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Hamburgische Landesbank issued a euro5 million ($4.79 million) subordinated FRN, the first euro trade from the issuer to be announced this year. The trade matures in 2030. Deutsche Bank was the bookrunner and the note pays a coupon of 3m euribor+36 on a quarterly basis. The issuer has already issued a Z300 million ($73.54 million) zero coupon and a 21-year ¥1.1 billion ($9.44 million) note. Brigitte Wuenniker, at Hamburgische Landesbank's Euro-MTN desk, says that there are no plans to issue any more debt in the coming week.

Helaba International Finance issued the first Australian dollar trade off its euro10 billion ($9.45 billion) debt issuance programme. The A$100 million ($56.4 million) note pays interest annually and has a final coupon of 5.5%. It matures in 2006.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) is to meet in Vienna next Wednesday, and analysts expect the cut in production set to be agreed at the meeting to offer oil companies a short term boost in credit quality. There has been recent speculation that Opec members have agreed to cut production by 1.5m-2m barrels a day. While this might not push oil prices back to the highs of 2000, analysts believe that oil prices might start climbing towards the Opec target of $25 per barrel.

Following his departure from Citibank, Avinder Bindra will be joining HSBC as head of syndicated finance for Asia Pacific on January 29. Bindra, one of the most respected figures in the Asian financial markets, announced his intentions to leave Citibank last August (EuroWeek 664), where he had headed up global loan products, Asia Pacific for the US bank, but was asked to stay on a number of months by the company. Bindra was replaced at Citibank by Mohsin Nathani, who recently joined from ABN Amro.

Hutchison Whampoa raised $2.5bn this week with another cannily timed exchangeable, on the day that France Télécom announced some of its estimated Eu10bn offering of Orange will use the same instrument. KPN Mobile and BT Wireless, which will also tap the equity markets this year, are widely tipped to use exchangeables as well for at least some of their funding. Hutchison's deal was praised for pre-empting this trend among telecoms users. "This is the route the big telecommunications issues will go this year," said the head of one equity syndicate desk in Europe. Another predicted a flurry of combined equity and equity linked offerings. "You will see a real explosion of dual tranche offerings," he said.

Queensland Treasury Corporation has updated its multicurrency Euro-CP programme and has raised the debt limit from $1.5 billion to $3 billion. Citibank has replaced UBS Warburg as arranger off the facility.

Rabobank Nederland has issued two callable US dollar trades, one for $20 million and one for $10 million. The trades were done by reverse enquiry via Merrill Lynch. The issue date is January 22 and they both mature in January 2006, although Johan Karlen, liability manager at Rabobank Nederland's treasury, says that the trades cannot be called in the first year. Both pay interest semi-annually and the larger note has a final coupon of 7.3%, while the $10 million note pays a final coupon of 7%.

Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich has announced its first trade of 2001. The euro100 million ($94.53 million) trade is to be issued on February 21. It pays a final coupon of 5.250% and matures in 2008. The issuer, which signed its euro2 billion Euro-MTN programme in 1999, has so far issued only in euro. It is the sixth Austrian borrower to access the market this year. Vorarlberger Landes- und Hypothekenbank, the Republic of Austria, Bank Austria, Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank and Kommunalkredit Austria have already issued in 2001.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has kicked off its 2001 funding by returning to the three-year dollar FRN sector for the first time since October 2000. It has issued a $5.5 million range accrual note at 3m Libor - 4 bps, which matures January 19 2004. The bookrunner was JP Morgan. Most of RBS' funding is in sterling. Since the beginning of 2000 it has raised $1.24 billion off its Euro-MTN programme - 58% of which was in sterling and 6% ($78.26 million) of which was in dollar.

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and UBS Warburg have each arranged a secured note programme via an SPV. RBC's facility is a $10 billion shelf signed under the name Silver Maple. The issuer off UBS Warburg's euro15 billion ($14.05 billion) programme is called TREES. There are no named dealers on either programme.

Severn Trent signed a Euro-CP programme for euro750 million ($708.97 million) on December 20 last year. Deutsche Bank was the arranger and it joins Barclays Capital and Citibank International in the dealer panel. This is in addition to the euro2.5 billion Euro-MTN programme, see MTNWeek issue 212. Tom Jack, group treasurer at Severn Trent, says: "We'd like to use the programme as flexibly as we possibly can and to build up a steady issuance. We anticipate a base level of debt raised of £