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* Commerzbank has confirmed that Klaus-Peter Müller is to replace Martin Kolhaussen as chair of the Vorstad (see EuroWeek 673, October 6, 2000 page 8). Kolhaussen is due to step down at the bank's next AGM, in May. He is standing for election to the supervisory board.

Moody's has upgraded Hungary's foreign currency ceilings for bonds and bank deposits to A3 from Baa1 with the outlook stable. Along with the sovereign upgrade, several Hungarian corporates also saw their ratings improve. The agency cited the country's strong economy, continued gradual improvement in inflation, current account and fiscal performance. The agency also noted that it will focus its attention on exchange rate policy and public finances when reviewing Hungary's rating in the future.

* Mobile phone improvement company funkwerk successfully completed its Eu50m IPO on Wednesday, when the shares opened trading up 18% from the issue price. BHF-Bank priced the issue at Eu20, near the bottom of the Eu19-Eu22.5 range, after the deal was 2.5 times oversubscribed. "The market was very weak the day the deal was priced," said a banker close to the deal. Trading, however, started on Wednesday at Eu23.6.

Netherlands-based chemicals manufacturer, DSM NV, is planning to launch a Eu400m seven year bond next week via Schroder Salomon Smith Barney and UBS Warburg following a European roadshow. The market is expecting pricing in the 75bp-80bp area over mid-swaps. DSM is involved in three business groups: life sciences, specialty products, and polymers and industrial chemicals. Over the last decade, it has been moving out of the more volatile commodity businesses and focusing more on its speciality chemicals divisions.

Egypt The Arab Republic of Egypt has received proposals from 19 banks for its debut international bond. Bankers expect Egyptian funding officials to take at least a couple of weeks to weed through the bulky proposals and draw up a shortlist before inviting the selected banks to Cairo for a beauty contest.

Denmark The Kingdom of Denmark has opened bookbuilding for Dkr154m (Eu21m) of shares in Copenhagen Airports. The base offering consists of 1.38m shares, with a greenshoe of 154,000 shares. Including a placement of 50,000 new shares to employees, the deal will reduce the Kingdom of Denmark's stake from 51% to 34%. The shares are being offered at Dkr100. Danske Securities is lead manager and bookrunner for the deal, and Cazenove is co-lead manager. Bookbuilding closes on Tuesday.

The Netherlands' NIB Capital Bank is to add six staff to its structured finance team by January 2001, taking it to a total of 12. Three recruits will come from Bank Labouchère where Jeroen van Hessen, head of the NIB group, worked until last year. They are Michel Kant and Bas van Dijk, both at associate director level, and Sjoerd Wegener Sleeswijk.

Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW) has received underwriting commitments of $6.7bn for two loans. Five banks - believed to be Barclays, Bank of China International (BOCI), Chase Manhattan, Fuji Bank and HSBC - have agreed to fully underwrite PCCW's $4.7bn refinancing of its acquisition loan for Cable & Wireless HongKong Telecom.

* Eurohypo SA Luxembourg Rating: AAA

* Commerzbank AG Rating: Aa3/AA-/A+

In another bad week for the Neuer Markt, one company pulled its IPO, two companies priced below the bookbuilding range, one extended its subscription period and another saw its shares plummet after a secondary issue. The damage was done on Monday by a batch of profit warnings from Neuer Markt listed companies, after which the Nemax all-share performance index sank to 3,467 - its lowest level this year. As a result, Ares Energie decided to pull its IPO, Group Technologies was forced to extend its subscription period and Gericom and Biolitec had to price shares under the bookbuilding range.

Ronnie Dick to join Dresdner Kleinwort! Never let it be said that we do not bring you the inside story first. Ronnie remains the best FRN trader in the market by a wide margin. When PaineWebber succumbed to the overwhelming advances of UBS Warburg behind a bush in Central Park, it was clear to his fan club that Ronnie would not want to be a cog in the engine of the lumbering UBS Warburg steamroller. Having made a serious fortune at Kidder Peabody and then at PaineWebber, the world was his oyster. But at 44 Ronnie decided that it was too early for retirement. There were offers galore. Merrill Lynch should have pounced and Lehman Brothers, whose FRN train seems to have been derailed, should have sent Ronnie a blank cheque and asked him to fill in the amount. Goldman Sachs, which has suffered the embarrassment of falling behind BNP Paribas in FRNs, missed another golden opportunity. However, that has been the story of Goldman's life this year in debt capital markets. The appointment of Dick to a very senior trading position is a coup for Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, where Andrew Pisker is now well on his way to building an 'A' team of exceptionally talented managers. Dresdner may not be an FRN powerhouse (it is lying in ninth place in the EuroWeek league tables) but Pisker will be hoping to increase both primary and secondary market share with Dick's arrival. Dick's friend and former FRN trading colleague from PaineWebber, Andy Slaughter, is already at DKB and our top Swiss mole, the legendary Frau Brünhilde Grössrosti, says that DKB is also about to snap up several of the best PW salesmen in Switzerland. Will this number include the famous veteran, Jules Weinberger? Brünhilde has promised to keep us informed and, in the meantime, we wish Ronnie every success in his new career. While on the subject of the last mortal remains of PaineWebber, we were correct in our report that Mike O'Hanlon's band of PW waifs and strays had been turned away by Nomura. This is most uncharitable, especially as Christmas is coming and this should be a time of peace and goodwill to all men. Rather than ringing the Red Cross to find them a good home, will some kind house take them in? Just in case you did not know, they are actually rather good. We visited Lille in France last week for an opening round of Christmas shopping. The French are charming, the women are stunning and the hotel staff treat us like royalty - is it just the Parisians who are grumpy? French television was all at sea over the US election and we were reduced to watching the BBC World News. Which is the more boring: BBC World News or CNN? Answers please on the pillow where you would have fallen asleep.