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Continental, the German tyre and brake manufacturer, plans to sign a euro1 billion ($856.1 million) Euro-MTN programme on November 30. The issuer is rated BBB+ by Standard & Poor's. Heidelberger Zement and Metro are the only other German corporate issuers rated BBB+ or below. Continental has appointed Merrill Lynch to arrange the programme. Rumour has it that the seven-strong dealer group includes ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.

Mandated lead arrangers Chase Manhattan, HSBC Investment Banking and WestLB have launched the syndication of the £3bn interim credit facility for Hutchison 3GUK Limited to arrangers and co-arrangers. Ahead of the launch, ABN Amro, Citibank/SSSB, Merrill Lynch and Royal Bank of Scotland were brought in as lead arrangers. In senior syndication, banks have been offered two tickets - arrangers committing £100m and co-arrangers with commitments of £75m. Arrangers earn upfront fees of 140bp flat, while co-arrangers receive upfront fees of 120bp flat.

Investors ignored Standard & Poor's (S&P) downgrade of Argentina this week and raced back into the country's bonds on expectations that the country had narrowly avoided a payment crisis by clinching an IMF-led aid package of as much as $24bn. Argentine FRB Brady bond spreads came down from a high of 1100bp last Thursday to 823bp yesterday (Thursday), as the IMF said it would spearhead an aid package to allay investor fears that the Argentine government would be unable to meet its now $21.8bn financing needs in 2001.

ABN Amro is preparing to launch an innovative securitisation of its Hong Kong mortgages in late November or early December. The deal will be the first public synthetic securitisation from Asia, excluding Australia. It will also be the first transaction by a non-German bank to use the structure in which the first loss tranche of a synthetic securitisation is protected by a sub-participation of interest on the reference portfolio. The technique allows the first loss tranche to be sold at the rating of the originating bank, since the interest is sufficient to cover the loss of the entire tranche.

US aircraft lessor Aviation Capital Group will today (Friday) price a $687m operating lease portfolio securitisation, via First Union Securities. Aviation Capital Group Trust Series 2000-1 is backed by 30 Airbus, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas aircraft, valued at $751m, and on lease to 22 airlines in 13 countries.

Abbey National's monster residential mortgage securitisation, offering £2.4bn of dollar, sterling and euro notes, will price today (Friday), with the leads reporting strong demand. Globally coordinated by Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, the benchmark deal is the bank's second securitisation this year and the largest ever European mortgage backed issue.

* Deutsche Bank this week launched a ¥22bn auto loan securitisation for Japanese finance company Quoq Inc, the issuer's third public ABS. Hexagon Funding 2000 Ltd offered a single triple-A fixed rate tranche rated by Fitch and Moody's. It has a 0.84% coupon with an average life of 1.5 years and was issued at par. Expected maturity is December 2003 and legal maturity 2005. An official at Deutsche Bank in Tokyo said the deal was oversubscribed: "As investors become familiar with Quoq and its auto loan securitisation structure we see a high level of interest."

JP Morgan this week launched a Eu90m tap of Colonnade Securities BV, the club funding vehicle for local social housing institutions in the Netherlands. The deal tapped Colonnade's fourth deal, which offered Eu170m in March this year.

Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Merrill Lynch will learn today (Friday) whether their scheme to buy and repackage the distressed junior bank debt of Eurotunnel has reached the critical mass needed to proceed. The arrangers have put back the schedule by a week, in a bid to win more interest for the tender.

Goldman Sachs is believed to be structuring a $129m catastrophe bond for French insurer AGF to securitise the risk of windstorms in France and an earthquake in Monaco. Mediterranean Re, an SPV in Ireland, will offer a $41m tranche rated BBB by Standard & Poor's and an $88m class rated BB+.

The Italian government's Eu1.35bn securitisation of contributions to INAIL, the state agency that provides insurance against industrial accidents, was priced last Friday at 30bp over six month Euribor - the wide end of a 28bp-30bp range. However, the deal was oversubscribed by around 25% and, given the poor reception for Italy's Eu4.65bn INPS securitisation a year ago, stands as an unqualified success for the republic's securitisation programme.

Paragon Group, the UK consumer lender and regular ABS issuer, last week launched its euro debut, a mixed auto loan and second mortgage securitisation via Société Générale. The lead said investor demand for the senior Eu285m tranche was high, with future euro issues likely. The two sterling tranches were also fully subscribed.