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AT THE end of last week, Citibank Salomon Smith Barney launched the long awaited co-arranger level of the DM830m senior debt backing the KKR sponsored buy-out of Tenovis, the private networking division of Bosch Telecom. Citibank, as underwriting bookrunner, was joined by Credit Suisse First Boston as co-lead arranger and is hoping for strongly supported co-arranger tier so that it does not have to run a general syndication. "We have gone relatively wide," said an official at the underwriting bank. "This is so that we can accommodate the German banks. We want them to play a large part in the deal. We will do a general syndication if we have to. But we have used the same strategy that is employed on the jumbo financings - going far and wide at the co-arranger level where the fees are better and the final takes are more worthwhile."

* Bank Austria AG Guarantor: Deficiency guarantee from City of Vienna

Deutsche Bank this week pulled off an extraordinary coup by hiring the two co-heads of asset finance at Credit Suisse First Boston, the top securitisation house in the US, and possibly several other senior ABS bankers and traders from CSFB. After a day in which rumours swirled around Wall Street that anything up to 18 CSFB staffers were moving to Deutsche, the bank confirmed yesterday (Thursday) afternoon that it had recruited Jorge Calderon and Phil Weingord, co-heads of asset finance, and that it was having discussions with several other senior CSFB bankers and traders.

There was every indication this week that the £3.95bn acquisition financing for Lafarge would be a blow out success. As Euroweek went to press it was difficult to find a single bank that had turned the deal down, and banks in the market were expecting the arrangers to announce an impressive oversubscription. Most banks seemed to be interested in the top sub-underwriting ticket of £300m, which will bring senior co-arrangers a 20bp underwriting fee plus 20bp again when the bid goes unconditional.

Danisco, the Danish food ingredients producer, is set to return to the loan market soon to refinance the Eu1bn one year bridge, signed in May 1999. The bridge loan, backing Danisco's acquisition of Kultor of Finland, was led by Deutsche. But the mandate for the new deal is thought to have been awarded to a group of four banks, made up of Commerzbank, Den Danske, Svenska Handelsbanken and Unibank. The size of the new facility is not yet clear, but the borrower may choose to refinance the whole of last year's deal in this transaction. It is likely to emerge with a one year and a five year tranche.

DEUTSCHE BANK strongly signalled its focus on building up its credit business in Europe this week by hiring Hope Pascucci from Merrill Lynch. Pascucci had been responsible for the US bank's corporate business in Europe for the last year and before that spent 10 years with Merrill in New York.

Czech Republic The Eu85m EIB guarantee for Cez, the Czech power utility, is finding a good reaction in the market. Arranger Sumitomo should close the facility next week.

Argentina * Banco Hipotecario SA

* Bancaja Eurocapital Finance Guarantor: Caja de Ahorros de Valencia Castellon y Alicante

Europe’s cities and regions are drifting into international markets, rather than rushing, as Euan Hagger finds out. But some are blazing the way in attracting international interest

THE LAUNCH of the world's largest IPO from the internet sector for World Online helped Europe leapfrog the US in the internet race this week and highlighted the accelerating pace of internet mania among investors and bankers alike. The title of the world's largest internet IPO will only be briefly held by Dutch internet service provider (ISP) World Online before German ISP T Online launches its Eu5bn IPO at the end of March - details of which Euroweek can exclusively reveal.

* Banca Lombarda Preferred Securities Trust Rating: baa1/A- (Moody's/Fitch IBCA)