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British American Tobacco (BAT) has increased its $6 billion Euro-MTN programme to $7 billion and added BAT (CI) Finance as an issuer. The other named issuers are BAT International Finance, BAT Capital Corporation and BAT Finance. Daiwa SBCM Europe has been dropped as a dealer. The facility is rated A2 by Moody's and A by Standard & Poor's and has $5.76 billion outstanding off 16 trades.

CHASE MANHATTAN has appointed Steven Schwartz co-head of commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) with Scott Davidson. Davidson will continue to focus on capital markets and trading. Schwartz, who already has responsibility for loan origination, will now also focus on closing and servicing.

Cemex has doubled the limit off its $300 million Euro-CP facility to $600 million. Latin American Investment Bank Bahamas was dropped as a dealer. BNP Paribas, Chase Manhattan, Grupo Financiero, Salomon Smith Barney, Credit Agricole Indosuez and Santander Central Hispano Investment were added to the dealer panel.

CITIGROUP is to tap the Samurai bond market for an unprecedented ¥155bn, the largest Samurai bond issue to date. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Merrill Lynch also announced their intentions to issue in Samurai debt soon, reinforcing the trend of foreign interest in the Samurai bond market.

CHASE MANHATTAN has appointed Steven Schwartz co-head of commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) with Scott Davidson. Davidson will continue to focus on capital markets and trading. Schwartz, who already has responsibility for loan origination, will now also focus on closing and servicing.

Commerzbank has dropped CB Finance as an issuer off its euro25 billion ($22.88 billion) Euro-MTN programme. ABN Amro, BNP Paribas and JP Morgan have been added to the dealer group and Merrill Lynch and Barclays Capital have been axed as dealers.

Citibank/SSSB has launched a $250m 364 day facility for the Republic of Croatia. This is the biggest deal to come out of Croatia and is the first time the republic has borrowed under the new government. A German official looking at the deal said: "There are many private Croatian corporations and banks waiting in the pipeline because it has been very difficult to tell how this government will deal with privatisation and market issues. If this syndication is successful it could lead the way for other Croatian borrowers who are eager to tap the market."

Citibank/SSSB has launched a $250m 364 day facility for the Republic of Croatia. This is the biggest deal to come out of Croatia and is the first time the republic has borrowed under the new government. A German official looking at the deal said: "There are many private Croatian corporations and banks waiting in the pipeline because it has been very difficult to tell how this government will deal with privatisation and market issues. If this syndication is successful it could lead the way for other Croatian borrowers who are eager to tap the market."

The dollar primary markets remain busy even though it is now mid-August. The flow of issuance this week was high, with several bank and finance names tapping the market. Much of this debt appears to have been swapped to floating rate, which has weighed heavily on swap spreads. Meanwhile, the euro market was quiet, experiencing its usual summer lull.

US chemicals company Dow Chemical became the first industrial company to sell its bonds through an internet Dutch auction on Tuesday, when it issued $300m of five year paper using on-line investment bank WR Hambrecht's open auction platform, OpenBook. The deal, which was the platform's inaugural transaction, follows similar deals from Bear Stearns and Deutsche Bank launched last week. The issue, which was sold to 57 investors, was priced at 101bp over Treasuries. The spread range was 92bp-102bp.

DUE TO LAUNCH next week is the Eu18bn dual facility for Deutsche Telekom. Despite the heavy flow of telecoms paper this year, arrangers and potential lenders alike were yesterday evening (Thursday) confident that DT would raise the full amount despite the absence of underwriting. The six arrangers are ABN Amro (books), Citibank/SSSB (books), Chase Manhattan (books), Deutsche Bank (documentation), Dresdner Bank Luxembourg (books) and HSBC (facility agent).

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