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UBS Warburg has named Russell Aboud as its new head of European equities in London. The position was vacated by Alan Hodson, who stepped up to become global head of equities at the end of March (EuroWeek 695).

Michael Page had to price the UK's biggest IPO of 2001 under the bookbuilding range on Wednesday, but managed to complete it despite difficult equity markets and pressure from private equity bids. Issues across Europe are struggling to come to market and parent group Spherion Corporation was considering offers from private investors for the recruitment company, leaving bookrunner Credit Suisse First Boston in an awkward position. The £656m issue was sold, however, and is trading up slightly from issue price.

The Borsa Italiana will begin trading on Monday on a new market segment, Star, and companies are already lining up to list. The segment will be devoted to mid-cap companies and will have strict corporate governance requirements. It will consist of 20 companies already listed in Milan, but in the last seven days two companies have announced plans to debut with an IPO on Star.

Singapore Power has raised the ceiling off its debt issuance programme to S$4 billion ($2.24 billion) from S$1.5 billion. The programme was signed in April 2000 and so far has $822 million outstanding off six trades. The programme was arranged by JP Morgan Securities Asia, Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation and UOB Asia.

SG has reworked its debt capital markets group to create multi-product origination teams and to coordinate origination and distribution.

* Credit Suisse First Boston is expected to launch a £200m securitisation today (Friday) for UK non-conforming mortgage lender igroup limited. The deal will offer £176m of senior notes rated triple-A by Fitch and Standard & Poor's, which are expected to price at 40bp-42bp over one month Libor with a 2.11 year average life.

UK life and pensions company Norwich Union, a unit of CGNU, launched its innovative securitisation of UK equity release mortgages last week via Merrill Lynch and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney. The £232m deal is the first securitisation in Europe of the asset class - interest free mortgages designed for people over 60 who want to extract some capital from their homes.

Two medium sized Italian banks have securitised their non-performing loans (NPLs) in the last week, while a third parcelled performing mortgages. The deals further broadened the already wide range of issuers and transaction structures in what is now unquestionably one of Europe's leading ABS markets.

Credit Suisse First Boston last Friday launched the £275m securitisation that will help it to exit from its principal finance investment in lending to care homes for the elderly and sick in the UK. The bank securitised all the performing assets in its portfolio, which was built around a pool of commercial mortgages originated by UCB Healthcare since 1985. CSFB bought the business in 1997 and continued to write new loans until last June.

Citibank this week launched a blowout euro denominated securitisation of its US credit card receivables, giving European investors a rare taste of top quality US asset backed paper in their own currency. The bank had planned to bring a Eu1bn 10 year fixed rate benchmark, but increased the deal to Eu1.25bn as orders poured in from about 65 investors.

In what is becoming a familiar refrain in the secondary market, several telecom names are showing weakness due to market saturation. SpectraSite Communications is trading at 98, down from par, as dealers say $15-20 million has traded. Nextel Communications is trading in the 98 1/2 to 99 on the "B/C" paper, level to last week's trades.

ABN AMRO has hired Emma Edworthy, foreign exchange options analyst at Standard & Poor's MMS in London, to boost its trading recommendations capability. Tony Norfield, global head of foreign exchange research at ABN AMRO in London, said with more currency overlay managers and corporate treasurers using foreign exchange derivatives it decided the time was right to offer regular trading strategies. The bank's research team has focused on market movements rather than trading recommendations until now. Edworthy, who started two weeks ago and reports to Norfield, did not return calls.