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The European securitisation market showed its first signs of crumbling in the face of concerns about the Year 2000 computer bug this week, as two deals in the long dated fixed rate sterling sector were postponed until next year.

Dollar swap spreads tightened gradually in the course of a week characterised by very light flows. Business in the debt markets was equally enervating. By Thursday the 10 year mid-market in swaps was around 85.5bp, three basis points softer than a week earlier. Five year spreads traded around 68.5bp at the lows. The Bank of England and the European Central Bank announced rate hikes yesterday, of 50bp in the euro zone and 25bp in the UK, and with the non-farm payrolls data announced today (Friday) there were plenty of reasons for traders to do little this week.

n Dresdner Bank AG Rating: Aa3/AA/AA

FOLLOWING THE successful merger of Sweden's Telia and Norway's Telinor two weeks ago, the company has announced that some 20% of its equity capital will be sold in one of the largest IPOs of 2000. The deal is also likely to be one of the largest equity offerings to emerge from the Nordic region. The Nordic markets have produced little in the way of sizeable corporate issuance, relying instead on privatisations such as the sale of stock in Finland's national operator, Sonera.

THOMSON MULTIMEDIA became a publicly quoted company this week in one of the most successful of the French Trésor's privatisation sales. The sale involved the issue of 19,194,816 shares. Some 12,817,315 were fed to institutional markets with 6,377,501 marketed to retail investors and 2,063,524 allocated as an over-allotment option.

The Republic of Turkey enjoyed a blow-out success on its return to the dollar markets last Friday (October 29), with investors piling into its $500m five year global bond. A tightening of the yield on the 6% August 2004 Treasury on Friday morning to 5.95% meant the Turks were able to achieve the sub-12% nominal yield target which was a key prerequisite for the issue.

The Republic of Turkey enjoyed a blow-out success on its return to the dollar markets last Friday (October 29), with investors piling into its $500m five year global bond. A tightening of the yield on the 6% August 2004 Treasury on Friday morning to 5.95% meant the Turks were able to achieve the sub-12% nominal yield target which was a key prerequisite for the issue.

The successful $250m revolver for MG plc has closed with an oversubscription of about 25% and will be signed today (Friday). Several banks chose not to join the facility but have instead provided bilaterals on slightly different terms. The facility has not been increased and banks' allocations have been scaled back.

n Fannie Mae Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

n Western Corporate Federal Credit Union (WesCorp) Rating: Aa3/AA-

ABN AMRO Rothschild and Merrill Lynch have launched the Eu1.1bn capital increase for the Dutch publishing group, VNU. This involves the sale of between Eu250m and Eu500m in convertible bonds and between Eu600m to Eu850m of straight equity.

THE US HIGH YIELD market showed renewed life this week when VoiceStream Wireless Corp priced a highly successful $1.503bn bond issue - one of the biggest telecom offerings since July. The deal helps lift an eight week long curse on the high yield market: persistent mutual fund outflows and investor worries about Y2K - many have developed an aversion to anything but top rated corporate bond issues - has made for an unpredictable and consequently soft market.