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* Banca Popolare di Bergamo - Credito Varesino SCRL Senior rating: A2/A

The Republic of Finland may repurchase more legacy currency Eurobonds, following the success of its latest buyback, which netted some Eu600m equivalent, nearly 62% of the total amount eligible. Eleven out of the 13 eligible dealers participated by executing 50 investor trades, ranging in volume from Eu450,000 equivalent to nearly Eu60m. (See accompanying table for details.) All Eurobonds repurchased will be cancelled.

While US dollar markets were quiet this week, there was hardly any more life in the euro denominated bond market. The All Souls holiday on Wednesday closed markets throughout Europe. But, Freddie Mac is preparing to launch the second leg of its EuReference Note programme this month. It is roadshowing in Europe. The new deal will be for Eu5bn, and will mature in either 2003 or 2005, depending on investor preference. Like its predecessor, the Eu5bn 10 year priced in early September, it will be swapped to dollars.

Gamesa's stock surged on the Bolsa de Madrid on its first day of trading following its successful IPO. The stock closed up 72.4% at Eu21.73 from an issue price of Eu12.60, at the top end of the range, and continued to trade up throughout the week. BBVA and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney co-ordinated the deal in which 25% of the offer was sold to retail investors with the remaining shares allocated equally between Spanish and international institutions. The international book was dominated by UK and US investors.

* Retail investors this week shunned the Eu165m Deutsche-led IPO of Borussia Dortmund, the first German football club to list, forcing the company to price its shares at the bottom of the range. Of the 15m shares sold, between 70% and 80% were expected to be bought by retail investors, but low demand meant that only 25% were sold to private individuals. Institutions also showed reluctance to pay prices near the top of the Eu11-Eu13 range, and so in an attempt to generate a good aftermarket performance the club priced its shares at Eu11. More stock was then allocated to institutions outside Germany than within, and 3% of the shares were sold to friends and family.

Deutsche Bank's Colin Grassie has joined Paul Hearn at BNP Paribas. He joins as head of bond sales, reporting to head of credit David Ovenden and Bob Hawley, global head of government bonds. At Deutsche, Grassie had a number of roles, including head of global markets sales Asia and head of European fixed income sales.

Halifax, the UK bank, has confirmed the increasing importance of the asset-backed sector in the CP market by signing an asset-backed US CP on October 30. It also announced its intention to sign an asset-backed Euro-CP facility in the first quarter of 2001. Lehman Brothers has been mandated as arranger for both. The programmes are signed in the name of Pennine Funding, a Delaware-registered company. Halifax is the sponsor and provides the liquidity loan agreement. The joint outstandings off the US CP and Euro-CP facilities will not exceed a limit of $6 billion. Tony Dullaghan, Halifax's head of non-European funding and liquidity, says: "We expect our outstandings at the beginning of next year to be split 80/20 or 90/10 in favour of the US market. But we are very bullish that the Euro-CP market will grow and we're confident that we will be able to restructure that split later on." The funds raised from the programme will be used to buy asset-backed securities for three conduits called Pennine Funding, Pennine Purchasing number one and Pennine Purchasing number two. Most of the assets in the portfolio have already been bought with 44% of the portfolio being made up of credit card receivables. And Pennine launched $1.6 billion-worth of US CP on Wednesday, November 1. This is Halifax's first foray into the asset-backed CP market but it has a $4 billion US CP programme and a $3 billion Euro-CP programme, both of which are active and near their limits. Last week Dullaghan visited the States to meet the US CP dealers and some US investors. Halifax is hoping to attract US fund managers and security lenders as its main investor base. He says: "Once our outstandings have increased we will go out again. We see it as an important part of the business." Marketing in Europe is also considered important. He adds: "After all, the wider the investor base, the better the pricing." The facilities are rated A-1+ by Standard & Poor's and P-1 by Moody's. The dealers are the arranger, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. But Halifax will also be a dealer off the Euro programme.

Moody's and Standard & Poor's (S&P) have placed publisher Reed Elsevier on review for a possible downgrade after the company agreed to buy Harcourt for $5.65bn in cash and debt. Reed is taking on Harcourt's outstanding debt of $1.2bn, and acquiring outstanding shares for $4.45bn. The transaction is to be funded with $6.5bn of new bank facilities (see Loans roundup for more details), and Reed is expected to refinance some $4.5bn in acquisition costs. It will sell on some of Harcourt's assets to The Thomson Corporation for $2.06bn.

Credit Suisse First Boston and UBS Warburg launched the Sfr430m secondary offer for Novartis and AstraZeneca spinoff Syngenta this week, with pricing due on November 10. A total of 4.5m shares, or 4% of the company, will be sold at between Sfr85 and Sfr105 a share. The deal will offer both shares - to be listed in Zurich, London and Stockholm - and American Depository Receipts (ADSs) to be listed in New York.

The IMF this week made strong criticisms of the Czech government's alleged failure to tackle its fiscal deficit, in an otherwise positive report. The report was released in the same week that the finance ministry conceded that the central government deficit would overshoot the Ck35.2bn ($855m) target by 22%. According to the IMF: "The general government deficit [including local government and extra-budgetary funds, excluding privatisation proceeds] is set to expand from 5.2% of GDP in 2000 to more than 6% in 2001."