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Telecom Italia this week disclosed plans to launch a debut fixed rate bond, delaying a scheduled Eu1bn securitised transaction in favour of the senior debt offering. The deal, to be issued by Telecom Italia's wholly owned subsidiary Sogerim with the guarantee of Telecom Italia, is expected to raise at least Eu5bn and be split into tranches of five and 10 years.

Den norske Bank has concluded a £

Den norske Bank defied dismal equity markets today (Monday) to complete its Nkr4.3bn (Eu536m) secondary offer — the biggest ever placing of banking stock in Norway — at a slim discount to market price.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (facility agent) and UBS Warburg (bookrunner) launched the syndication yesterday (Thursday) of the $4.3bn of loan facilities supporting the $17.6bn acquisition of De Beers, the world's best known and largest diamond producer, by DB Investments. The $4.3bn of debt is structured into two tranches. Tranche 'A' is a $3.3bn five year amortising term loan, while tranche 'B' is a $1bn five year revolving credit. Both tranches pay an initial margin of 100bp over Libor, and through the life of the loan margins ratchet according to net debt to Ebitda.

Croatia The Eu30m three year term loan for Splitska Banka, Croatia's third largest bank, arranged by DG Bank, pays a margin of 115bp over Euribor. Banks are invited to participate on four levels: Eu5m for 60bp, Eu3.5m for 52.5bp, Eu2.5m for 47.5bp and Eu1m for 42.5bp.

South Africa * Republic of South Africa

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank has raised the ceiling off its Euro-CP programme from euro3 billion ($2.66 billion) to euro10 billion. The programme has issued $2.97 billion off 74 trades.

Fannie Mae began a buyback of off-the-run Benchmark securities in the 30 year sector this week. On Tuesday, the US agency repurchased $300m of its 6.25% May 15 2029s, $85m of its 7.125% January 15 2030s, and $25m of its 7.25% May 15 2030s. The amounts reflect the value of the securities when launched, not what the agency paid for them. With the swap curve at its steepest levels of the year and both swaps and Treasuries rallying, long dated agency paper has been cheap against swaps, and the market was expecting the first repurchase to come in the 30 year sector. Fannie Mae is due to launch a new 30 year line in April.

* Anglo Irish Bank Corp Amount: Eu150m subordinated debt (increased 28/03/01 from Eu100m)

* Abbey National Treasury Services plc Guarantor: Abbey National plc

First Active, the Irish mortgage lender, signed a euro750 million ($665 million) Euro-CP programme on Wednesday, 28 March. The facility was arranged by Royal Bank of Scotland and follows the issuer's euro1.5 billion global MTN programme signed in December 2000. Donal Corbett, manager of structured finance at First Active, says that they have no immediate plans for funding but are keen to issue at opportunistic levels. He says: "In terms of funding levels, we have no explicit target at the moment for the ECP. Our liquidity requirements were eased following the completion of a transaction with Britannic in September 2000 and the benefit of that still exists. If it makes economic sense for us to fund at the levels that are out there, then we will." Corbett continues: "We have no plans to roadshow the ECP programme. We will meet with our dealers early next week to discuss the latest trends in the ECP market in terms of pricing and investor appetite for P2 / F2-rated paper. The market now knows us through our MTN programme and we will post prices for the ECP next month." The dealers off the programme are the arranger, Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank.