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Britannia Building Society (Britannia) is to issue a $12.16 million Euro-MTN on April 6. The FRN pays interest quarterly and matures on May 12 2005. The issue is a cross-currency swap to produce sterling. HSBC acts as the bookrunner. The issuer is keen to follow up on this issue, which is their second of the year. Jeremy Helme, treasury sales manager for Britannia, says: "We intend to do a lot more private placements of this nature and we are pricing accordingly."

Bremer Landesbank Kreditanstalt Oldenburg (Bremer Landesbank KO) has closed a euro20 million ($17.49 million) plain vanilla FRN with a tenor of 40 years. The note was lead-managed by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and it pays a coupon of 6m Euribor+38. The trade is subordinated. Fred Walther, head of international financing at Bremer Landesbank KO, says: "There was demand for subordinated debt in this maturity and it's no bad thing to have long-dated lower tier 2 debt." This is the fourth long-dated euro trade that Bremer Landesbank Kreditanstalt Oldenburg has issued this year. It previously issued two 30-year notes, one paying 6m Euribor+ 35, and a 20-year euro10 million trade.

Bankers this week were looking towards a possible jumbo buy-out facility for Yell, the yellow pages subsidiary of British Telecommunications (BT). BT is thought to be in exclusive talks with private equity groups Apax Partners and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst about the sale of the business, which is valued at about £3bn.

Callahan Associates has mandated KBC and Merrill Lynch to arrange an interim Eu550m facility to support the cable company's acquisition of 54.2% of Belgian communications firm Telenet. JP Morgan and NIB Capital are also thought to have joined the loan as lead arrangers.

CDC IXIS has issued a ¥300 million ($2.38 million) Euro-MTN off their euro3 billion ($2.62 billion) Euro-MTN programme. This is the issuer's 56 yen trade of the year. The note pays interest annually and has a final coupon of 10.0%. The issue has a 30-year maturity.

Citibank/SSSB today (Wednesday) announced the appointment of David Basset as head of European loan sales and trading.

Innogy, the UK power group, has confirmed it will list its electricity storage business, Regenesys. Credit Suisse First Boston has been appointed to lead the flotation of between 20% and 25% of the unit. Valuations for the business have ranged from £1bn to a more conservative £300m. "There is still a lot of work to be done before it is worth billions," said one utilities analyst. "It is an interesting business, but has possibly been overhyped."

Colombia sacrificed size to ensure the success of its long awaited World Bank guaranteed bond this week, issuing a $750m transaction as Latin issuers continued to struggle with the contagion resulting from the Argentine crisis. The deal, led by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, ended up being a $750m 10 year final maturity, six year average life transaction rather than the $1bn-$1.3bn offering Colombia had hoped for when it first announced the mandate earlier this year.

Lebanon this week mandated Credit Suisse First Boston for a $300m 15 year bond that should be the longest ever issue from the republic, seven years further along the curve than any of the sovereign's outstanding deals. The 15 year transaction is doubly important to the Lebanese sovereign, as the republic is aiming for mainly international distribution, especially to the US, in a bid to diversify its funding away from the banks in Beirut that have dominated previous transactions.