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Egypt Apicorp is arranging a $105m loan facility for Egyptian Natural Gas Company to support the construction of a natural gas to liquids project at Port Said. The project is being developed by Egyptian Natural Gas Company, Agip and BP. More details are expected soon.

Artesia Overseas has axed Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Nomura and Swedbank as dealers off its $4 billion debt issuance programme. Deutsche Bank and Barclays Capital have been added to the dealer panel. Bawag has increased the limit off its debt issuance programme from euro3 billion ($2.56 billion) to euro5 billion. It has dropped ABN Amro and Morgan Stanley as dealers and replaced them with Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and Nomura. BNP Paribas has dropped BNP Pacific (Australia) as an issuer from its self-arranged euro20 billion ($17.09 billion) programme for the issuance of debt instruments. John Hancock Global Funding II has upped the limit off its global MTN programme from $5 billion to $7.5 billion. It has added Bank of America, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley as dealers. Marks & Spencer Finance has dropped Marks & Spencer Finance/Nederland as an issuer off its Euro-MTN programme. The programme has also been upped from £

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank has concluded a ¥1 billion (8.02 million) note on July 30. The note, which pays interest semi-annually and has a final coupon of 3.000%, reaches out to July 30 2031. The issuer has traded $2.86 billion off its euro10 billion ($8.78 million) debt issuance programme so far this year. Tom Meuwissen, head of treasury at Nederlandse Waterschapsbank, spoke to MTNWeek in May. He said: "We hope to raise between euro3 billion and euro4 billion this year."

Dollar swap spreads gradually ground down to tighter levels this week, leaving the five year mid-market at about 82bp and the 10 year mid market at 82.5bp by yesterday afternoon (Thursday). Prices were about 5bp wider a week ago. Two year swap spreads came in to a mid market of about 55bp, while 30 year swap spreads closed the week at about 75bp. New issue pressure has been partly, and perhaps chiefly, responsible for the contraction in spreads. At the same time, the underlying market rallied strongly this week after Alan Greenspan indicated that the Fed is quite prepared to lower interest rates again should the US economy continue to manifest signs of weakness. The market had been expecting a more ambiguous statement, and Treasuries moved higher across the curve.

Estonia The Republic of Estonia has shortlisted Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan to lead manage its planned Eu100m five year bond. The Estonian parliament approved the plans for the Eurobond on June 6. The issue will refinance loans taken out in the early 1990s to finance the purchase of a long distance radar system. The finance ministry is expected to mandate the deal next week, although the transaction will not be launched before September.

Germany Infineon, the semiconductors manufacturer, exercised the greenshoe on Wednesday for its Eu1.5bn secondary offering. The total number of new shares issued, including the main deal which was priced last Friday, totals 60m, the maximum that Infineon had said it would issue. Goldman Sachs led the deal.

Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW), on the verge of arranging its debut international bond financing for wholly owned subsidiary PCCW-HKT, could be hit by a vicious combination of highly volatile market conditions and weaker than expected Asian demand that could leave the company with a much smaller transaction than the $2.5bn size anticipated.

Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW), on the verge of arranging its debut international bond financing for wholly owned subsidiary PCCW-HKT, could be hit by a vicious combination of highly volatile market conditions and weaker than expected Asian demand that could leave the company with a much smaller transaction than the $2.5bn size anticipated.

* Bayerische Handelsbank AG Rating: AAA

UBS Warburg and Merrill Lynch completed the second largest one day share placing on Tuesday when they raised £2bn for Royal Bank of Scotland. The accelerated bookbuild, which is second only in size to the £3.5bn Vodafone issue in May, came during a week when most syndicate desks had no business at all. "Hats off to the leads for getting the deal done," said one envious London-based head of syndicate.

Finland The arrangers on the Eu2.5bn facility for UPM-Kymmene say the facility will not be launched into the market until the end of August.

SNS Bank Nederland has issued a euro5 million ($4.22 million) note that goes out to September 2013. Euro is by far the issuer's favourite currency. Almost 70% of its funds this year have come in euro, with yen in second place. Its biggest euro trade in 2001 was a euro300 million syndicated note that had an annual yield of 5.431%. It was issued on February 26 and matures on October 16 2007.