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* Cregem Finance NV Guarantor: Dexia Bank (Brussels)

Despite strong demand from both retail and institutional investors, Cableuropa, Spain's largest cable and internet service provider (ISP) operating under the brand name Ono, has postponed its Eu260m-Eu325m IPO. The company, due to list on the Nuevo Mercado on Tuesday, cited market volatility and falling technology share prices in its decision to postpone the IPO.

Unicredito and Merrill Lynch began bookbuilding for the $420m secondary sale of Bank Pekao this week, which will dispose of almost all of the Polish government's remaining stake in the company and raise new money for the company. A maximum retail price of Z54 was set on Tuesday for the offer. Yesterday (Thursday) the stock closed at Z54.60. "The stock has rallied since the deal was launched," explained one banker, although he acknowledged that the sale was unlikely to attract non-Poland specialists.

The City of Palermo, the capital of Sicily, intends to visit the international bond markets early next year, following the assignment of its Aa3 rating by Moody's. Palermo now enjoys the same rating as Italy and is better rated than the Region of Sicily, which is rated A1 by Moody's. Palermo will become the fourth Italian city to make an appearance on the international stage, after Florence, Naples and Rome.

* Bayerische Handelsbank AG Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

* Bank Austria AG Guarantor: City of Vienna

South Africa Barclays (bookrunner and info memo), Fuji Bank (documentation, facility, publicity and signing agent) and RMB International (Dublin) have signed banks into the $100m revolver for Illovo Sugar.

US dollar swap spreads contracted precipitously on Thursday (yesterday) following the surprise news of the voluntary reform packages to be introduced by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Ten year swap spreads closed on Wednesday at around 119.5bp over Treasuries, but by the end of trading yesterday they had contracted to around 114bp. This was some 8bp tighter than the intra-day wide of the week.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac scored a victory in their battle to head off legislation aimed at undermining their government links yesterday (Thursday), when plans by the two government sponsored agencies (GSEs) to subject themselves to greater transparency and scrutiny from the market place resulted in tightening of agency spreads.

Texaco and Chevron on Monday announced that they plan to merge their businesses. The combined company will be called ChevronTexaco and should emerge as the world's fourth largest publicly traded integrated oil and gas company with 11.1bn boe (barrel of oil equivalent) reserves, 2.7m boe per day of production (pro-forma) and a more diversified and global exploration and development portfolio. Standard & Poor's and Moody's have confirmed their ratings for Chevron - AA stable and Aa2 stable respectively. The two rating agencies placed Texaco, rated A+/A1, on review for a possible upgrade.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac scored a victory in their battle to head off legislation aimed at undermining their government links yesterday (Thursday), when plans by the two government sponsored agencies (GSEs) to subject themselves to greater transparency and scrutiny from the market place resulted in tightening of agency spreads.

ASB Bank has raised the limit on its $500 million Euro-CP shelf to $1 billion. The UBS Warburg arranged facility was signed in 1996.