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France Telecom has concluded a euro40 million ($35.75 million) Euro-MTN which is to be issued on April 2. The note matures on December 31 2007. This is issuer's fourth note of the year - their second in euro. Their other two trades were denominated in Swiss franc and Japanese yen. The issue is made off France Telecom's euro27.5 billion Euro-MTN programme, which was joint-arranged by Merrill Lynch and BNP Paribas. The programme has $13.37 billion outstanding off 28 trades.

Deutsche Telekom has issued a euro50 million ($44.34 million) note off its euro10 billion debt issuance programme. It is their first issue of the year. The note matures on January 9 2002.

GECC took advantage of worldwide demand for top quality paper this week with the launch of a $750m five year global bond. Demand for the transaction was such that bookrunners Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and UBS Warburg were able to launch the offering at 88bp over Treasuries, tighter than the original 92bp-90bp price talk. The issue tightened further in the aftermarket to trade at around 86bp bid, 84bp offered.

The Greek government has stepped up its privatisation programme ahead of the Olympic Games in 2004 and is likely to begin with the Eu175m IPO of OPAP, the Greek soccer pools and lottery agency. The state will sell 10% of the company next month. The deal is being led by Alpha Finance, Agricultural Bank and Piraeus Bank, but a syndicate of 50 banks and brokers is involved in the issue. This should give the deal a better chance of success by targeting as many investors as possible. "The Greek market has had a rough time over the last few months," said a banker close to the deal.

Cadbury Schweppes Finance has closed a four-year Hong Kong dollar trade. The HK$100 million ($12.82 million) FRN is the first time Cadbury Schweppes has issued in the currency. Hong Kong dollar continues to be a popular choice for investors and accounts for one in 10 trades so far this year.

Bear Stearns yesterday (Thursday) demonstrated its commitment to expanding its investment banking operations in Europe, despite the dramatic downturn in business, by hiring HSBC's equity syndicate head, Emmanuel Pezier, to set up its European equity-linked operations. Pezier will start at the end of April. The move is a blow to HSBC's aspirations in equity capital markets. Pezier had been running the desk at HSBC for just over six months. The hire helps Bear build up its three pronged approach to equity capital markets. "We want to be very focused with a high product content," said Olivier Favre-Gilly, head of European equity capital markets (ECM) at the bank. As well as equity-linked products, Bear will offer equity and private equity facilities, and will concentrate on the technology, media and telecoms, healthcare and financial services sectors.

"Allianz to buy Dresdner Bank?" We were dining quietly in Chelsea with a group of bankers when everyone's mobile started to shrill at the same time. Thank heavens that foie gras can't go cold. Our first reaction was that this deal does not win any brownie points for originality. Allianz already owns more than 20% of Dresdner and lots more through cross-shareholdings. Allianz has tried to find a solution for Dresdner through attempted mergers with Deutsche and Commerzbank and failed on both occasions. Now Allianz looks as if it may take Dresdner for itself. There is some logic in this strategy. Dresdner is a much better bank than it was two years ago but it needs a push to propel it into the premier division. With Allianz's financial muscle, Dresdner could become the European answer to Citigroup. In investment banking Allianz-Dresdner could clean up in Germany thanks to Allianz's stranglehold on German industry. At once Dresdner would become the most powerful bank in Germany. We suspect that our friends at Deutsche will be holding emergency meetings this weekend.

Despite persistent volatility in the markets and loud claims by professional investors that the price range is too high, retail demand for the Eu840m-Eu970m IPO of Spanish airline Iberia keeps coming. While institutions haggle over price, private investors are piling into the issue. "We already have demand for more than double what we have rights for," said one banker collating retail orders in Madrid.

Spanish airline Iberia completed its Eu586m IPO today (Monday) at a giveaway price, after investors showed a reluctance to put money to work in a sector that has consistently lost value over the last six weeks.

K2 Corporation has concluded a $10 million Euro-MTN, which is to be issued on April 9. The note matures on October 7 2002. The bookrunner is Barclays Capital. This is the issuer's seventh trade of 2001, all but one of which have been denominated in dollar. The exception was a euro30 million ($26.6 million) note issued on January 22.

JP Morgan and UBS Warburg today (Monday) launched a Eu450m 10 year deal for the Republic of Slovenia, which according to the leads enjoyed a substantially oversubscribed book, but which could not be increased beyond the final amount because of a strict limit on borrowing laid down by the issuer.

* Allmerica Global Funding LLC Rating: AA-/AA (S&P/Fitch)