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Australia General syndication of the A$1.4bn, two tranche facility for Qantas Airways arranged by Barclays, Citibank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and JP Morgan has been launched.

Aventis stormed the European credit market this week, attracting over Eu5bn of demand for its Eu1.25bn five year offering at aggressive levels, in a transaction that highlights investors' hunger for any diversification away from the telecoms, auto and utility sectors. Priced at a mere 33bp over mid-swaps, inside initial price talk of 35bp-40bp over, the pharmaceutical company's paper proved too attractive for investors to resist.

Aventis stormed the European credit market this week, attracting over Eu5bn of demand for its Eu1.25bn five year offering at aggressive levels, in a transaction that highlights investors' hunger for any diversification away from the telecoms, auto and utility sectors. Priced at a mere 33bp over mid-swaps, inside initial price talk of 35bp-40bp over, the pharmaceutical company's paper proved too attractive for investors to resist.

A £360m issue from Avon Energy Partners set a precedent for the UK utility sector this week by offering investors coupon step-ups in the event of ratings downgrades. Earlier this year, demands from investors for coupon step-ups led Northumbrian Water to pull back from issuing in the sterling market. But analysts said that following the Avon transaction, it will be more difficult for UK utilities to resist including the covenants in future.

"What's the story about Abigail Hofman at Barclays Capital?" That was the main topic of conversation around the City bars and the speakeasies of the Dead Canary as rumours suggested that the Euromarket's first lady was no longer at her desk. In fact it's true. The Euromarket's icon left Barclays Capital last Friday to take a short sabbatical. After 4-1/2 years of long days, long flights and helping Bob Diamond to put BC very firmly on the map, she has decided to have a break. No one can deny that she has made an impact, and many of the best and brightest young lady graduates coming into the City have used Abigail as a role model for career achievement. A First at Oxford was a useful start, but it only took her through the door. She showed that women can rise to the very top and, as one competitor reluctantly admitted to us: "Abigail Hofman is simply the best in the market for coverage of frequent borrowers."

KPN raised Eu2.25bn equivalent in euros and sterling this week via ABN Amro, Barclays Capital and Credit Suisse First Boston, but had to make substantial concessions to ensure its offering was well received.

KPN raised Eu2.25bn equivalent in euros and sterling this week via ABN Amro, Barclays Capital and Credit Suisse First Boston, but had to make substantial concessions to ensure its offering was well received.

Argentina Syndication of the $150m five year term loan for Transportadora de Gas del Sur SA (TGS) has been oversubscribed ahead of close and the deal should be increased to between $180m and $200m.

Latin new issues began to trickle back into the market this week and the deal pipeline started to grow again after a fortnight of Argentine induced volatility kept investors on the sidelines. Banco BBA Creditanstalt issued a $100m 18 month Eurobond via BNP Paribas and Standard Bank. It was increased from $75m after offering a very attractive 7.629% yield to maturity, at the lower end of its 7.625%-7.875% range.

There are some outrageous photos being passed round the Morgan Stanley trading floor after a big group of traders, along with the syndicate and origination desks, went off skiing in the French Alps last weekend. Anyone who emails Leak a picture of Klaus Svendsen, Deborah Loades or Frair Appelby-Walker will get one of Leak's famous mystery prizes - the funnier the photo the more memorable the prize will be. Other dealers haven't been having so much fun. The IPMA dinner last week proved to be less than a barrel of laughs. But one anonymous trader's main complaint was not the monotonous after-dinner speech, but the lack of pretty girls on his table. This seems to be a common problem in the man's world of MTNs. But the SNS Bank treasurers get over this problem quite easily. Apparently when they had their rally driving day a few weeks ago, all the attractive women ended up sharing cars with... the SNS guys. Purely by chance of course.

The Republic of Lebanon launched a $1bn five year Eurobond on Friday, but BNP Paribas — sole bookrunner alongside joint leads ABN Amro and Salomon Smith Barney — had to lean heavily on the republic’s domestic banking sector to get away a deal $400m larger than initial talk.

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.