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Hutchison Whampoa was roadshowing a $1.5bn 10 and 30 year global bond issue this week, in what will be one of the largest deals from Asia since Hutchison's own blockbuster $2bn offering in July 1997. The transaction is lead managed by Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch - who led the previous deal which had 10, 20, 30 and 40 year tranches - and newcomer JP Morgan.

InfoVista, a global leader in service level management, has cancelled the Eu20m capital increase part of its Eu110m secondary offering, after its stock lost 5.45% ahead of the pricing on Wednesday. Lehman Brothers, BNP Paribas and BE Unterburg Towbin led the deal.

The top Euro-MTN houses gathered yesterday for the first time in any formal way for nearly two years. The International Primary Market Association (IPMA) MTN committee met with Tiina Lee, head of Euro-MTNs at Deutsche bank, in the chair. "The MTN committee has not met for two years and it was overdue for revisions," says Lee. "A lot of people have moved on since it last met and IPMA thought it was about time it was revamped." The committee discussed the EU withholding tax and its effect on the MTN market. The EU has said that any bonds issued after March 1 2001 will be liable to withholding tax. The MTN body considered whether it is necessary to extend that date for MTN trades so that the market can sort out the necessary documentation. Lee points out, however, that as the EU directive only applies to individual retail investors the impact should not be too great. A dealer who was at the meeting says the one problem that has yet to be resolved is whether fungible notes issued after March 1 would be exempt from grandfathering. The other topic on the MTN committee's agenda was the possibility of creating a centralized database of MTN documents. This would help dealers trading for issuers on a reverse enquiry basis and who do not have access to programme documents. The last time the body gathered to implement changes to market procedure was in November 1998, when Matt Carter, who headed Credit Suisse First Boston's MTN desk at the time, was the chairman. At that meeting a standardized pricing supplement was agreed on. Lee says that there is no need for the committee to meet on a regular basis. She feels it should only meet if there is something specific to discuss. The members of the committee are BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Salomon Smith Barney and UBS Warburg.

A stream of managing directors have left JP Morgan Chase in the weeks after bonus season. UBS Warburg has recruited three of them. Brian McBride becomes co-head of European leveraged finance, working alongside the existing co-heads, Michael Grayer and Ian Hardington. He reports to Art Penn, global head of leveraged finance.

Chile Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Bank of America have launched the $150m pre-export finance facility for Empresa Nacional de Mineria (Enami).

Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg issued three 20-year non-syndicated yen trades. The ¥1 billion ($8.57 million) note pays interest semi-annually and the final coupon is 3.65%. The other trades were a ¥500 million paying a final coupon of 2.9% and a ¥600 million paying 2.5% on the final coupon.

Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein has issued a 30-year US dollar FRN. The $25 million FRN will be sold on February 19. The landesbank has also sold a $22.73 million FRN maturing 2040 that pays interest at three month Libor+0.42%.

Rupert Lewis has left the building. Yes, the market's very own Evil Kineval, the fop from Fulham, the Star of Leak '99, has called it a day and followed his friend Johnny Fine out of those Victoria Embankment doors. JP Morgan and Mr Lewis have parted company for one last time. Leak does not like to blow its own considerable trumpet, but it would like to congratulate itself on predicting this very event for some time. Back in September last year, when the merger of Chase and Morgan was first announced, Leak said: "Leak can't really see Rupert Lewis having much time for the Chase upstarts. Don't be surprised if, after the dust settles, Rupert pitches up somewhere other than MTNs. Leak suspects that there are only so many power reverse duals the star of Leak 99 can take before bigger and better things beckon." And so it has proved. Accountant extraordinaire, Garrath Fulford, is left running the newly-merged desk while Rupert moves onto other things. Apparently Rupert has decided that after dedicating the last nine years at Morgan (and most of those to MTNs) he deserves a break. So he is taking the next six months off to reinvent himself as a ski-bum. He is off to live in a chalet in Chamonix, France. Another market figure is taking a (shorter) ski break. Dresdner's Henry Nevstad is this weekend getting married back in his native Norway and then honeymooning in Aspen for a week's skiing. This is followed by another week in Mexico. Henry has ensured that most of the riff raff he has worked with are bared from ruining his special day, but John Tuke - his boss from the days he was a junior on the Merrill's desk - is over in Europe and invited. Tuke was even threatening to make an appearance at this last night's beer and bratwurst evening at Bavaria House. This is Balaba's annual post-Christmas party where they chop their guest's ties in half. What charming, sophisticated German hospitality. Klaus Svendsen has vowed never to return after his brand-new natty number was scissored a couple of year's ago. He has escaped the frolics by going off to the oh so exciting Nordic local government forum. But Dean 'the dog' Fogg and Mike Bransford from Merrill and Julia Abbott from Commerzbank, UBS' Gavin Eddy et al all made an appearance. UBS is planning a slightly more interesting evening for its clients at during the Euromoney conference in March. After last year clever gimmick of hiring out the whole of the London Eye to give everyone a bird's eye view of London, it has decided to go underground and give everyone a rat's eye view. Though details are still being finalised, apparently the party is to be held in a disused railway tunnel. This does not exactly sound like the classy venue Gavin Eddy promised everyone. But there are rumours circulating that he may have persuaded some arty-type celebs to come to his party in order to give the sewer-like venue some urban chic. And Westpac has found a replacement for Jonathan Minor, who left in December to go off to Daiwa. He is Andrew Smith, who is coming over from Australia in a couple of week's time in order to relieve Chris Bannister and Anna D'Ercole who have been running the treasury for the last two months.

Following the promotion of Michael Marks, executive chair of Merrill Lynch Europe, Middle East and Africa (MLEMEA) to executive vice president, Merrill is restructuring and integrating its EMEA debt operations. The intention is to create a more focused approach to client care. Mike Clancy is to head a European credit products group. It will include euro sovereigns, Pfandbriefe and agencies, investment grade, high yield and leveraged loans. Dale Lattanzio, who ran the real estate business, now takes on a structured credit trading team within the European credit products group. His team will cover illiquid trading of secondary credit products, asset swaps, default swaps structured credit derivatives and ABS, bringing a range of risk products together.

Bahrain A letter has been sent by the finance ministry of Bahrain inviting banks to submit proposals for the financing of the expansion of the Al Hidd power station.

* Merrill Lynch has made several senior management changes. Daniel Bayly becomes chair of investment banking in the corporate and institutional client group. He joins the office of the chairman. He was previously co-head of global investment banking, and has been head or co-head of investment banking for seven years. Sam Chapin succeeds Bayly as co-head of global investment banking. The other co-head is Kevan Watts, in London. Chapin is currently co-head of the global industries investment banking group.