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VNU, the Dutch marketing and media information group, is scheduled to sign a euro2 billion ($1.83 billion) Euro-MTN programme today, October 5. Merrill Lynch is the programme arranger and has also been mandated, along with Barclays Capital, to lead-manage the inaugural Eurobond off the programme. A treasury official at VNU says: "We haven't given out any other information about the Eurobonds yet, although they are bound to be in euro. At the moment we feel confident that opportunities are there, but we are waiting to see the response from the roadshow." VNU will go on a roadshow next week, starting in Amsterdam and then onto London, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan and some other cities too. The borrower will be meeting many investors on a one-to-one basis but will also have some group meetings. The treasury official says: "It is a chance to have the documentation in place for either public or private deals, if the opportunity is there. After the initial Eurobonds we will look for opportunities for private deals." He adds: "We appointed Merrill Lynch as arranger at the end of August, so it has been quite a quick process." VNU is rated BBB+ with a negative outlook by Standard & Poor's and Baa1 with a stable outlook by Moody's. It is the fourth Dutch corporate to sign a programme this year and will join several other Dutch corporate names in the triple-B sector. Others are Athlon Beheer Nederland, which signed this year, Koninklijke Ahold, which signed last year, and Koninklijke KPN, which came to the market in 1998. The dealer panel is ABN Amro, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Salomon Smith Barney and UBS Warburg.

UBS and Credit Suisse took control of regional airline Crossair this week as Swissair was forced to sell its 70% stake for Sfr258m. The two banks, which were brought in by Swissair over the weekend as the national airline used up lines of liquidity, will underwrite a Sfr350m capital increase for Crossair and extend credit lines to both airlines.

The number of global and Euro-CP programmes to have been signed in the market has reached 1,000. But only five programmes have signed since the end of July, and this year to date has seen just 33 signings. The average for the same period over the previous five years was 56. Barry Gartner, head of Euro-CP at Barclays Capital, is unperturbed however. He says: "At the start of the year you always wonder where the next 40 mandates are going to come from. But they do appear, it's just that some issuers take longer than others to make their minds up and finalize the documentation. Most banks will gain on average 20 or 30 mandates during the course of the year. There's plenty of business still out there." But comparing this year to previous years may not be the best way of appraising the market. Gartner explains: "There was a rush in 1999 because everyone wanted a programme in preparation for the arrival of the Euro, and German banks were suddenly allowed to use CP so they all signed shelves too. It meant that 2000 appeared comparatively slow, and this has followed on into this year." One sector in particular is being cited as a potential business-bringer. Gartner says: "Perhaps an urgency will come from the US market. They've all been very happy with their US facilities but, post September 11, some may be beginning to think that $20,000 for a Euro-CP programme is good value for the additional funding flexibility."

Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP , a Dutch pension fund that has part ownership of NIB Capital, yesterday (Thursday) launched a securitisation worth Eu2.2bn and backed by a pool of its residential mortgages, which will give potential issuers a clearer idea of the appetite for new deals.

Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP , a Dutch pension fund that has part ownership of NIB Capital, yesterday (Thursday) launched a securitisation worth Eu2.2bn and backed by a pool of its residential mortgages, which will give potential issuers a clearer idea of the appetite for new deals.

Ghana Banks were signed into the $300m eight month facility for the Ghana Cocoa Board yesterday (Thursday).

The Federal Home Loan Banks provided the only new issuance in the benchmark agency market in a week dominated by events elsewhere. Last Friday (September 28), Fannie Mae priced a new $5bn three year Benchmark bullet and re-opened its $8bn May 2011 deal for a further $2bn. Both deals were popular, though the shorter widened as news of the Home Loans supply seeped into the market.