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UK project financiers specialising in Private Finance Initiative and Public Private Partnership (PFI/PPP) business are assessing the impact on their market of the government's decision to place Railtrack plc into administration. Bankers emphasise that Railtrack was not itself a PFI/PPP scheme. But the mess has damaged the UK government's reputation and political risk has been pushed further up the spectrum of risks which bankers assess in structuring and financing PFI/PPP deals. Capital raising for public sector sponsored projects will be more expensive as enhanced political risk will require a premium. Indeed, the next big transport project, the £2.1bn London Underground PPP scheme is likely to carry a premium to take into account political risk at the devolved level. A banker noted the London mayor's opposition to the scheme: "There will be a definite Livingstone [the mayor] premium now."

HVB Real-Estate Bank is due to sign its euro25 billion ($22.55 billion) Euro-MTN programme soon. The arrangership mandate has been kept in-house being handled by HypoVereinsbank. The programme comes during a healthy period for the real-estate sector in the MTN market. Issuance increased by over 300% in September compared to August. Unibail, the commercial real-estate corporate, was particularly active, and closed five trades in September for $192.56 million. One MTN dealer comments: "The real-estate sector is strong at the moment. It has proven itself by holding in the market very well in an unsettled period." HVB Real-Estate Bank is part of the HVB Group and arose from the merger of N³rnberger Hypothekenbank, S³ddeutsche Bodencreditbank and Bayerische Handelsbank. The signing of the HVB Real-Estate Bank shelf signals HVB's growing involvement in the MTN market. HypoVereinsbank signed its euro50 billion debt issuance programme in January 1999 and HypoVereinsbank Singapore branch signed its $5 billion MTN programme at the end of September.

Rhodia has raised the ceiling off its Euro-MTN programme to euro1.8 billion ($1.63 billion) from euro1.5 billion.

Finland The Eu100m deal for engineering company KCI Konecranes is due to be closed oversubscribed next week.

SEB Hypothekenbank this week braved difficult market conditions to launch its first transaction since changing its name from BfG Hypothekenbank on October 10. Priced to yield 29bp over the Bobl 133, the triple-A rated Eu500m 3-1/4 year jumbo Öffentlicher Pfandbrief was lead managed by Barclays Capital, CDC IXIS, Commerzbank, Merrill Lynch, SachsenLB, SEB and WestLB.

* DePfa Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG Rating: Aa3/AA- (Moody's/Fitch)

Goldman Sachs and Nomura have been added to the dealer panel off SMBC Capital Markets' $2 billion Euro-MTN programme.

Belgian national railway and infrastructure operator Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Belgiques (SNCB) will visit Paris, Brussels and London next week to market its debut euro deal. Merrill Lynch is sole bookrunner for the Eu500m-Eu750m issue, the borrower's first bond in six years, the proceeds of which will fund its long term Star 21 modernisation programme. SG and UBS Warburg are joint lead managers.

* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

* Centrica plc Rating: A2/A

* KommuneKredit Rating: Aaa/AAA