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Austria EuroWeek hears that JP Morgan is close to the financing backing the public to private buy-out of rayon fibre producer Lenzing AG. The company is being bought from Bank Austria by a consortium headed by private equity firm CVC. Last year CVC bought Dutch company Acordis, which is Europe's biggest fibres producer. The deal was backed by a Eu276m loan arranged by Chase Manhattan.

It was around 9.15pm on Monday this week when the lights on our telephone system at home in the country began to sparkle like a Christmas tree. A very good Gresham duck for dinner had to be abandoned to the labradors but with the remains of a very acceptable bottle of claret at our side, we began answering calls. And wasn't some of the news mind-blowing? The big wheels at Lehman Brothers were walking away with so many bags of swag and booty that a convoy of armoured trucks had been seen leaving the company's Wall Street HQ at the World Financial Center. Had chairman and CEO Richard Fuld earned close to $30m? And if so, was that before a slew of options with an exercise price 50% below the current market value. And had our London friend, Jeremy Isaacs, whom we voted one of our "Bankers of the Year 2000", received $20m? By any standards, that is a huge wedge and who said that you have to have been to Oxbridge and possess an MBA to get to the top in the Euromarkets?

UK bank Abbey National this week announced that it has closed its first collateralised bond obligation, a $510m synthetic issue launched by sole manager Bear Stearns on the last working day of 2000. Marylebone Road CBO 1 Ltd is backed by an investment grade pool of mainly US corporate bonds and credit default swaps. Abbey plans more CDOs this year.

South Africa EuroWeek hears that Absa Bank is coming to the market for a $250m one year term loan. The bank came to the market in August last year with a $300m three year term loan. The margin was 80bp over Libor with a top ticket of $15m for 40bp. The mandated arrangers were Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Citibank, DG Bank, KBC Bank, Bayerische Landesbank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and Fuji Bank. Proceeds of the facility were for general corporate purposes.

Swiss employment agency Adecco (Baa2/BBB+) has begun the roadshow for its Eu300m-Eu500m five or six year senior debt issue, which is due next week.

ANZ Investment Bank has expanded its global structured finance group with two newly created senior positions.

Mandated arrangers Deutsche Bank (bookrunner) and Landesbank Baden-Württemburg (information memorandum) have signed banks into the debut Eu200m and $100m credit facilities for Dürr AG. The loans were oversubscribed by 70% and consequently the 22 participants had their allocations scaled back.

Australia Downer Group, an engineering company specialising in infrastructure, mining and resources, plans a A$150m three year fundraising through arranger BA Asia.

France Télécom's Orange IPO dominated the capital markets this week as, within two days of trading, the share price plummeted 13%. The French company's woes were completed when Moody's downgraded its credit two notches to A3, driving its spreads 5bp to 10bp wider. However, the difficult conditions for issuance have not deterred European telecoms credits from lining up further offerings. While Telecom Italia is expected to launch its multi-tranche transaction soon, Deutsche Telekom will next week issue more than ¥100bn in the Samurai market in a four tranche offering. The company is considering issuing ¥40bn of three year fixed rate bonds at 90bp-100bp over Libor, ¥30bn of five year bonds at 100bp-110bp, ¥10bn of seven year bonds at 120bp-130bp and ¥20bn of three year FRNs at 90bp-100bp. Subject to demand, the overall deal size could be increased to ¥200bn. Daiwa SB Capital Markets and Mizuho Securities have the mandate.

Nordic Investment Bank has dropped Lehman Brothers as a dealer from its euro10 billion ($9.18 billion) Euro-MTN programme. Barclays Capital, HSBC and Royal Bank of Canada have been added to the dealer panel.

Lead arrangers ANZ, as global co-ordinator, and Arab Banking Corporation have launched the sub-underwriting syndication for the Barka Independent Water and Power Project.

* BfG Hypothekenbank Amount: Eu200m Hypothekenpfandbrief series 139