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* BCP Finance Bank Ltd Guarantor: Banco Comercial Portugues SA

Gas Natural has become the first Spanish issuer to join the Euro-CP market this year, having signed a euro1 billion ($9.01 million) programme on March 16. It is designed to increase investor awareness of the Gas Natural name, but will not be used until next month. Josep Casanovas, investor relations manager at Gas Natural, says: "We are not in any hurry to start trading off the programme. We are waiting for our short-term ratings to be assigned first and this will happen within the next few weeks." Its long-term ratings are A1 by Moody's and AA- by Standard & Poor's. The new programme complements the issuer's euro2 billion Euro-MTN shelf which it set up in October 1999. But an unstable CP market in Europe means the issuer does not expect to raise more than euro600 million. Casanovas says: "We had a better feeling with the MTN programme because we did a roadshow and had some experience behind us, but with this CP facility we are much more in the hands of our dealers." The arranger is Lehman Brothers and the house was also responsible for bringing Telefonica Europe, the last Spanish borrower, to the market. It is the top arranger for Spanish issuers, holding that position on eight programmes. The dealer panel consists of Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Invercaixa and Lehman Brothers. It is the first Euro-CP dealership for Invercaixa, whose experience is limited to two programmes in the Spanish domestic market. Casanovas hopes to be able to reach a new range of investors once the programme is issuing. He says: "About 50% of the investors from our MTN programme are from Spain and it is likely that the same investors will also come to our CP programme. But the CP market is also likely to attract different kinds of investors, and this will allow us to diversify."

Analysts are speculating that Fannie Mae will buy back its longer dated Benchmark Notes, following the agency’s announcement that it may buy back some of its bullet debt.

Caisse Nationale Des Caisses d'Epargne et de Prevoyance is to issue a euro50 million ($44.39 million) trade off its euro10 billion Euro-MTN programme. The issue date is April 4 and the note has a ten-year maturity.

The Eu350m 365 day term loan for Türkiye Garanti Bankasi was signed in London on March 16. This is the first syndicated loan for a Turkish borrower in 2001. Despite the economic crisis in February, which hit mid-syndication, the Garanti deal has been viewed as a success - the deal was oversubscribed and increased from Eu275m. The 17 strong arranger group made commitments early on in syndication, demonstrating the strength of the borrower's relationship with its lending banks.

UBS Warburg has named Alan Hodson as its new global head of equities to replace Colin Buchan, who is leaving the position at the end of March. Hodson will step up from his position at UBS as head of European equities; he was also Buchan's deputy global head of equities. Buchan is to focus on his family business in Scotland, which is thought to be unrelated to banking. He will continue to act as senior adviser to UBS CEO Markus Granziol.

HFC Bank is to issue a £

In his speech to delegates at Euromoney’s syndicated loans conference in London this morning, Richard Cartledge, managing director in the global syndicated finance division at HSBC, predicted that the syndicated loan product would continue to play a vital role in capital raising.

The Eu860m-Eu1bn IPO of Iberia launched on Monday with a price range that could place the Spanish airline at either end of the quality spectrum in its sector. The spread of Eu1.71-Eu2.14 will value the company at between Eu1.6bn and Eu2bn. The mid-point gives it an EV/Ebitda multiple of 5.5 times, just under the sector average of 5.7 times. "You either drive it up to the efficiency of British Airways [6.7 times] or pull it down towards Air France [4.9 times]," said a banker close to the deal.

Fannie Mae launched $10bn of debt into turbulent markets yesterday (Thursday), but the two tranches, a three year and a 10 year, were keenly bid and held up well. The bonds were priced through Freddie Mac's most recent deals in those maturities and flat to Fannie Mae's. The three year was priced at 57bp over the 4.625% February 2003 UST and the 10 year at 82bp over the 5% February 2011.

Stan Sokolowski, a member of the loan distribution team within JP Morgan’s debt capital markets division, addressed delegates at Euromoney’s Third Annual Syndicated Loans Conference this afternoon, and made an upbeat speech about the European leveraged loan market entitled Leveraged Loan Market — Review and Outlook.