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In a move that could further cement the development of swaps as an alternative benchmarking tool, the board of directors of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) has approved the launch of new five and 10 year swap futures and futures options contracts. This will be CBOT's second attempt at developing swaps futures. Between 1991 and 1996, it offered three and five year swaps futures, but without sufficient liquidity in the underlying asset, they never developed the volumes needed to be a viable trading tool.

* Kommunekredit Rating: Aaa/AAA

Deutsche Bahn has issued the inaugural trade off its euro5 billion ($4.36 billion) debt issuance programme, which it signed on June 27 2001. Deutsche Bank is the arranger. The Sfr250 million ($144.86 million) note was issued on Thursday, July 19, and Hartwig Schneidereit, head of capital markets at Deutsche Bahn, is particularly pleased with the speed of the issuer's first issue. He says: "We have issued our funding targets to our dealers and this morning we already made our first transaction, which was a Sfr250 million deal. We are very happy with how things are going." And Schneidereit is confident that the programmes initial success will continue in the future. He says: "We have already had an extensive roadshow in May, which covered all the major cities in Europe. And this was not our first roadshow. Because of this we are confident that investors are now very familiar with our name." But with its double-A rating Schneidereit is keen to tap the Japanese market. He says: "Euroland will form the important part of our investor base but we are thinking seriously about Japan as a market to exploit. This year we have not planned a visit to Japan but we will definitely go next year." Deutsche Bahn employed a mix of both relationship and experience in its choice of banks to work with. Schneidereit says: "When deciding on our arranger and dealers our previous relationship was very important but we also looked at their current capabilities. We will have a very open programme and we will adopt a dealer of the day system to encourage other banks." The dealer panel is the arranger, ABN Amro, DG Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, SG Bank, UBS Warburg and Westdeutsche Landesbank.

Ashish Malhotra has joined Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong as a vice president in global markets to work on debt syndication throughout non-Japan Asia. He reports to Paul Smith, Deutsche's head of bond/loan syndicate, Asia. Deutsche has created Malhotra's position, vice president of bond/loan syndicate, as part of the rebuilding of its debt syndication capabilities following the Asian crisis. The role mainly involves syndication of both local currency and cross-border loans and securities.

Deutsche Bank has signed a euro10 billion ($8.71 billion) secured note programme under the name of Eirles Four. Deutsche Bank is the arranger and sole dealer.

Croatia The Eu34m term loan for the City of Zagreb was signed on Wednesday July 18.

The need for emerging market issuers to appeal to both cross-over buyers and dedicated investors was highlighted this week when El Salvador and South Korea's LG Caltex were the only borrowers to tap the market. LG Caltex launched a $300m 10 year deal and El Salvador successfully launched a $353.5m 10 year transaction, but, according to some bankers, neither issue would have been successful had they not been able to appeal to both investor groups.

El Salvador * Republic of El Salvador

* Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

Freddie Mac is planning an issue of Freddie SUBS, its programme for subordinated debt, next week as part of its commitment to come to the market with the product twice a year. It launched the first deal in March. Price talk for the 10 year non-call five deal is around 140bp over Treasuries, in the 15bp over Libor area. The size will be $1bn-$1.5bn and the bookrunners, Credit Suisse First Boston and Lehman Brothers, are expected to price the deal in the middle of next week.

The Hellenic Republic on Monday launched an Eu800m pre-IPO zero coupon bond for Hellenic Tourist Properties (ETA) via BNP Paribas, EFG Eurobank Ergasias and National Bank of Greece. Investors will be able to exchange the bonds for shares in ETA or one of its subsidiaries if there is a flotation during the life of the deal.