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In another bad week for the Neuer Markt, one company pulled its IPO, two companies priced below the bookbuilding range, one extended its subscription period and another saw its shares plummet after a secondary issue. The damage was done on Monday by a batch of profit warnings from Neuer Markt listed companies, after which the Nemax all-share performance index sank to 3,467 - its lowest level this year. As a result, Ares Energie decided to pull its IPO, Group Technologies was forced to extend its subscription period and Gericom and Biolitec had to price shares under the bookbuilding range.

Ronnie Dick to join Dresdner Kleinwort! Never let it be said that we do not bring you the inside story first. Ronnie remains the best FRN trader in the market by a wide margin. When PaineWebber succumbed to the overwhelming advances of UBS Warburg behind a bush in Central Park, it was clear to his fan club that Ronnie would not want to be a cog in the engine of the lumbering UBS Warburg steamroller. Having made a serious fortune at Kidder Peabody and then at PaineWebber, the world was his oyster. But at 44 Ronnie decided that it was too early for retirement. There were offers galore. Merrill Lynch should have pounced and Lehman Brothers, whose FRN train seems to have been derailed, should have sent Ronnie a blank cheque and asked him to fill in the amount. Goldman Sachs, which has suffered the embarrassment of falling behind BNP Paribas in FRNs, missed another golden opportunity. However, that has been the story of Goldman's life this year in debt capital markets. The appointment of Dick to a very senior trading position is a coup for Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, where Andrew Pisker is now well on his way to building an 'A' team of exceptionally talented managers. Dresdner may not be an FRN powerhouse (it is lying in ninth place in the EuroWeek league tables) but Pisker will be hoping to increase both primary and secondary market share with Dick's arrival. Dick's friend and former FRN trading colleague from PaineWebber, Andy Slaughter, is already at DKB and our top Swiss mole, the legendary Frau Brünhilde Grössrosti, says that DKB is also about to snap up several of the best PW salesmen in Switzerland. Will this number include the famous veteran, Jules Weinberger? Brünhilde has promised to keep us informed and, in the meantime, we wish Ronnie every success in his new career. While on the subject of the last mortal remains of PaineWebber, we were correct in our report that Mike O'Hanlon's band of PW waifs and strays had been turned away by Nomura. This is most uncharitable, especially as Christmas is coming and this should be a time of peace and goodwill to all men. Rather than ringing the Red Cross to find them a good home, will some kind house take them in? Just in case you did not know, they are actually rather good. We visited Lille in France last week for an opening round of Christmas shopping. The French are charming, the women are stunning and the hotel staff treat us like royalty - is it just the Parisians who are grumpy? French television was all at sea over the US election and we were reduced to watching the BBC World News. Which is the more boring: BBC World News or CNN? Answers please on the pillow where you would have fallen asleep.

SAir Group has added Lehman Brothers as a dealer to its euro500 million ($428.01 million) Euro-CP shelf.

Denmark LB Kiel has launched a Eu50m multicurrency financing for Danish bank Amtssparkassen Fyn. The five year term loan pays a margin of 24bp over Euribor. The deal will be drawn in four currencies: Swiss francs, Danish kroner, euros and dollars. Drawdown is after three months and then the facility is consolidated into two tranches.

Romania continued its return to the loan market this week with a unusual credit for corporate Thermo Electric. The new facility is a one year $100m receivables backed pre-import financing. Thermo Electric, the 100% state owned electricity company, has mandated Standard Bank, ABN Amro and Deutsche to arrange the facility. The leads plan to bring in two or three other banks at this level before the deal goes to general syndication.

DLJ's Hal Ritch has moved to Salomon Smith Barney as global co-head of M&A. He joins Greg Polle in New York and Tom King in London. Ritch joined DLJ in 1991 and in 1994 became global co-head of M&A, then head. After DLJ's takeover by CSFB, Ritch became a co-head of M&A at CSFB with Don Meltzer, who remains there. Steve Koch and Scot Lindsay are CSFB's co-chairs of M&A. The European branch of the investment bank, Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, is to establish an M&A business development group headed by Adrian Liddell and David Cantor.

Securitas AB, the world leader in the security services business, has awarded a mandate to BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank to lead manage its inaugural Eu500m-Eu750m offering. Roadshows began in London today (Thursday) and will go to Europe next week, finishing on Wednesday. The deal is expected to launch and price at the beginning of the following week. A five or seven year maturity is expected. Unofficial spread guidance on five years is mid-swaps plus 85bp and mid-swaps plus 100bp on seven years.

* Commerzbank AG Rating: Aa3/AA-/A+

Cazenove and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney began a £525m deeply discounted rights offering for Spirent this week to help pay for its £1.1bn purchase of US company Hekimian Laboratories. The telecoms test equipment company Spirent joined the FTSE 100 in September and will place the 140.7m shares at a ratio of five for 24 at a price of just 375p, a discount of 37% to Wednesday's closing price of 597p.

* Allstate Life Funding LLC Rating: AA+

Vodafone Group PLC, rated A2/A/A, the world's largest mobile phone company with 65.5m customers worldwide, reported strong interim results for the six months to September 30 on Tuesday. The results showed significant growth in operating profit, Ebitda, and operating metrics such as customer growth by region. The results were better than expected and provided comfort for bond and equity investors.

* Unique Zurich Airport gained 1.5% after the company sold 1.2m existing shares yesterday (Thursday), although trading during the day reflected the volatile market conditions. Credit Suisse First Boston led the secondary deal with a syndicate of five banks which helped to bring liquidity to the stock.