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DRESDNER Kleinwort Benson has appointed a global head of MTNs, Henry Nevstad, previously a director at Deutsche Bank. He will report to Sean Park, global head of debt syndicate. Based in London, it is a new position. DKB already has MTN distribution and trading in place and is hoping to use Nevstad's arrival as a springboard for growth on the origination and distribution team.

Croatia The $250m facility for The Republic of Croatia has been launched to general syndication after a popular first round. The deal has been oversubscribed to $320m and may be increased.

Eksportfinans has added IBJ International and SG as dealers to its $10 billion Euro-MTN programme. IBJ has lead managed nine trades for the issuer this year.

Information systems integrator Infomatec narrowly escaped being forced to delist from the Neuer Markt this week. The company lost its two designated sponsors over the last two weeks, and under the high growth exchange's regulations each listed company must have at least two. The Deutsche Börse gave Infomatec until midnight on Wednesday to appoint new sponsors. The company surprised the market by persuading the brokerage Lang & Schwarz Financial Services to become one. Although Infomatec still needs another, it has told the Bourse it is talking to candidates, and is thought to have until next Wednesday to secure one of them.

Emerging market bonds were sold off this week on news that the sector's two biggest underwriters and trading houses, JP Morgan and Chase Manhattan, were to merge. Expectations are that the merged entity, JP Morgan Chase & Co, will not only severely cut staff levels at their two emerging market departments but also significantly reduce the liquidity the two separate firms currently supply to the market.

Argentina * MetroGas SA

What a sad end for the greatest name in banking. One minute JP Morgan was full of swagger and bravado. The next the bank had rolled over on its back, run up the white flag and thrown in the towel. Even worse was the news that the once patrician House of Morgan had surrendered to the uncouth barbarians of Chase Manhattan. Of course, no one has been fooled by JP Morgan for a long time. Writers, including ourselves, who are allowed to speak their own minds, blew Morgan's cover ages ago. We have not been invited to lunch at Morgan for years just because we said the bank was the most boring in the industry. How right we were. However, we did not just stop there. Morgan folk were outraged when we continued to criticise the effectiveness of the bank. Time after time we argued that the whole business strategy was cock-eyed and that Morgan, without some inspired acquisitions was digging itself into a deep hole.

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria this week launched its third cedulas hipotecarias issue, only the second internationally targeted Spanish mortgage bond of the year and the bank's first since it was formed from the merger of BBV and Argentaria. The transaction was led by a pan-European lead management group: Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Barclays Capital, CAI, Commerzbank, SG, and UBS Warburg.

UK-Irish encryption software provider Baltimore Technologies announced yesterday (Thursday) a £703m acquisition of scanning technology provider Content Technologies. The purchase will mean placing £249m ($352m) of Baltimore stock in the market, and the company has appointed Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch to manage the issue.

Chase Manhattan, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney priced the £622.75m secondary offer for London listed mining group Billiton yesterday (Thursday) overcoming investor fears surrounding a recent acquisition. Books closed twice covered with UK accounts dominating orders. A total of 210m shares were sold at 265p from a closing price of 273.75p. There is a greenshoe of 25m new shares.

Fears concerning the avalanche of European telecom supply coming to the dollar market subsided yesterday after investors stampeded into Telefónica's blow-out $6bn equivalent transaction. The offering attracted more than 500 investors worldwide and was increased by $1bn after lead managers Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter built a dollar book close to $16bn and a euro book of about Eu4bn.

BMW has increased the limit off its euro1.5 billion ($1.29 billion) multi-currency CP programme to euro5 billion. The programme is arranged by Deutsche Bank and is one of 39 CP programmes signed by German corporates.