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TPSA provided clear evidence this week that the best central and eastern European names have virtually unfettered access to the international bond markets when the Polish telco launched a record-breaking Eu400m five year offering via lead managers Deutsche Bank and Salomon Smith Barney. Despite generally weak European investor demand the deal was the largest corporate offering in euros from the region to date.

Sole arranger SG has launched general syndication of the £240m project financing for Great Yarmouth Power Limited. Banks have been invited to join at one ticket level of £15m each. Fees have not been disclosed. The co-arranging phase closed very positively and Abbey National Treasury Services, Bayerische Landesbank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank, Industrial Bank of Japan, KBC Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland brought in. Lloyds TSB Bank joined with a £15m take-and-hold position.

Lead arranger Barclays Capital is on the verge of launching syndication of the $600m of senior secured credit facilities for FLAG Atlantic 1. The deal will be offered through the Internet-based syndication system, Intralinks, while more traditional bank presentations are scheduled to be held in London next Monday and New York next Wednesday.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter have launched the Eu750m sale of stock in UPC, the Dutch-based European cable communications company. UPC was floated at the start of this year in a $1.4bn deal which saw the stock priced at Eu29. The shares have moved up steadily since then and have been trading between Eu60 - the level when the deal was first launched - and its current price of Eu64.

? Asian Development Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

? Finance for Danish Industry A/S Rating: Aa3

Chile Chase Securities Inc and Dresdner Bank Luxembourg are arranging a $380m refinancing for Endesa Chile SA.

ITALIAN BANKERS say Mediobanca and Warburg Dillon Read are joint arrangers and underwriters on a Eu3.5bn acquisition finance loan for Assicurazioni Generali, to back its Eu12.2bn bid for INA (Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni). The two arrangers are working on the structure of the deal and more details - particularly whether it will be launched into full syndication this year, or held until next with a group of sub-underwriters sharing the risk over year end- should emerge in the next fortnight.

THE SALE of BTR Paper Technologies plc - one of the LBO market's longest running sagas - has been completed with Apax Partners & Co officially acquiring the paper technology division of Invensys for $810m. While the purchase price has surprised analysts - many thought it would go for over $1bn - the identity of the acquirer has not. Apax has been in the frame for over four months during which time Invensys had difficulty organising a clean sale.

This week's recommendation by the EU Commission that six new countries be invited to start formal negotiations on European Union membership has given added impetus to the emergence of central and eastern Europe as an increasingly important and distinct asset class. On Wednesday the EU proposed that Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia should be allowed to join the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia, which started talks on membership of the Europe's economic and political elite club last year. The commission's proposals will be considered at an EU leaders' summit in Helsinki in December.

* The Russian region of Nizhniy Novgorod this week narrowly failed to secure noteholder support for a delay to the $4.375m coupon payment on the region's ING Barings-led $100m 8.75% October 2002 dollar Eurobond which fell due on October 3. Officials from Nizhniy Novgorod had proposed an interim agreement such that the region would make an immediate payment of $500,000 toward the October 3 coupon into an escrow account with ING Bank Eurasia in Moscow, with an increase to 50% of the due payment by December 3, 1999.

South African electricity utility Eskom this week leveraged off the positive reception accorded to last week's Eu300m 7% five year issue by the Republic of South Africa to launch a well received Eu200m three year issue. The debut euro offering via ABN Amro and Commerzbank, rated Baa3/BB+, featured a 7% coupon and re-offer price of 99.955 to give a yield of 7.017% and spread of 250bp over the 7.25% October 2002 Bund.