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Metso Corporation signed its euro1 billion ($979 million) Euro-MTN programme, Monday December 11 2000, one month later than expected. The arranger, as reported in MTNWeek, issue 205, is Salomon Smith Barney. The Finnish machine maker has been given a BBB+ long-term rating by Standard & Poor's and Baa2 long-term rating by Moody's, but both agencies have put the Finnish corporate on negative outlook with Moody's pointing out that Metso's pending acquisition of Svedala will be debt-financed. Pekka Holtta, Metso's corporate treasurer, is not concerned, however. He says: "The negative outlooks are based on our acquisition plans, and are therefore event driven." He insists that though Metso hopes to lengthen the maturity of its debt, the Euro-MTN programme will play no direct part in the financing of the acquisition. "I admit, though, that it has motivated our timing," he says. Holtta intends to market Metso's name extensively. He says: "I think the procedure is the same as for the acquisition side. We will take time to communicate the strategy of our company to investors. We will be travelling to some extent. But there are no immediate plans in my mind for a roadshow. It would be far more relevant for investors to listen to us should there be some paper available to buy." There are no plans for an inaugural trade, but Holtta says that it is likely to be in the public market when it does happen. Metso would like to raise long-term debt off the Euro-MTN programme but admits that the long end of the curve is not the most attractive option at the moment. Holtta says: "We have to face the fact that it can be difficult to issue notes in the Euromarkets with periods of more than 10 years. Practically, the five-year sector is more available to us. But we are not such a capital-intensive company that we have extensive needs for 30-year debt." Metso is a global supplier of machinery and systems for the pulp and paper industry. It becomes the 13th issuer rated triple-B by Moody's and the third Finnish borrower to join the Euro-MTN market this year. The other two Fins were both corporates: Elisa, which signed last week, and Stora Enso. The dealer panel includes Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, MeritaNordbanken, Merrill Lynch, SEB Debt Capital Markets, UBS Warburg and the arranger.

First Active, the Irish mortgage lender, has signed the ninth global MTN programme of the year. It put pen to paper on a euro1.5 billion ($1.32 billion) global facility on December 7 2000. And it hopes that the programme will help it move away from its traditional source of funding. "Previously First Active has funded itself with mortgage-backed bonds. We're embarking on a new course of diversifying our funding," says Michael Torpey, director of treasury and finance. The issuer will not be able to launch mortgage-backed debt off the programme. Instead it hopes to issue lightly structured notes, such as equity-linked trades and subordinated debt and plans to issue euro300 to euro500 million-worth of debt off the programme in 2001. Torpey says that, despite the global format, the US investor base is not a core market. He says: "In the first instance we do not want to target the US. The US market has not looked a particularly attractive place recently to issue senior debt; it is more appropriate to sell subordinated debt there." First Active does not have plans for a public inaugural and therefore will not be going on a roadshow. But Torpey, who previously was group treasuer at Irish Life and Permanent, is keen to sell the First Investor credit. He says: "First Active's credit has more upside than downside potential. We are predominantly a mortgage lender in a vibrant Irish market. We are an improving story rather than just a steady story." It is rated A3 long-term by Moody's and A- long-term by Fitch. ABN Amro arranges the programme. The dealers are Bank of America, Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Chase Manhattan, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and the arranger.

Allied Irish Banks has made its first foray into the dollar sector this year. It has used the market on 20 occasions since signing its programme in 1993 but it has only sold three notes this year. Both were 10-year euro-denominated FRNs. This note is a $8 million that matures in July 8 2002. The issue date is December 8 2000.

Four-year sterling attracted two issuers on Thursday December 7. HSBC and CSFB increased their Imperial Tobacco trade by £

Banco Santander Central Hispano has upped and redenominated its $3 billion Euro-CP programme to euro6 billion ($5.35 billion). CSFB, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Royal Bank of Scotland have been added to the dealer panel.

