunners of specific deals have committed to trade the relevant bond on a maximum 1bp bid/offer spread on ticket sizes of up to $25m.

The Italian treasury this week mandated Banca IMI, Deutsche Bank, IntesaBci and Lehman Brothers to lead manage a Eu2bn-Eu3bn securitisation of residential property owned by Italian state entities, including INPS and INAIL. The transaction will be the first under a government programme to dispose of real estate with an estimated book value of between Eu15bn and Eu30bn.