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Italy has been at the centre of attention among European utilities in the loan market during 2001, sparking two jumbo financings to facilitate takeovers. The first of the Italian deals relates to the sell-off by Enel, Italy's state electricity monopoly, of its generation assets. Under the Bersani decree, which follows from the EU Electricity Directive, no one utility may import or produce more than 50% of Italy's power supply, and accordingly Enel must sell assets to reduce its dominant market share. Its three gencos earmarked for sale by the end of 2003 are: Elettrogen (5.4GW), Eurogen (7GW) and Italpower (2.6GW). Elettrogen was the first of Enel's assets to be sold off. A Spanish consortium led by Endesa along with BSCH (40%) and Italy's ASM Brescia (15%) beat off 27 companies in other consortia, in an auction for the generation plant. Most of the companies had credit secured by relationship banks backing their bids, including Endesa, which mandated Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein to arrange a Eu1.6bn loan facility to support the Eu2.63bn acquisition.

The City of Moscow is expected to kick off the roadshow for its Eu300m three year bond issue as early as next week - signalling Russia's long awaited return to the international capital markets. Lead managed by ING Barings and UBS Warburg, the deal heads a bulging pipeline of other Russian issuers keen to access the investment community - for the first time since the country spiralled into economic chaos in 1998.

ABN Amro has been dropped as a dealer from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation's $10 billion Euro-MTN programme.

UK mortgage bank Northern Rock this week launched a £1.5bn securitisation offered in dollars and sterling - the second it has launched this year from its master trust structure. Lead managed by Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, this was the deal the European market had been waiting for to test investor sentiment towards asset backed bonds.

* Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten NV Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

Banc of America has hired Dik Blewitt, chief strategic officer at creditex in New York, as a managing director in its structured credit products group. Blewitt said he is structuring credit products for pension fund and insurance clients in the U.S. The appointment was a strategic hire by the firm rather than part of an expansion of the department. "It is a homerun in terms of opportunities," he quipped, referring to the firm's large balance sheet and global client base.

Steven Goldstein, president of TradeWeather.com, an on-line weather derivatives company, is among the thousands still unaccounted for following the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York. Goldstein, who launched Tradeweather.com in 1999, moved into the North Tower of the WTC about three weeks ago. The move was part of Cantor Fitzgerald's acquisition of the company and incorporating the weather derivatives company into to the brokerÕs emissions trading group, according to a market official. Cantor occupied floors 101-105 in the North Tower. Officials at Cantor did not return calls.

AWG plc, which owns one of the nine regional water companies in England, announced last Friday that it no longer intends to demerge its regulated water assets from its operations. Instead, it will "restructure the group within AWG's overall corporate structure".

Barclays Capital hit the market last Friday with an £825m securitisation of prime and non-conforming UK residential mortgages originated by UK mortgage lender RFC Mortgage Services Ltd, a subsidiary of GMAC's Residential Funding Corp. RMAC 2001-NSP2 plc was viewed by many investors as an attractive deal at a time of market uncertainty. "A lot of money market investors came into the deal as part of a flight to quality," said one of the co-leads.

* Morgan Stanley is planning to bring to market around Eu1.017bn of notes backed by commercial and residential non-performing mortgages originated by the Italian bank Credito Fondiario e Industriale (Fonspa). ICR-6, the fifth offering from Morgan Stanley's International Credit Recovery programme, is the second portfolio of loans to be securitised since Fonspa's acquisition in April last year by the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund.

Nissan Canada Finance last week completed a C$493m securitisation backed by performing auto leases via CIBC World Markets. The deal, which is backed by 17,858 auto leases on Nissan and Infiniti vehicles, is Nissan Canada Finance's first securitisation outside the ABCP conduit markets.

The Loan Syndications and Trading Association's annual conference, set for Oct. 10, is to go ahead following a vote of confidence from a majority of members. A number of participants from as far afield as Los Angeles and London contacted the LSTA to say people want to talk and see each other, said Allison Taylor, executive director of the LSTA. Over 90% of the attendants are based in New York so will not need to travel, according to an e-mail being circulated to LSTA members.