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* Bank Austria AG Deficiency guarantee from: City of Vienna

The senior phase of syndication on the $1.015bn project financing for the Taweelah A1 independent water and power project has found an overwhelming response from the market. At this level, the deal has attracted over $2bn in commitments from around 20 banks and the syndication is now closed.

US utility Keyspan Corp and real estate investment trust Equity Office Properties (EOP) raised a total of $2.65bn this week, as US investors looked to high yielding investment grade alternatives to weak telecom and bank sectors. Some telecom bonds widened as much as 12bp this week as rumors circulated that British Telecom still plans to issue $10bn-$15bn of bonds this year.

Bookbuilding for Telenor's Nkr21bn-Nkr29bn (Eu2.6bn-Eu3.6bn) IPO, described by one member of the syndicate as "the transaction from hell", began on Monday in a market saturated with telecoms paper. This is the second time the company has planned its listing on Nasdaq and in Oslo. The first attempt was aborted in August before bookbuilding began. Telenor is offering shares at Nkr50-Nkr68. The deal consists of 372m capital increase shares and a greenshoe of 15%, which is made up of secondary shares sold by the Kingdom of Norway. The base deal represents 21% of the company's share capital.

Electrolux AB, the world's largest manufacturer of household appliances, will begin roadshowing its inaugural euro benchmark offering at the end of next week. Lehman Brothers and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney are joint lead managing the transaction, which will be launched at the end of November. Presentations are expected to be held in London, Paris, Germany and Holland. Few details have been finalised, but a Eu500m five year offering is widely predicted. The pricing is likely to take into account both the Swedish company's prominent position within its sector - it is the number one player in Europe and ranks third in terms of US market share - and the firm's lengthy absence from the debt markets.

Unilever, the world's largest food and consumer products group, led the barrage of new deals in the bond markets on Thursday and cemented its position as the premier corporate issuer in the bond market with a blowout Eu2.25bn transaction. The deal was split into two tranches, comprising a Eu1.25bn three year fixed rate bond and a Eu1bn 15 month floater lead managed by ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank and HSBC.

SG has launched a £220m financing to back the public to private move of Hogg Robinson, a move sponsored by Schroder Ventures. Bank of Scotland and RBS have joined the transaction as underwriting arrangers.

Volkswagen has added CSFB as a dealer to its Euro-CP programme.

Two covered bonds were priced this week: a Dexia Municipal Agency Eu2bn April 2006 obligations foncières and a Eurohypo Luxembourg Eu1.25bn January 2011 lettres de gages. "We were very happy with preparations for Dexia's benchmark issue," said Jean-Luc Petitpont, general manager at Dexia Municipal Agency. "We wanted to launch an investor driven transaction to strengthen our position as the premier obligations foncière issuer and widen our investor base.

Doubts about the outcome of the US presidential election and equity market volatility stifled new corporate issuance in the US dollar market this week and prompted a flight to quality. GECC reaped the benefits of a lack of supply by offering a $750m 10 year global transaction on Monday that attracted a book of $1bn within hours of launch. Lead managers Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch reported strong demand from a range of investors keen to buy relatively rare 10 year paper for the credit. Also on Monday, Freddie Mac launched its $6bn three year Reference note. Lead managers ABN Amro, Lehman and Merrill Lynch reported extremely strong and diverse demand and the deal was 50% oversubscribed by launch, with over 40% of sales to European and Asian accounts. Price talk last week was flat to 1bp over Freddie Mac's 7.375% May 2003 paper, but the final level was at the tight end of that range. The May 2003 deal was trading at 49bp over Treasuries on Monday morning and the new offering was priced at plus 50bp. By yesterday (Thursday), it had widened to plus 52bp. Freddie Mac's imminent visit to the euro sector is awaited with interest. The Eu5bn five year bond has reportedly been mandated to ABN Amro, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Salomon Smith Barney and price talk is speculated to be mid-swaps minus 8bp-10bp. While interest rates were not increased at Wednesday's FOMC meeting, this provided little cheer for investors, who remain cautious due to the FOMC's neutral attitude towards a possible rate rise. With many investors adopting a defensive stance, borrowers took the opportunity to raise funds in the floating rate market, with Dresdner, FIH and WestLB raising $500m apiece of five year FRNs. The fixed rate market is expecting an imminent announcement from British Telecom that its global bond has been revived. Details of European and US roadshows are expected shortly for the $7bn multi-tranche bond, and the deal is expected to emerge before the year-end. Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith Barney were awarded the mandate several months ago, but market volatility put BT's plans on the back burner. The rush to get corporate deals done before the end of the year is gathering pace. DSM is roadshowing with Schroder Salomon Smith Barney and UBS Warburg for a Eu400m seven year bond expected to be launched next week at mid-swaps plus 75bp-80bp area. St Gobain has awarded the mandate for its Eu500m five year bond to BNP Paribas and Chase Manhattan. The issue is scheduled for launch next week in the high 40bp-50bp area over mid-swaps. Securitas has embarked on its roadshow ahead of its Eu500m-Eu750m five or seven year debut bond through lead managers BNP Paribas and Deutsche. Price talk is mid-swaps plus 85bp for a five year and plus 100bp for a seven year. Enel is planning a five or 10 year euro denominated bond via Deutsche and JP Morgan to inaugurate its Eu3bn Euro-MTN programme. Wolters Kluwer's Eu500m five year due for launch via CSFB and Rabobank is being price talked in the 60bp area over mid-swaps well ahead of its roadshow, which should start on November 20. RWE will kick off its Eu3bn financing with a Eu750m three year bond in either fixed or floating rate form. Bayerische Landesbank and Commerzbank are reported to have the mandate. Cirio Finance Luxembourg has awarded a mandate to Euromobiliare to lead a Eu125m five year bond. Repsol is poised to launch a Eu2bn 18 month FRN with BBVA, Invercaixa, Merrill Lynch and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney at Euribor plus 18bp. In the bank capital market, Royal Bank of Scotland is set to launch a $400m tier one preference share issue with Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs as lead managers. Price talk on the perpetual non-call five year bond is 195bp over Treasuries. Underwriters expect the issue to be a big success based on the short maturity and the stock settlement feature of the deal. MeritaNordbanken has mandated Deutsche Bank to lead a benchmark lower tier two transaction following roadshows next week. The deal is expected to comprise fixed and floating 10 non-call five tranches.

Région Ile de France on Wednesday appointed BNP Paribas and Merrill Lynch as arrangers of its Eu1bn Euro-MTN programme, which will be the first for a French local authority and the first by a European local authority to carry a triple-A rating from both Moody's and Standard & Poor's (S&P). "We do not have a state guarantee," said André Autrand, CFO for the region, "so our triple-A status is a reflection of our sound credit fundamentals."

Morocco There has been a good response from the market on the co-arranging phase of the syndication of the Eu700m of international project debt facilities for the Eu1bn Médi Télécom project.