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Our southern European social correspondent, the voluptuous Marquesa de Bonamour, phones us excitedly from Marbella. Bosom heaving, she says: "Our own little Seve Ballesteros is returning home." The celebrated golfer in question is better known in the City as David Bonsall (handicap 5), doyen of the securitisation market, who has decided to hang up his Hermès ties after more than a decade at the top of his profession.

Barclays Capital acted yesterday (Thursday) to bolster its European leveraged finance expertise by relocating its global head of high yield, Joseph Bencinvenga, to London after about four years of him running the business from New York. Bencinvenga will have direct responsibility for high yield capital markets, working with the sales, trading and research teams and in partnership with Chris Coles, global head of financial sponsor coverage, to develop and expand new issue business. Complimenting Bencinvenga's move across the Atlantic, Barclays also intends to hire over 70 leveraged finance professionals during next two years. Staff will be hired in Barclays' European offices and will be spread throughout the product lines including high yield bonds and leveraged loans.

Bezeq, the Israeli state owned telecoms company, has become the first Israeli company to tap the loan market since 1998. The borrower is raising $70m as a five year term loan, arranged by Sumitomo Bank.

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Four rural Spanish savings banks launched an Eu200m mortgage securitisation this week - the first such transaction issued solely by members of the country's predominantly rural cooperative bank sector. Caja Rural de Almería, Caja Rural de Málaga, Caja Rural de Navarra and Caja Rural Valencia sold the deal mainly to foreign investors, some of which had never invested in the busy Spanish MBS market before.

Funds advised by Cabot Square Capital, the London based private equity house, this week refinanced their July 1999 acquisition of UK pub company Avebury Taverns Ltd from Daiwa Europe's disbanded principal finance group. The refinancing was achieved through a £146.3m securitisation of Avebury's 686 pubs, lead managed by Dresdner Kleinwort Benson.

David Bonsall is to retire as head of the international asset securitisation group at CIBC World Markets, leaving the market after a 13 year career at the heart of international structured finance. Fazel Ahmed, now head of Asian securitisation, will take over leading the group when Bonsall leaves on March 31.