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Merrill Lynch and Warburg Dillon Read will finalise the London listing and international offering of shares in Old Mutual, South Africa's premier life insurance group, this weekend. The process has involved a demutualisation where domestic policyholders have been offered stock and a recycling of unwanted shares is taking place from these investors into the international market.

Banca di Roma broke new ground in European structured finance this week by issuing a public securitisation backed entirely by non-performing loans. Italy's banks, burdened with some of the highest bad debt ratios in western Europe, have long looked to securitisation as a potential solution, but the legal impediments to asset backed finance in Italy have bulked large - the first securitisation of any kind by an Italian bank came only 13 months ago.

EUROPE'S largest non-recourse financing for a toll road was closed and signed today (Friday) on behalf of the Aenor consortium which will design, build, finance and operate the 170km Northern Concession toll road under a 30 year agreement. Arrangers and underwriters of the debt facilities for the Eu1.3bn project are Banco Espirito Santo e Commercial de Lisboa, Banco Mello, Banco Pinto & Sotto Mayor and BPA-Banco Português do Atlântico.

Dollar swap spreads tightened in thin trading in the early part of the week after the July 4 holiday in the US. However, by Thursday they were 2bp-3bp wider than last week. The 10 year mid-market was around 86bp, five years was at 73.5bp and three years was at 62bp. Secondary spreads in the corporate market have by and large moved in tandem with swaps in recent weeks, and there is little improvement in arbitrage to floating rate funding.

International equity issuance exploded this week as a variety of vendors sought to complete large offerings before the summer break and take advantage of firmer investor sentiment following the US Federal Reserve’s move on interest rates last week.

International equity issuance exploded this week as a variety of vendors sought to complete large offerings before the summer break and take advantage of firmer investor sentiment following the US Federal Reserve’s move on interest rates last week.

Spain's largest ever share issue by a private sector company closed successfully this week as oil and gas group Repsol completed its Eu4.8bn capital increase via global co-ordinators Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney, BBV and Invercaixa. Despite a 3% fall in the share price on Monday and Tuesday this week, the company managed to raise more than anticipated from the issue - which will help pay for its takeover of Argentina's YPF.

Finland The Eu75m revolver for Aktia Savings Bank was signed last Friday in Helsinki, after being increased from Eu50m.

Lebanese cement company Société des Ciments Libanais (SCL) returned to the Euromarkets this week with a dollar transaction designed to improve the structure of its debt liabilities. Lead managed by Warburg Dillon Read, the $85m seven year bullet issue involved an exchange offer for SCL's amortising $50m 9% January 2003 issue from December 1995 - the first Euromarket offering by a Lebanese corporate - and a new money tranche. The proceeds of this will be used to restructure a $35m domestic bond by SCL with the same maturity as the 2003 Eurodollar issue.

n EBRD Rating: Aaa/AAA

n European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA