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British Telecom has been forced to increase the yields on its multi-tranche $6bn-$8bn bond issue amid growing credit concerns among investors, and wider corporate bond market difficulties prompted largely by a sharp fall on Nasdaq this week. Yesterday (Thursday) bankers were speculating that BT would be offering 220bp-230bp over Treasuries on its five year deal, 260bp-270bp over on its 10 year, and 295bp-305bp over on its 30 year. There was also talk of a three year tranche being added to offset any difficulties facing the longer dated tranches.

"Cazenove to allow public through front door - coaches welcome!" Of course it had to happen. Personally we blame it all first on the suffragettes and then the arrival of 'dress-down' Fridays. Cazenove held out magnificently against the decline in social standards but is said to have decided to throw in the towel when some of their best clients started arriving for lunch wearing Gucci loafers rather than proper hand-made lace-up shoes. "We surrendered before the trainers arrived," said an insider.

CGNU, formed by the merger of CGU and Norwich Union in May, has signed a new £

The growth in single name credit default swaps is fast establishing them as the building blocks of the 21st century credit market, eclipsing a bewildering array of more esoteric credit derivative products.

If the default swap is the credit derivative market's basic unit, its grandest product is the portfolio swap, which allows pools of risk to be traded at one fell swoop.

* Heller Financial Inc Rating: A3/A-

DePfa Group on Wednesday announced plans to split itself into distinct property and public finance units, signalling the mounting pressures mortgage banks are facing in an increasingly competitive market. The plans involve creating a public sector finance bank, DePfa-Bank Europe, and a property bank, DePfa Bank AG, by 2002, with a view to separate listings.

DePfa has axed Daiwa (Europe) as a dealer off its euro25 billion ($21.1 billion) debt issuance programme. Royal Bank of Canada has been added as a dealer.

Deutsche has hired two senior telecoms investment bankers. David Diwik becomes head of global telecommunications investment banking, while Tony Whittlemore joins as global head of telecommunications M&A. Diwik joined DLJ in July as head of media and telecoms investment banking after six years at Salomon Smith Barney. "I had not really come on board, when the news came through that DLJ was getting bought," he said, "so I was on the beach, literally. It was not exactly what I had signed up for. I had left as manager of one of the best telecoms platforms on Wall Street and I wanted to build something."

Deutsche Telekom has announced the dealers off its $20 billion Euro-CP programme (see MTNWeek, issue 204). The US dealers are Chase Manhattan, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. The European dealers are Citibank, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank. Zimmerman, CP desk at Deutsche Telekom, says: "The programme already has outstandings of approximately euro1 billion. ($843.84 million) We are very satisfied. It is the first CP facility for Deutsche Telekom. Most of our short term refinancing will be done via the CP programme."

Dresdner Bank signed a euro10 billion ($8.58 billion) multi-currency CP programme last week, with Dresdner Bank as arranger and sole dealer. The A-1+/P-1 rated facility will be used to complement the issuer's other financing vehicles by covering its short-term funding requirements.

Technology consulting company Devoteam managed to price shares in its Eu111m secondary offering at a discount of just 0.02% this week, but in the first day of trading the stock fell by 19%. The company priced its secondary offering at Eu70.85, from a closing price of Eu71.