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Judgement day for Finalrealm's bid for United Biscuits is on February 15, when acceptances are due. In the meantime the consortium's offer document is available for the loan market to study. Deutsche Bank (London) is arranging the senior debt backing the bid and has come up with an unusual structure.

* Bank of America Corp Rating: Aa1/AA-/AA

The fixed rate euro market finally showed signs of shaking off its post-Y2K slumber this week as improving underlying government bond markets opened a window for borrowers. And although investors remain nervous about increases in US and European interest rates and any fall in yields is seen as temporary, the rise in government bond prices and subsequent swap spread widening tempted borrowers to the long end of the curve.

Vodafone AirTouch this week kicked off roadshows for its planned $4bn to $5bn three tranche global bond slated for launch via Goldman Sachs and Salomon Smith Barney late next week — just days ahead of the close of its Eu150bn bid for Mannesmann on February 7.

* Bank Of Scotland Treasury Services PLC Guarantor: Bank of Scotland

Four Spanish regional savings banks this week launched the year's first securitisation of prime European mortgages, with a Eu660.6m deal lead managed by Crédit Agricole Indosuez, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and EBN Banco. Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo contributed 37.8% of the collateral to TDA 11; Caixa Tarragona 22.8%; Caixa Terrassa 21.5% and Caixa Manresa 18%.

TOKYO-MITSUBISHI International has hired Stafford Butt, assistant director of the securitisation group at ING Barings in London. Butt will start at TMI in mid-March as director, charged with boosting the bank's ABS business in Europe. Richard Sullivan, head of securitisation for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and non-Japan Asia, has recently recruited two others to work on European securitisation. Gianfranco Simionato moved to TMI as an associate director at the end of December - the same rank he held in Warburg Dillon Read's London asset backed finance group. Alessandro Gatto has also joined as an associate.

LEMY GRESH, managing director and head of structured securitisations at Deutsche Bank in London, is said to be leaving the bank, apparently for a sabbatical. There was no official confirmation of the move, but sources expect the structured securitisation team to merge with Deutsche's main European securitisation group, headed by Tamara Adler. Deutsche has kept two securitisation groups in London since its merger with Bankers Trust in June 1999. The seven-strong BT securitisation team, run by Gresh, was one of the most highly regarded in the industry, and Deutsche opted in 1999 to preserve it as a separate unit rather than risk losing it to a rival.

Fitch IBCA this week downgraded FILMS Plc, the innovative securitisation of revenues from an Italian film library that Merrill Lynch arranged for the Cecchi Gori media group in February 1998. The downgrade from A- to BBB- is almost unique in European structured finance, both in its severity and in that it reflects concern about the deal's fundamental creditworthiness, rather than an unrelated change in a counterparty's rating.

DORIAN KLEIN is to retire from Merrill Lynch, where he leads the southern Europe corporate and municipal team in the European structured finance group. He will be replaced by Dominique Lemaire, until now head of Latin American structured finance at Merrill in New York. Klein is eyeing a number of career options, but is most likely to join an internet venture.

? WestLB this week launched an Eu96.7m securitisation of equipment leases for a subsidiary of Banco di Napoli. Special purpose vehicle Landes SRI offered two tranches of amortising bonds with a legal maturity of July 2007, rated by Fitch IBCA and Moody's. The Eu78.8m 'A' note, rated triple-A, priced at 30bp over three month Euribor with a 2.34 year average life. Class 'B', worth Eu18.8m and rated A+/A1, came at 68bp over with an average life of 3.44 years.

In this week's Learning Curve, we are presenting the Financial Accounting Standard Board's accounting standards for over-the-counter weather derivatives in connection with nontrading activities.