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The London Stock Exchange (LSE) announced yesterday (Thursday) its intentions to float the exchange on the main market by the end of July in a deal that could be worth as much as £1.2bn. Don Cruickshank, chairman of the exchange, said: "We have reached the point now where we are ready to move to a full listing, offering us the flexibility to pursue the strategy developed by Clara Furse and her team." Clara Furse, CEO of the LSE, said: "As a business we must seek to position ourselves as Europe's leading capital market exchange organisation and exchange service provider rather than purely as a stock exchange." She added: "If that means pursuing corporate deals, that is what we will do."

Rowena Chu has joined Deutsche Bank as head of equity capital markets (ECM) for north Asia, a new position.

MBNA Europe Funding has dropped Morgan Stanley and SG as dealers from its euro4 billion ($3.42 billion) Euro-MTN programme. Westdeutsche Landesbank has been added as a dealer.

McDonalds has issued a ¥15 billion ($125.3 million) 10-year note that pays a final coupon of 1.5%. The note was issued at a price of 96.761% and was led by Salomon Smith Barney. It is the second note McDonald's has issue dhtis year. The first was a euro300 million ($257.08 million) note led by Morgan Stanley.

Bahrain The $300m five year facility for Investcorp closes today (Friday). The completed senior syndication resulted in oversubscription and mandated arrangers Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan, which have strong relationships with the borrower, expect the general syndication to close oversubscribed. The deal is split equally into a revolver and term loan. The margin is 87.5bp with a top participation fee of 75bp for a ticket of $15m. Investcorp's last deal, syndicated in 2000, carried a margin of 65bp.

Moody's backed developments in the European covered bond sector this week, describing proposed legislation for the Irish and Finnish covered bond markets as "broadly comparable with those of most other European systems". Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Fitch have said they will wait until the laws are passed before issuing comments or rating actions.

* Noel Dunn, former head of syndicate and bond trading at Goldman Sachs, is the latest high profile recruit for Bear Stearns' European operation. He joins Yves Leysen's debt corporate finance group in London where he will be responsible for northern European coverage.

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank has concluded a £

Croatia Fitch has affirmed the long term currency rating of Zagrebacka Bank (ZB) at BB+, despite the recent announcement that UniCredito Italiano and Allianz have agreed terms with ZB to tender an offer for ZB's voting shares and global depository receipts. Although perceived as a positive move, Fitch said that the bank's ratings would still be constrained by Croatia's sovereign ceiling.

France JC Decaux, the French advertising media company, has revived its plans for a stock market listing. The company pulled its IPO in the middle of last year as the markets fell, but is now seeking to raise around Eu1bn of equity. Goldman Sachs is sole bookrunner. Premarketing will start on Monday, a price range is expected to be set by the middle of next week, and pricing will take place in mid-June. JC Decaux is the world's biggest player in the street furniture market and the airport advertising sector, and is ranked number two in Europe in billboard advertising.

Nordic Investment Bank has gone for yen for the 18th time this year with a ¥1 billion ($8.08 million) note that goes out to June 2011. Its final coupon is pays 9%.

Further details have emerged about a possible senior debt facility backing Nomura's $1.8bn bid for Compass Group's Le Méridien hotel chain. CIBC and Merrill are thought to be arranging a short term $900m bridge facility to back the purchase. However, this still leaves $200m from the original debt size of $1.1bn. Market sources suggest this could appear in the form of a $150m-$200m mezzanine tranche.