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Nosediving European government bond markets combined with heavy supply this week to push the euro credit market to its limit. While investors watched the spectacle as lead managers and borrowers competed for their attention, few entered the turbulent market. But fears of oversupply continue. Several corporates are set to tap the market next week, although Mannesmann will avoid the nerves in the fixed rate market when it launches a Eu2bn-plus three year floater paying around Euribor plus 20bp via Balaba, Commerzbank and Paribas.

Swiss pharmaceuticals group Roche Holdings made its debut in the fixed rate bond markets this week when it launched a $1bn 10 year offering, and defied volatile market conditions to successfully complete the transaction. Bankers said that only the rarity and special attraction of the Roche name made the deal feasible - few, if any, other corporates would have been able to launch such a large amount of unrated bonds given the poor state of the market.

Roman Schmidt has surprisingly left his position as global head of debt syndicate at Barclays Capital. Schmidt had been part of a team of experienced debt capital markets officials, including head of fixed income Robert Morrice, head of origination Abigail Hofman, and head of sales Neil Cummins, hired by Barclays Capital chief executive Bob Diamond to boost Barclays' presence in the Euromarkets. Schmidt was a high profile hire for Barclays when he joined the firm from Deutsche Bank, where he had been head of debt syndicate in Frankfurt. After 15 years in the business, however, Schmidt has decided to remove himself from the day-to-day business of investment banking - a decision which coincides with his impending marriage.

Finland Aktia Savings Bank is to increase its Eu50m revolver to Eu75m, although banks will still have to be scaled back after a healthy oversubscription.

ARRANGERS SG and BSCH have brought two banks into the club syndication of a Pta15.2bn vendor loan financing for the management buy-out of Arco. This is one of the largest Spanish buy-outs, and is unusual in relying on a guarantee structure rather than on direct funding.

First Pacific, Legend, Shandong sales underline HK/China uptick

South African rand European Investment Bank

Standard & Poor's this week reported an enthusiastic response to its new on-line credit scoring system, CreditModel. The system was officially launched last Friday in response to growing demand for access to the rating agency's quantitative analysis techniques. While many banks maintain their own credit scoring systems, the importance that many investors and regulators place on the rating agencies' opinions has led to demand for a way of calibrating internal systems against rating agency methods - demand that could grow should the recent credit oriented risk weighting plans of the Basle Committee come into force.

Bank of America Corp Rating: Aa2/A+

Wall Street remained troubled about the likelihood and scale of interest rate rises this week, with both blue chips and technology stocks feeling the heat. There were few new issues completed but several new companies filed for offerings in the coming weeks. Investors gave an enthusiastic reception, however, for the IPO for TD Waterhouse Group, indicating a renewed confidence in online brokerage companies.

TURKCEL, the leading Turkish cellular phone service provider, has announced plans to complete an international IPO this year, ending a near 12 month dearth of issuance of Turkish equity to international investors. The deal could be as large as $3.2bn on the most optimistic expectations and involve the sale of a 20% stake.