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The Neuer Markt is proving increasingly dominant for the listing of fast-growing companies across Europe. News this week that a unified LSE/Deutsche Börse would place its growth stock component in Frankfurt added to that momentum. Even the Deutsche Börse itself, whose IPO is expected to raise between Eu1.2bn and Eu1.8bn, may apply to list on its own high growth market. If it does, an independent panel will determine whether it fulfils the necessary criteria.

Estonia The City of Tallinn is shortly to sign a Eu7.65m amortising term loan. The five year facility has been syndicated on a club basis among four banks.

Brazil * Banco Bradesco SA (Cayman Islands)

ETSA Utilities, the South Australian electricity distributor completed its A$2bn equivalent funding requirement this week in advance of its end of May deadline - with a HK$1bn five year and three months fixed note issue via sole lead manager HSBC Markets. In addition, there were Australian and US dollar private placements. The deal was the final stage of a refinancing blitz for ETSA in the last month that has become one of the largest Australian fundraisings in the capital markets.

Contrary to widespread expectations and hopes, the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on Wednesday declined to exempt old inter-company swaps from the impact of its new accountancy rules. This leaves users of swaps across the US facing the prospect of finding fresh offsets for hundreds of transactions. The controversial new measures, designated FAS 133, are designed to make derivative positions and their impact upon the balance sheet much clearer to shareholders than is currently the case. Unless the derivative on the books can be shown to be a perfect hedge, it must be marked to market at fair value with the result recorded on the earnings statement. Firms do not like this as it exposes their balance sheet to damaging volatilities.

Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein (LB Kiel) this week launched the first public, term securitisation by a German Landesbank, with a Eu1.007bn synthetic residential mortgage deal lead managed by WestLB. The transaction confirms the trend that Germany's banks, though slow to begin securitising, have now adopted the technique with enthusiasm, and are producing some of the asset backed market's most innovative structures.

* Leasingroma SpA, one of Italy's largest equipment leasing companies, launched its first securitisation this week, parcelling leases on heavy equipment to construction company Impregilo SpA. Leasingroma sold the equipment to special purpose vehicle Eurofinance 2000, which financed the acquisition by issuing Eu39.8m of unrated ABS. The SPV then leased the plant to Impregilo - lease payments will back the bond.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has produced two further consultative papers on individual aspects of the new capital adequacy framework.

Global derivatives markets are facing change on an unprecedented scale following the introduction of business-to-business (B2B) derivative exchanges.

Australia * Telstra's announcement of a $3bn investment to form a joint venture with Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW) led to an immediate placing of its AA+ long term corporate rating on Standard & Poor's (S&P) CreditWatch with negative implications. S&P believes Telstra's financial profile will weaken due to the 100% debt-funded investment.

THE SECOND biggest share placement in Japan's history was completed this week as bookrunner Nikko Salomon Smith Barney reported that the jumbo issue for Oracle was more than two times subscribed. There was relief in Tokyo that the $7.5bn share placement was completed despite the sell-off on Nasdaq and the adverse sentiment towards new economy stocks such as Softbank and Hikari Tsushin.