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Kommuninvest has decided against yen for the first time this year with a euro100million ($92.20 million) seven-year note that pays a final coupon of 5%. The note will be issued on February 22 2001. All of the issuer's previous 5 trades have been long-dated yen notes and it this type of note that often has the power reverse dual structure attached. Maria Vilmne, senior funding officer at Kommuninvest, says: "We have seen a steady flow of this type of structure throughout the autumn and winter. Of all the structured enquiry we see coming out of Japan, about 75% of this is made up of power reverse dual currency notes."

Koninklijke KPN has increased the size of its $5 billion global MTN programme to $10 billion, two weeks after the issuer had its long-term corporate credit rating downgraded to BBB+ by Standard & Poor's. KPN has also shed both BNP Paribas and UBS Warburg from its dealer panel. The dealers have been replaced by Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank and Tokyo-Mitsubishi International (TMI). KPN has used its programme only six times since it was signed in August 1998. It has issued only in yen for its last three trades. Newly appointed TMI was the bookrunner off two of these notes and will become the only Japanese dealer on the programme. KPN's other three notes were all denominated in euro.

Argentina Bank of America and HSBC Securities Inc are in the market with a $100m one year USCP back-up facility for HSBC Bank Argentina SA.

It would appear that Henry Nevstad not only has the highest cheekbones in the market but also the finest timing. Only a matter of months after walking out of Deutsche Bank to head up Dresdner's fledgling MTN desk, Deutsche Bank has announced it is to sack 2,600 employees, with 600 going in non-Germany Europe. Though no one would dare touch uber-MTNer Tiina Lee, rumours are circulating that she may find this an apt time to move on to bigger and better things. It is all very reminiscent of the autumn of 1998 when Merrill Lynch "right-sized" many of its London-based debt capital markets team. And, if Leak remembers correctly Mr Nevstad managing to leave the US house only a matter of months before he discovered he was the "wrong size". The most persistent rumour to be circulating around the market for the last year or so has been Rupert Lewis' imminent departure from MTNs. Various gossips suggest that fast-living Rupert is finding running JP Morgan's MTN business a less than exciting way of spending his day. So ever since Chase's Garrath Fulford got the top job after the merger everybody has been waiting to see where he would go. As yet he has stayed put at Victoria Embankment, but if he is looking for some ideas as to where to head he could take a lead from Johnny Fine, his friend and fellow Morganite. On Thursday Johnny Fine left his swaps position at the bank to take the short walk up to Fleet Street to join Goldman Sachs, where he starts in March. In his departure, however, he managed to confirm his status as MTNWeek's Media Whore of 2001. Barely had Fine got through the revolving door at JP Morgan than he was on the phone ringing the press to announce his departure. Leak sincerely hopes that part of his new contract stipulates that he continues to take responsibility for THE Christmas party in the market. The market will be a poorer place without Johnny Fine in charge pouring the drinks. He is in training by hosting his leaving party at Bar Room Bar in far-away Hampstead tonight. In the meantime Leak will be satisfied with Bayerische Landesbank's usual post-Christmas bash at Bavaria House. Once a year Rolf Schafer, Russell Williams et al are in charge of the fun which involves a bevy of frauleins chopping of the ties of guests with a pair of scissors. Klaus Svendsen, after seeing his natty Hermes tie cut in half a couple of years' ago, will at least be prepared with a cheap and nasty one this year. Only three week's ago Leak awarded Andrew Moorfield, who used to be Diageo's top funding man, with its Biggest Self-Publicist of 2000 award (see MTNWeek, issue 212). He is now in the running for Biggest Self-Publicist of 2001 after his appearance - complete with grinning photo - on the back page of Financial News. It is a mystery how his company, bfiance.co.uk, has not gone the way of boo.com and other internet flops as he seems to spend his entire time chatting to the press rather than running a business. His latest appearance in print chronicles his macho shark-fishing hobby and includes the priceless sentence: "The pleasure is in pitting yourself against nature, the thrill of the chase and using a whole different set of reactions - and muscles - than are required for success in the financial markets." We expect Moorfield to be next appearing in Guns 'n' Ammo sporting an AK47 comparing taking on the Taleban to running a treasury. And the market will soon be bidding farewell to one of its longest-serving treasurers: Chris Vallance, who is to step down from ICI after more than 30 years' service. David Blackwood is to take over.

It is rumoured that Lettuce Asset Finance has signed a ¥30 billion ($257.87 million) limited recourse secured Euro-MTN programme. Notes off the programme, according to Moody's, are ultimately backed by unsecured consumer loans originated by the KK Lettuce Card. Moody's rates the notes Aa2.

Bahrain The Bahraini authorities are looking to raise up to $350m to finance an expansion at the Al Hidd power complex. A non-recourse loan facility is a likely source of financing, although one market observer said a bond financing was possible.

Monumental Global Funding has increased the ceiling off its $2.5 billion note issuance programme to $5 billion. The programme, rated AAA by S&P, has $2.54 billion outstanding off 29 issues.

France The book for the Eu2.2bn engineering group Alstom secondary issue is already over 75% covered, with a whole week of bookbuilding to come. The achievement is impressive, as secondary offerings usually only attract investors into the book in the last couple of days. "The management is doing a great job on the roadshow," said a banker close to the deal. The roadshow will move from Europe to the US next week.

Following the successful recruitment of Andy Clapham before Christmas, Bear Stearns has further bolstered its securitisation unit by recruiting Nitin Bhandari, a former colleague of Clapham from Nikko Principal Investments. Bhandari, who joins as managing director, will report to Clapham who now heads the asset backed finance group at Bear Stearns. He will focus on principal finance. At Nikko, Bhandari was responsible for originating and executing principal finance and private equity transactions. Bhandari is the fourth person to leave Nikko for Bear Stearns, following Scott Dickens and Adam Wilton as well as Clapham. Bear Stearns now has a securitisation team of eight, but intends to increase this to around 15 by the year end.

Egypt There has been no word from the Arab Republic of Egypt about the mandate for its $500m-$1bn bond, despite repeated promises. One banker on the shortlist said bidders were at their wits' end.

NIB Capital Bank has issued its first euro-denominated trade for almost a year. Deutsche Bank managed the euro5 million ($4.89 million) credit-linked note that pays a coupon of 3m Euribor flat. If Scala SA defaults then the note will be redeemed. NIB Capital Bank focuses on the yen market. Of the 136 trades it has done since the beginning of 2000 125 have been in yen. Niek Allon, treasury assistant at the issuer, says: "The yen market offers good funding levels. We do access other currencies, but it then depends on the swap-rate."

Nordic Investment Bank has done its second 26-year yen trade of the year: a ¥3 billion (27.04 million) note that will be issued on February 15 2001. The latest note marks the bank's fourth yen trade of the year. Samu Slotte, senior funding officer at triple-A Nordic Investment bank, explains why so many of their yen denominated trades are attached to the power reveres dual structure. He says: "We have seen a steady flow of these types of structure over the last two years because Japanese investors are looking for strong credit names to avoid credit risk on a already structured transaction."