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* Landesbank Baden-Württemberg Rating: Aaa/AAA

* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

Principal Financial Global Funding has added Bear Stearns to the dealer group off its $4 billion Euro-MTN programme. The issuer now has a 10-strong dealer panel. The decision to add Bear Stearns is surprising as the US house has only lead managed one trade for the gic-backed issuer this year - a three-year $50 million FRN. ABN Amro, in comparison, has through reverse enquiry sold three trades for the issuer, raising $96.5 million. National Australia Bank and Royal Bank of Canada, neither on the dealer panel, have also both sold two trades each. Deutsche Bank is the only dealer in the group not to have done any business for Principal Financial. The issuer has raised $1.15 billion in 2000 off 18 trades. Four of these were denominated in Australian dollar.

Reseau Ferre de France sold a £

On July 8 1999, Telecom Eireann, later to become eircom, floated on the stock exchanges in Dublin, London and New York. The Eu4.4bn IPO attracted more attention than any Irish equity issue before or since. Enthusiasm for telecoms stocks was spreading like wildfire across Europe, and in Ireland equity investment was just beginning to capture the imagination of the public. Of the adult population of Ireland, 43% registered interest in buying eircom shares, and more than 20% went on to buy stock. Minister for public enterprise, Mary O'Rourke, was anxious to ensure that there were enough shares to satisfy the retail interest, and so a huge 55% of the issue was allocated to private investors.

Rheinhyp has increased its euro10 billion ($9.1 billion) note programme to euro15 billion. There is $8.99 billion outstanding off 83 issues. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter was the most active dealer for the issuer in the private market in 2000, bringing $434.21 million-worth of debt for Rheinhyp. The German bank's programme is rated Aa3 by Moody's and AA- by Standard & Poor's.

Denmark LB Kiel has closed the Eu65m multicurrency financing for Danish bank Amtssparkassen Fyn. The borrower proved popular in syndication and the facility was increased from Eu50m.

SG has been keeping busy with a number of trades in yen and euro, and one each in US dollar, Hong Kong dollar and Singapore dollar. These latter two markets are used excessively by the French bank, and Sylvie Molas, medium and long-term funding at the issuer, says: "We use these markets on an opportunistic basis. It's not necessarily that we have a preference for placing paper there, but we have very strong teams working for SG in Asia." The trades are very short-dated, maturing in February next year, and are each structured on an equity-linked basis. Over 40% of SG's funding has been in Hong Kong dollar this year.

Market report Compiled by Vusi Mhlanzi

France Telecom has once again found refuge in the private yen market. It launched a ¥15 billion one-year trade via Salomon Smith Barney, which pays Yen Libor + 20bps on a quarterly basis. The maturity date is December 21 2001. Over 75% of the issuer's funding in the private market has been denominated in yen this year. It has raised $650 million-worth in yen off 8 private trades.

* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA