Search results for

Freddie Mac launched and priced its second EuReference Note this week, overcoming difficult market conditions and scepticism that the borrower would be able to square its aim of offering a liquid benchmark at a clearing level with its need to maintain competitive funding levels.

Corporate banking used to be a business based on relationships - banks would give companies cheap loans in return for other business. But customers have too rarely kept their side of the bargain, and the returns are pitiful.

Gillette has signed a $1 billion Euro-CP programme. The dealers are Credit Suisse First Boston as arranger and Deutsche Bank.

Gas Natural has increased its euro1 billion ($843.84 million) Euro-MTN shelf to euro2 billion. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria has been added as a dealer.

On January 1, 2001, the Hellenic Republic will, after a long and hard struggle, join the Emu. Everyone associated with the Greek capital markets is hopeful that membership will banish memories of the political, social and economic troubles of the past decade. In the debt capital markets, at least, this optimism appears well founded. However, as investors begin to compare Greek debt and equity capital markets participants with those in the eurozone, rather than with its previous emerging market peers and issuers are coming under increasing scrutiny. In this special EuroWeek report, Philip Moore examines whether Emu membership will prove a blessing or a bane for Greece as it enters a new era.

Heller Financial made its debut in Czech koruna with a Kr800 million ($19.61 million) trade that goes out to December 13 2001. It pays a single final coupon of 6%. This is the fifth note that the US subsidiary of Fuji Bank has sold this year. Its other trades were in euros, sterling and Singapore dollar. And since November 21 it has raised $104.19 million-worth of debt off four private MTNs. The trade confirms the prediction made in MTNWeek, issue 206 by Alex Haidas, at Deutsche Bank,who said: "As the market in Czech koruna grows there will be more demand via reverse enquiry. Demand will probably stay around the one- to two-year band, and as long as the country remains on a European Union-bound course it will continue to grow."

IBM Credit Corporation has increased its euro4 billion ($3.38 billion) Euro-MTN programme to euro8 billion.

The Eu3.3bn IPO of Belgian brewer Interbrew was nearly five times covered this week, even after the company came under a barrage of criticism for launching the deal before its takeover of Bass is cleared by the UK regulatory authorities. Merrill Lynch and Fortis managed to price the deal at Eu33, near the middle of the Eu30-Eu38 range, despite poor market conditions and negative press coverage. The company sold 88.2m shares in the base offering and 13m in the greenshoe.

Nasdaq plummeted throughout the week, culminating in a 7% drop on Thursday, its biggest fall since 1987. The deterioration sent shock waves through the bond markets and restricted trading activity. Investors shunned corporate credits, driving spreads several basis points wider. Auto companies were among the worst hit, with DaimlerChrysler spreads more than 10bp wider on news that it is to be sued for $9bn. Meanwhile, telecoms spreads widened by around 5bp yesterday (Thursday) as the market prepared to absorb British Telecom's $6bn-$8bn global bond, which is expected to be launched next week.

Capital NET announced the launch of Issuelink on Wednesday November 29, promising to transform the way dealers, issuing and paying agents (IPAs) and clearing houses exchange information. The web-based system hopes to speed up the laborious process of allocating international securities identification number (ISIN) codes to trades. It is initially being used in the Euro-CP market but there are plans to introduce it into the Euro-MTN markets in the first quarter of 2001. Raj Dale, director at Capital NET, says: "At the moment allocating an ISIN code can take many hours. And we've been told that investors need to get a security code from the dealers as quickly as possible. The present system of telephoning and faxing is particularly antiquated and is unlikely to cope when the volume of trades in the Euro-CP markets goes up. We hope Issuelink will mean trades are allocated with ISIN codes within a few minutes." Capital NET has been working on Issuelink for 12 months and dealers and IPAs have been testing it since September. On November 28 it underwent so-called stress testing: Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan on the CP dealing side and Bank One, Chase Manhattan, Citibank and Deutsche Bank as IPAs processed their CP trades using the system. Sixty-five trades were processed through issuelink and initial feedback suggests that the trial was a success. Graham Cox, global product manager for programme debt at Deutsche Bank, and chairman of the IPA Association, says: "I'm very pleased on behalf of all the agents that we're moving in the right direction." Capital NET is the company behind the databases MTNWare and CPWare. It is also the publisher of MTNWeek.

* Coffee machine manufacturer Saeco completed one of the few successful equity issues of the week on Wednesday night when it priced its Eu187m IPO at the top of the Eu2.84-Eu3.36 range. The deal, which was led by Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), was five times oversubscribed. Of the 55.6m shares sold, 30% were allocated to retail investors in Italy. Of the stock issued to institutions, 50% went to the UK, 25% to Italy, 10% to Switzerland, and the rest was spread across France, the Netherlands and Germany.

Banca IMI launches bookbuilding today (Friday) for the Eu150m IPO for Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, an Italian information technology company, after reducing the price range of the offer by about 17% to meet demand. Banca IMI is global co-ordinator and bookrunner for the deal with SG Cowen as lead manager.