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Hungary Hungary will decide in September whether to tap the international bond markets. Bankers stressed that it did not need the money, but favourable market conditions for its credit might prove too tempting for the sovereign to resist.

* Security and home networks specialist Electronics Line, which originally planned to list on France's Nouveau Marché, will instead list on the Neuer Markt next week with a Eu38m-Eu45m IPO. The Israeli company, which is listed on the stock exchange in Tel Aviv, had planned to list on the Nouveau Marché in Paris, but was forced to pull its IPO in April due to poor market conditions. When the management decided to try to list again, they chose to go to the Neuer Markt in Germany. "They think the Neuer Markt is more suitable than the Nouveau Marché in Paris," said a banker close to the deal.

* Deutsche Bank has created a new structured products group within the global credit derivatives business. The group consists of the existing repackaging and portfolio swaps desks. The structured products group's mandate includes all complex synthetic products. Stephen Stonberg will head the new unit and report to Rajeev Misra and Boris Gelfand, co-heads of global credit derivatives.

Market report: Compiled by Glenn Blackley

Pemex Project Funding Master Trust (Pemex Master Trust) has signed a $3 billion MTN programme. The issuer is the funding subsidiary of the Mexican state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). Pemex is responsible for nearly one third of the Mexican government's revenues. The arrangers off the programme are Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and Salomon Smith Barney. The inaugural note off the programme was launched on August 2. It was a euro500 million ($457.64 million) note with a tenor of seven years. CSFB lead-managed the transaction. Pemex, guarantor off the programme, has an existing Euro-MTN programme with a ceiling of $6 billion. It was signed in 1998 and has rule 144a eligibility. It has issued $3.62 billion off 10 trades. Pemex Master Trust's programme was put in place as a vehicle for funding capital expenditure. CSFB says that it is part of the company's funding strategy to keep the two programmes separate. The issuer was assigned a Baa3 rating by Moody's in July. The dealer panel is Chase Manhattan, CSFB, Goldman Sachs and Salomon Smith Barney. It is only the fourth MTN programme to be signed by a Mexican issuer since 1998. It follows guarantor Pemex and Bancomer in 1998 and Manufacturas Kaltex in 1999.

Oberosterreichische Landesbank (Oberosterreichische) signed a euro1 billion debt issuance programme on July 27. Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) is the arranger. The inaugural issue, a Sfr200 million ($116.57 million) Pfandbrief, was launched on July 28. The issuer, an Austrian landesbank, had been planning the programme for at least a year but first had to get a rating. Friedrich Schopf, at the landesbank's treasury, says: "We talked about signing the document for quite some time, but we had no rating. This process took time and we got a rating in January 2000. We wanted to relax and not to hurry things." But the programme was eventually rushed through in just two and a half weeks. Schopf explains: "We had the opportunity to do a Sfr200 million issue. The investors wanted a listing on the Zurich bourse which was only possible under a Euro-MTN programme because we did the issue under Austrian law. We got the Euro-MTN programme within three weeks - one of the fastest ever." CSFB's Zurich branch was lead-dealer off the inaugural issue. An official from CSFB's Zurich transaction advisory group says: "The issue was launched before the programme, but we knew they were going to be parallel. We knew that a standalone Pfandbrief couldn't be issued in Switzerland because it's under Austrian law." The facility has just two dealers: the arranger and the issuer. Schopf says this is due to the haste with which the shelf was signed. He says: "That's explained by the way the programme was set up. We are planning on adding more dealers - probably our partner banks. We'll decide on that in a couple of weeks." Due to the rushed beginning, the issuer has yet to determine a clear funding strategy. But the treasury says: "We will issue mainly euro and Swiss francs. We are very Euro-driven, as most of our investors are in Germany and Austria. We don't intend to issue yen or dollar, but we are open to them." The issuer is rated Aaa by Standard & Poor's. It is the third Austrian issuer to join the market in 2000, following Bank fur Arbeit und Wirtschaft (Bawag) in June and EVN in March.

Regie Autonome Des Transports Parisiens has doubled the ceiling off its euro1 billion ($915.3 billion) Euro-MTN programme to euro2 billion. BNP Paribas arranged the shelf in 1995 and it has $860.35 million outstanding off five issues.

Sumitomo Chemical Company has added the following banks to the dealer panel off its $2 billion Euro-MTN programme: JP Morgan, Sumitomo Trust and Merrill Lynch. Salomon Smith Barney is the arranger.

Sakura Finance has added Deutsche Bank as a dealer to its ¥500 billion ($4.6 billion) Euro-MTN programme.

* Rabobank Nederland NV

Signs of fatigue started to emerge in the US corporate bond market this week as borrowers rushed to launch new issues before September, when supply is expected to be extremely heavy. About $13bn of bonds were scheduled for pricing by the end of today (Friday), including: $3bn from the financing arm of US telecoms company Qwest, $2bn from Wells Fargo, $1.5bn from Federal Home Loan Banks, $2.3bn from First Union Corp, and $750m from Heller Financial.