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The Eu5bn loan facility supporting Pernod Ricard's shared purchase of Seagram's drinks businesses was signed on Wednesday after a powerful performance in the market. The deal proved to be arguably the highlight of the first quarter of 2001 and provided banks with a welcome opportunity to buy into an asset class with strong cashflows and brands - and one which was beyond the TMT arena.

The Republic of Colombia has raised the ceiling off its Euro-MTN programme from $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion. The facility has $2.75 billion outstanding off 14 trades. Goldman Sachs arranged the programme.

Rabobank Nederland has gone with its second Canadian dollar trade of the year: a C$100 million ($63.79 million) five-year note, which will be issued on April 26 2001. The note will pay a single final coupon of 5.25%. The issuer's previous Canadian dollar trade also had a five-year tenor. The C$100 million note was issued last month at a price of 101.625%. The note pays interest annually and pays a higher final coupon of 5.5%.

The Republic of Iceland signed a $1 billion Euro-MTN programme on March 22, with Salomon Smith Barney as the arranger. Olafur Isleifsson, director, international department of the central bank, says: "We saw a good opportunity and our issuance volume so far this year seemed to justify the cost of setting up the programme. We want to have the flexibility of the Euro-MTN facility. The debt ceiling of $1 billion is not far from the total external long-term debt of the Republic of Iceland. And it is a nice round number for the investors." The first trade has already been issued off the programme. The euro250 million ($224.08 million) plain vanilla floating rate note was issued on Monday, March 26. Isleifsson says: "The first trade is already sold and there was no need for a roadshow. We are very happy with the way the trade was received." But this is not the first time that the Republic of Iceland has had the opportunity of issuing MTNs. The borrower set up a $500 million Euro-CP programme in 1986 - it was among the first to set up a CP programme. Isleifsson explains: "We use the Euro-CP facility all the time and have between $400 and $500 million outstanding. It originally had an MTN clause, but this was never used. So it is not the first time we have had the possibility of issuing MTNs. The MTN clause was dropped from the CP programme when it was updated in 1995." Isleifsson goes on to say: "Our plans in terms of currencies and structures remain to be seen. And though we have been mainly a plain vanilla borrower, we are open to consider other possibilities in the future." The dealer panel is Daiwa SBCM Europe, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, SEB Debt Capital Markets, UBS Warburg and the arranger. It is the first republic to sign a Euro-MTN programme since the Czech Republic signed in July 1999. That year the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Lebanon and the Republic of South Africa also signed Euro-MTN programmes. Central government issuers have done 18 trades so far this year. The most active of these borrowers is the Republic of Italy.

Brazil Citibank and Deutsche Bank are in the market with a $150m equivalent yen denominated term loan for LIGHT-Servicios de Eletricidade SA (LSE). Proceeds of the deal are to refinance local debentures.

Sachsen LB Europe has issued a euro100 million ($97.90 million) FRN, which matures on October 7 2002. The note pays a quarterly coupon of Euribor flat and was issued at a price of 100.0425%. The trade was lead managed by UBS Warburg.

Rio Tinto yesterday closed a five-year $30 million FRN. The trade pays a final coupon of Libor+29 and was managed by HSBC. It was issued under Rio Tinto's $2 billion debt issuance programme and is the borrower's first trade of 2001, according to MTNWare.

The market's been slow to recover from the MTNWeek awards party. A lot of hangovers were reported and several people have been ringing up concerned their names would be appearing in print. But Leak can confirm that the highlight of the evening was Dresdner's Henry Nevstad doing the splits on the dance floor. And on Thursday, in London, trading was sparse due to the tube strike. The madness of commuters trying to catch buses that were already packed full was equalled only by the panic on the trading floors. But cool Mike Bransford at Merrill took the hard option and jogged the five miles home. He's in training for the London marathon. It seems that everyone you meet these days has raw red skin that is peeling round the edges. You can expect to see more burnt noses next week as Morgan Stanley's syndicate and trading desks will the be off to Chamonix, the swanky resort in the French Alps. Isn't that where Rupert Lewis went to get away from the MTN market?

ABN Amro, BNP Paribas and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney have won the mandate for a $600m five year offering for Lebanon. According to a banker at one of the leads, the bond should be launched by Easter, ahead of the redemption of a $500m Lebanon issue on April 23.

Bear Stearns has added to its analytical and risk advisory capabilities with the appointment of Leo Tilman to its financial analytics and structured transactions group. Based in New York, Tilman will work on quantitative strategy and advise on risk under group head Daniel Spina.

Specialist medical care company Medidep completed its Eu31m follow-on offering late on Monday. Completion of the issue, led by Deutsche Bank, had to be delayed a week from March 19 because under French regulator Cob's rules, a follow-on issue cannot be priced underneath the lowest 10 day average over the last 20 days before pricing. This would have meant selling stock at a premium to market price. Shares were sold at Eu101.9, a discount of less than 1% to Monday's close of Eu102.8. They finished trading on Tuesday at Eu103.