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Anglo-Dutch publishing company Reed Elsevier was able to price its $1.6bn accelerated secondary offering at an aggressive discount this week, on the back of strong market support for its acquisition of Harcourt General, the US textbook publisher.

Anglo-Dutch publishing company Reed Elsevier was able to price its $1.6bn accelerated secondary offering at an aggressive discount this week, on the back of strong market support for its acquisition of Harcourt General, the US textbook publisher.

SunTrust Bank, based in Atlanta in the US, has signed a $10 billion global bank note programme to complement its existing US CP facility. There is no named arranger. SunTrust Bank is the result of a consolidation of 28 subsidiaries, all based in southern USA. The dealers off the programme are Chase Manhattan, Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Salomon Smith Barney, SunTrust Equitable Securities and UBS Warburg.

Globals * Citigroup Inc

* Aventis SA Rating: A3/A-

Volkswagen has doubled the limit off its multi-currency CP shelf to euro10 billion ($8.58 billion). And as well as adding Credit Suisse First Boston to its dealer group, as reported in MTNWeek, issue 206, it has also added Citibank. JP Morgan and SG have been axed as dealers.

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.

Westdeutsche Landesbank has set up Neptune Finance II, its second SPV. The $2.5 billion asset-backed MTN shelf has limited liability in the Cayman Islands.

* International Business Machines Corp Rating: A1/A+/AA-

Belgium Arrangers Crédit Agricole Indosuez and HSBC Investment Bank have signed the Eu1.5bn 364 day facility for Euroclear Bank.

Bank One has updated its $30 billion global bank note programme by adding Banc of America Securities, Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank as dealers on its US and European dealer panels. Goldman Sachs has been dropped from the European dealer panel.

Bradford & Bingley (B&B) will be valued at between £1.6bn and £2.2bn today (Friday), when the UK mutually owned mortgage bank auctions 38.5% of its stock. The sale will consist of 262m shares, after only 61.5% of B&B's customers decided to retain their holdings in the bank. The usual figure for a demutualisation is about 30%. "The customers of B&B are obviously not great believers in its future," said one analyst in London.