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Nordex was forced to cut the price range for its Neuer Markt IPO by 18% today (Monday), taking the amount set to be raised down to Eu370m at the middle of the range, with investors continuing to demand weighty discounts to compensate for market volatility.

The Russian oil and gas sector is attracting attention this week with two loans signed and another launched into the market. HypoVereinsbank has signed banks into the Eu250m five year term loan for Gazprom, the Russian oil and gas company.

Banca Carige, a retail bank based in the region of Liguria in northwest Italy, launched its first securitisation this week with a Eu166.5m deal backed by its non-performing mortgages and loans. Lead managed by Credit Suisse First Boston, the transaction used a structure whereby the junior tranche was collateralised with Eu84.4m of Italian government bonds provided by Carige.

* Merrill Lynch and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney will price their £222.5m securitisation of equity release mortgages for UK life and pensions company Norwich Union today (Friday). "This has been a very successful transaction and there are just a few finishing touches to complete," said a syndicate official at one of the leads. "The deal is well oversubscribed on both tranches."

Euro Capital Structures, the Dublin-based structured finance boutique owned by Fiat and UniCredito Italiano, last Friday launched a Eu503m arbitrage CDO backed by euro denominated leveraged loans. Lead managed by Credit Suisse First Boston (books) and UniCredit Banca Mobiliare, the deal parcelled speculative grade senior secured loans.

Credit Suisse First Boston is hoping to launch its securitisation of commercial mortgages secured by UK care homes for the elderly today (Friday). The £213m deal is backed by a portfolio of 508 loans owned by the bank's principal finance group, which stems from its acquisition of UCB Healthcare, a UK unit of France's Compagnie Bancaire, in 1997.

European investors will get a rare chance to buy bonds in euros from one of the premier US asset backed issuers next week, when Citibank launches a Eu1bn credit card securitisation. The deal will be a 10 year fixed rate triple-A issue and is expected to be priced by lead manager Schroder Salomon Smith Barney at 24bp-25bp over mid-swaps.

UK mortgage bank Northern Rock launched its fourth and largest securitisation last Friday, with a £1.5bn deal that included global bonds for the first time. Lead managed by Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, the transaction blew out as investors starved of European asset backed paper snapped up bonds from an issuer that has won a widespread following in the last two years.

Mehraj Matto, co-head of fund derivatives at BNP Paribas in London, has joined Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein as head of fund derivatives. Matto will report to Robin Farrell, head of the alternative investments group in London. Farrell said Dresdner hired Matto to help with preparations to start writing options on the performance of hedge funds. It expects to structure its first hedge fund option within the next couple of months (DW, 3/19). Matto resigned last Monday and is expected to start in a month. Matto could not be reached. Stéphane Liot, the other co-head of fund derivatives at BNP Paribas, was travelling and could not be reached. Calls to a BNP Paribas spokesman were not returned.

Weak first quarter earnings announced last week are pushing down the bank debt for Nextel Communications, as the paper dropped two points this week. The paper went to 98 1/2 on the "B/C" tranches and to 97 3/8 on the "D" paper, dealers said. A $10 million piece of Charter Communications' bank debt traded at 99 1/4, which is down slightly. SpectraSite Communications is trading at par.

Wells Fargo Bank is looking to hire one to two equity derivatives marketers/structurers over the next year in San Francisco. The three-strong trading, marketing and structuring team is beefing up to meet customer demand, said Hardy Hodges, head of equity derivatives in San Francisco. The group works with the bank's corporate client base, which consists of smaller and mid-sized corporates in the Western half of the U.S. Although it provides the full gamut of products, it tends to work mainly with hedging and monetization transactions, such as collars and variable pre-paid forwards, said Hodges.