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Dutch steel producer Ispat is set to issue the first European high yield deal of 2001 and take advantage of the recovering market, with a Eu175m 10 year bond via Credit Suisse First Boston. "Roadshows are underway this week and we will be looking to price by the end of next week," said a syndicate official at CSFB.

Kommunkredit Austria has issued a euro50 million ($47.45 million) FRN via DG Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank as lead dealer. The note, Kommunalkredit Austria's first this year, pays interest semi-annually and the final coupon is Euriobor +0.5%. The note, which matures in January 2008, is the 24th off Kommunalkredit Austria's euro2 billion debt issuance programme. Last year it issued a Swiss franc note and dollar trade, but the issuance was predominantly in euro.

Kommunalkredit Austria has increased the debt ceiling of its debt issuance programme from euro2 billion ($1.88 billion) to euro3 billion. The programme was nearing its ceiling and has $1.97 billion outstanding off 24 trades.

BNP Paribas and Dresdner will make another attempt at raising money to help French building materials group Lafarge buy competitor Blue Circle when the terms for a Eu1bn preferential rights issue are set next week. Lafarge, after failing to acquire Blue Circle in April 2000, will pay 495p per share, or a total of Eu3.8bn, for the 77.4% of the company it does not already own. Although the price per share has been increased from 473p to 495p since April, Lafarge will only pay what it was ready to pay in April. "With the depreciation of the pound against the euro, the global investment remains the same as in April," said an analyst from a leading French bank.

The New Year has seen one of the market's longest running questions answered. Who would run the JP Morgan/Chase desk? The wild boy of the MTN market, Morgan's Rupert Lewis, or everybody's favourite accountant, Chase's Garrath Fulford? Well the dice has rolled and bean counter Garrath has been appointed. Rupert has gone off skiing, which in this day and age is the most dignified form of sulking. Whether he will return remains unanswered. The merger sees just one person leave the desk. The alarmingly named Rob Stoole, Morgan's junior trader, has moved to syndicate. We shall miss his floaters. And Garrath can count himself one of the luckier MTNers around after doing pretty well out of the SBC/UBS merger, unlike poor Jon Saunders. When Gavin Eddy arrived from Merrill Lynch Garrath was fortunate enough to spend less than a year in exile in Japan before he found the Chase job. Barclays now has a full house, after officially hiring Landesbank Baden Wurttemburg's Monja Blattner. Whether A-booze-a-lot and A-pose-a-lot can justify a four-strong MTN desk remains to be seen.

* Corporacion Andina de Fomento (CAF) launched a $300m 10 year Yankee bond issue on Wednesday via sole lead manager Merrill Lynch, which was oversubscribed despite an increase from $250m. Three quarters of the deal was placed in the US but the inclusion of an unusual Luxembourg listing paid off handsomely, said a Merrill Lynch syndicate official, with 25% of the bond going to European investors.

BNP Paribas and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein are understood to have underwritten about Eu3.5bn of debt supporting Lafarge's cash bid for UK cement company Blue Circle. The size of the loan to be syndicated is still unclear but it is understood that the borrower plans to make a rights issue of about Eu1bn (see equity capital markets pages). The amount of the loan depends on the amount raised in the issue.

Three landesbanks and World Bank have lapped up 20-year-and-over yen-trades. Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale did three 20-year deals ranging from $4.51 million to $12.35 million. All were power reverse duals. Vorarlberger Landes- und Hypothekenbank did an almost identical trade, and Hamburgische Landesbank Finance did a ¥500 million structured note via Credit Lyonnais. The trade was a reverse step-up floater that pays a coupon of 3.25% minus 6m yen Libor. The fixed part of the coupon steps up by 0.5% each year for the first five years, and from then on goes up by 0.3%. It also has a call attached, available after one year and semi-annually thereafter. Brigitte Wuenniker, EMTN desk at the issuer, says: "It was a difficult year last year, and I think spreads will continue to widen this year. But we are still getting a lot of business done." And World Bank did two yen trades: a 25-year ¥1 billion ($8.58 million) that pays a final coupon of 9%, and a 30-year ¥3 billion trade that pays a final coupon of 8.5%.

The rupiah has made its first appearance in 2001 care of UBS (Jersey) and Sparc, an SPV arranged by UBS Warburg. The Indonesian currency was used on 47 occasions in 2000, making it more popular than Canadian dollar, New Zealand dollar and Finnish Markka all put together. The two rupiah trades, both of which have an issue date of January 19 2000, mature in January 2002. Sparc's note has a 367-days tenor, UBS' has a 368-days tenor. Both trades are for Rp280 billion ($38.1 million). UBS' is an FRN that pays 17% on a quarterly basis. The Sparc trade pays a final coupon of 17% as well.

Metro has increased and redenominated the debt ceiling of its Dm2 billion ($966.6 million) debt issuance programme to euro3 billion($2.84 billion). Metro Capital has been dropped as an issuer. Dresdner Bank has replaced Commerzbank and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter as arranger. Merrill Lynch, Westdeutsche Landesbank and HSBC have been dropped as dealers, while ABN Amro has been added as a dealer.

The United Mexican States successfully completed its stated funding requirements for 2001 in a single stroke, with a swiftly executed $1.5bn global launched on Monday through Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. The offering pays an 8.375% coupon with an issue/reoffer price of 98.12, giving a spread over of 374bp over Treasuries.