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French drinks manufacturer Rémy Cointreau demonstrated this week how far it has come from its problems of two years ago, with a Eu260m convertible bond that attracted enormous investor interest. The bond was issued to finance Rémy's purchase of Dutch drinks producer Bols.

EFG Hellas has increased the debt limit of its euro500 million ($471.44 million) debt instrument programme to euro1.5 billion. Banca d'Intermediazione Mobiliare IMI and Merrill Lynch have been added as dealers. EFG Hellas is the financing vehicle for the Greek bank EFG Eurobank Ergasias.

* BES Finance Ltd Guarantor: Banco Espirito Santo e Comercial de Lisboa SA

Rabobank Nederland, Westland/Utrecht Hypotheekbank and European Investment Bank all issued in the 10- to 12-year yen sector. Rabobank's ¥3 billion ($25.36 million) 10-year trade pays a final coupon of 2.5%. The other two borrowers issued ¥1 billion notes paying final coupons of 2.2% and 2.1% respectively.

Australia The A$170m five year facility for Ausco Building Products, arranged by Westpac Banking Corp, is scheduled to close by the end of January. Bankers suggest the margin will be between 200bp and 240bp. Proceeds are for a leveraged acquisition.

Banca Nazionale del Lavaro SA, the Argentina-based subsidiary of Banca Nazionale del Lavaro (BNL), has signed a $500 million MTN programme. It is the second MTN programme signed by BNL. The Italian bank signed a euro5 billion ($4.67 billion) Euro-MTN facility in 1993. The arrangers off the new programme are UBS Warburg and BNL, and the dealers are ABN Amro, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, the issuer and the two arrangers.

There are high jinks as well as the usual frisky fun and games at Deutsche Bank in London, where "Banker of the Year 2000" Josef Ackermann is holding the reins after the sad loss of brilliant team leader Edson Mitchell. Ackermann knows he can make any amount of promotions to plug the gaps in his front line, but his efforts will have no more lasting effect than wet Polyfilla. To replace Mitchell, he will eventually be forced to look outside. But please do not doubt Ackermann's skills or his powers of persuasion. As an example, take the clever and thoroughly likeable Colin Grassie, who was due to leave Deutsche to become head of sales at BNP Paribas. Indeed, Colin had packed his Louis Vuitton bags and the Frenchies at BNP Paribas were ready to welcome him with 21 gun salutes and a gold pass card for every restaurant in Europe with three Michelin stars. BNP Paribas is on something of a roll at the moment, and Philippe Blavier and David Ovenden have clearly decided that they have the brainpower and financial resources to compete with the bulge bracket American houses.

Banco BPI has signed a euro3 billion ($2.8 billion) Euro-MTN shelf via Deutsche Bank. The bank formed in 1998 after a merger between Banco Fonsecas & Burnay, Banco Borges & Irmao and Banco de Fomento e Exterior. The dealers off the facility are the arranger, ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, HypoVereinsbank, Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith Barney.

A euro150 million ($141.33 million) trade was issued by Bank of Ireland yesterday with a coupon of 6.45% and a tenor of nine years. And European Credit (Luxembourg) did a 10-year euro12 million trade that offers 5.29%. The currency has been used in 248 trades this year raising over $22 billion-worth for its issuers. Only dollar has had a busier start, with over $27 billion having been issued so far. Salomon Smith Barney is leading the euro league table, with just over $3 billion-worth of business according to MTNWare.

Bank of Montreal has added Merrill Lynch as a dealer to its $3 billion Euro-MTN programme. The facility was set up in 1996 and was co-arranged by the issuer's London branch and Lehman Brothers.

Barclays Bank is believed to have launched a highly unusual yen denominated collateralised bond obligation, backed by a pool of mostly US asset backed securities. The ¥17.25bn ($147m) deal is a fully funded synthetic CBO. Lead manager Barclays Capital declined to comment, but the deal appears to satisfy two objectives. Assuming all the notes are sold to third parties, Barclays will reduce its exposure to the assets to 3% of their face value, and may be able to earn an attractive spread on that equity risk.