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The annual competition as to which Euromoney MTN sponsor can throw the biggest party has begun. Gavin Eddy, who organized UBS's hiring of the London Eye last year, claims that UBS's 2001 event will make the Eye look like a vicar's tea party on a wet afternoon. But, as he is refusing to divulge any details, we think he's lying. Another amusing aspect of this competitive spirit is the lengths to which MTN dealers will go to make themselves sound important. On the conference agendas that are being sent out Henry Nevstad styles himself: "Henry Nevstad, Director, Global Head of EMTNs, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein." But this is not as bad as Deborah Loades, whose business cards must be larger than her wallet. She goes under the following sobriquet: "Deborah Loades, Vice President, European Head of Continuously Offered Products Europe, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter." Congratulations must go to Chris Cox, who is back in London helping to run Salomon's desk. First, he has become a father for the first time; second, he just calls himself "Director". Much simpler.

LVMH, the unrated issuer, has chosen euro for its first trade of 2001. The 18-month euro150 million ($141.22 million) note pays a single coupon and will be issued on January 29 2001. It is the tenth euro issue from LVMH in the last 12 months. Its other two issues saw a S$100 million ($57.71 million) note in June 2000 and a HK$100 million ($12.82 million) in November 2000. Olivier Seux, funding manager at LVMH, spoke with MTNWeek at the end of last year, he said: "Investors are mainly attracted to the image of LVMH, especially in Asia, and we are now very keen to move into the Japanese and Hong Kong sectors."

Merrill Lynch this week won the mandate for the Eu1bn next stage of the privatisation of Den norske Bank (DnB), Norway's largest bank. By completing the privatisation of DnB, the Government Bank Investment Fund will reduce its last remaining stake in a Norwegian bank. The fund holds a 60.6% stake in DnB, and the Norwegian parliament has passed legislation stipulating that this be reduced to a third.

Egypt Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi has successfully closed the $100m term loan for Banque Misr. Joining the deal as co-arrangers are Erste Bank, Bank of New York, First Union National Bank and RZB, taking $15m for 40bp. The three year loan pays a margin of 60bp over Libor and will be used for general funding.

* BNP Paribas has added eight equity salespeople to its teams in London, Madrid, New York and Singapore. In London, Libby Kitson joins from ABN Amro, where she was a director, as a sales trader, reporting to London head of equity sales trading Simon Jeffries. Before joining ABN Amro in 1996, Kitson spent 11 years at Goldman Sachs. Also in London, Michael Ball joins from HSBC as a generalist European equities salesman, reporting to Tim Draper, global head of European equity sales. Ball joined HSBC from Warburg Dillon Read in 1999. Three more - Eric Hongisto, Alfonso Escarte and Felix de Gregorio - join in Madrid. Hongisto comes from BSCH, where he worked in European and Spanish sales and trading, as does Escarte. De Gregorio comes from Crédit Lyonnais Securities, where he worked in institutional equity sales. He will sell European equities to Spanish investors. Ricardo Mandelbaum heads the European equity team in Madrid.

Five and 10 year dollar swap spreads moved to an inverted relationship this week. By yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, the 10 year mid-market was around 88bp over the 5.75% August 2005 Treasury, while the five year mid-market was around 94.5bp over Treasuries. A week earlier, five and 10 year dollar swap spreads traded flat to each other. There are several reasons for this unusual development. Firstly, the five year note has been very special in the repo market. This happens when it trades at a borrowing rate below that of general collateral, but for much of this week the note has been at or around 0% in the overnight market.

France Credit Suisse First Boston and SG kicked off premarketing for the Eu1.5bn offering of Alstom shares yesterday (Thursday).

Norddeutsche Landesbank issued a public zloty trade for Z100 million ($24.46 million). The fixed-rate deal was lead managed by Deutsche Bank and pays a final coupon of 13.250%. It matures in 2004. Axel Weidemann, at Norddeutsche Landesbank, says: "We expect to raise euro3 billion ($2.82 billion) in the international markets this year and euro10 billion in the domestic market." It has not yet been decided if the MTN programme will be used for large public trades this year. But it will provide opportunistic funding. The borrower issued two Z50 million non-syndicated trades in July last year. They were lead managed by Royal Bank of Canada Europe.

* Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz Girozentrale Rating: Aa1/AA/AAA

* Deutsche Hypothekenbank Frankfurt-Hamburg AG Rating: Aaa/AAA

* Linde Finance BV Guarantor: Linde AG