Who fired a harpoon straight into the back of Yann Gindre, the ebullient Frenchman who, in his time, has bagged more mandates than Louis Vuitton? We have followed Gindre's career from the early days at UBS, through BZW and Commerzbank to the murky waters of Chase Manhattan where he was enticed by his friend, Michael Ridley, who had arrived from Salomon.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN MTNs? I took over responsibility for funding in August last year together with Bart Toering who is responsible for day-to-day management of our MTN desk. Prior to joining SNS last year, I worked for Barclays Capital in London from 1993, where I was responsible for marketing derivatives to Dutch institutional investors and banks. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE PART OF THE JOB? The most satisfying part of my job is seeing that our intensive programme of roadshowing SNS to institutional investors throughout Europe has lead to a much broader and more diversified investor base that buy SNS bonds, both geographically and by investor type. We have also spent a lot of time with MTN dealers (both appointed and reverse enquiry) educating them on the SNS credit. Our strict policy of rewarding dealers who actively place SNS MTNs with a role in our public deals has paid off. Dealers know that they can expect to lead our public deals if they place a lot of MTNs or schuldscheine. This year we placed euro3.5 billion ($3 billion) in 150 private deals, so dealers should have a fair idea of their eligibility for leading SNS public deals. WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE DEALER OF THE MONTH? Just look at who lead our last public issue, our euro700 million 6% October 2007. The syndicate consisted of Merrill Lynch, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Nomura, Salomon Smith Barney and UBS Warburg. These were the investment banks that placed most of our private deals in recent months. WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST INTERESTING TRADE YOU HAVE SEEN OVER THE LAST FEW MONTHS? Being an issuer we tend to have a different focus. Dealers know what our funding targets are for vanilla deals in various maturities and that we knock-off four to five basis points for structures. We are very flexible in structured notes, and do not have a view on whether the structure is interesting or not, as long as it meets investor demand. The only structure we cannot do is credit-linked, because we do not have the systems to mark-to-market the underlying derivative. When a dealer can match our target he knows we will give him a mandate to execute the deal quickly. WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL BE THE MOST IMPORTANT TREND IN THE NEXT QUARTER? Equity and debt capital markets seem to be in a very delicate equilibrium at the moment. Corporate spreads have widened considerably in recent months, starting in the telecom sector. Refinancing of debt through equity issues by heavily leveraged firms may prove difficult in current markets and could well affect profitability of investment banks underwriting these bridge finances and syndicated loans. Although SNS has no exposure whatsoever to the telecom sector or emerging markets, our secondary spreads have been affected slightly as well. I sincerely hope, for all involved in this industry, that things will ease in the next quarter. WHAT ANNOYS YOU MOST ABOUT THE MARKET? There are still a few dealers around trying to bully their way into the syndicate of our public bond issues, knowing that they are not eligible because they haven't placed MTNs for SNS. The number is declining rapidly though and our policy has the full backing of the board of directors of SNS Reaal Group. WHICH OF YOUR COMPETITORS DO YOU ADMIRE MOST AND WHY? Abbey National. I am impressed by the detail of information on the site of Abbey National Treasury Services, especially their bond database. We have spent a lot of time developing our own investor relations web site, and our mortgage-backed securities site. IF YOU WEREN'T AN MTN DEALER WHAT WOULD YOU BE? I would live in the south of France, buying, restoring and selling under-developed retail property. WHAT CAR DO YOU OR WOULD YOU LIKE TO DRIVE? The ultimate family car a Volvo V70 during the week. When I moved back to the Netherlands last year I brought along my RHD 1973 Triumph Stag. WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE RESTAURANT? Undoubtedly Chez Georges, 3 Herenstraat, Amsterdam. The best food in town in a living-room sized restaurant run by the Belgian Georges and his wife Betsie.

The market has been hit with a batch of short-term Hong Kong dollar trades. HSBC is responsible for three of these: two one-month HK$80 million ($10.26 million) notes that will be issued on 13 December 2000 and a HK$80 million two-month note, which goes out on 20 December 2000. Lehman Brothers has issued two notes: a HK$8 million one-month trade and a HK$21 million two-month note. Both trades will be issued on 20 December 2000. The last in the batch is a HK$30 million one-month trade, which will be issued by KBC Ifima on 21 December.

Bladex has dropped Citicorp Securities, Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, Fenner and Smith, HSBC Markets and Nikko Europe as dealers from its $750 million Euro-CP programme. They have been replaced on the dealer panel by Barclays Capital, CSFB, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Salomon Smith Barney.

Were you surprised to read that the number of employees to be laid off in the doomed Chase Manhattan-JP Morgan has risen from 3,000 to 5,000? Just in case your maths is a little rusty, that is an increase of 66%, which means that some nerdy bean counters have seriously blundered. Can you imagine being a main division manager at General Electric and telling Jack Welch that your numbers were wrong by two-thirds? We suspect that vasectomy would be imminent.

BNP Paribas has added nine professionals from PaineWebber, two analysts and seven salespeople, to its high grade corporate bond team in New York. Joe Labriola becomes co-head of research, along with Dan Scotto. They report to David Fergione, who joined at the start of November as head of high grade bonds in New York. Fergione had been head of domestic corporate trading at Bank of America.

Richard Boath has joined Barclays Capital as global head of primary markets. He assumes management responsibility for the debt capital markets group headed by Abigail Hofman, Allen Appen's securitisation team and Hanne Marrott-Poulsen's transaction management group. It is a new position.