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The Brazilian loan market had ridden out the worst of the Asian and Russian crises before the government was forced to devalue the real this January. Standard&Poor's responded by downgrading the sovereign and 17 top companies from BB to B+. Last week the Brazilian government held a crisis meeting with Wall Street financiers to reassure foreign investors and to avoid a large scale debt default. Ruth Ramsay looks at the creditworthiness of the country's borrowers.

EQUANT, a leading provider of international data network services to multinational businesses, has taken advantage of the extraordinary euphoria surrounding the global telecom sector to announce a large secondary offering via Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. As foreshadowed by Euroweek last Friday, the alternative telephony company filed with the SEC in Washington on Monday for the offer of some 35m shares worth more than $2.6bn.

Market commentary: Compiled by Jim Webber, TD Securities, London.

* BGB Finance (Ireland) plc Guarantor: Bankgesellschaft Berlin, Landesbank Berlin

* Bacob Overseas Ltd Guarantor: Bacob Savings Bank

DEPFA TOOK the latest step in its strategy to place itself in a league of its own yesterday, with the launch of a global Pfandbrief of at least Eu3bn -- the largest ever jumbo and the largest non-government fixed rate bond in euros. When the deal is priced and sized today (Friday), the fate of DePfa's bid to fashion itself an asset class in front of the rest of the jumbo Pfandbrief market will become clear.

FLOTATIONS of European companies taken private in management and leveraged buy-outs are shaping up to be a major theme in 1999. This week Warburg Dillon Read started the pre-marketing for two such deals: the IPO of William Hill, the UK bookmaker bought by Nomura; and the float of Neopost, the French mailing machine business controlled by BC Partners.

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* Three Spanish savings banks this week launched a Eu351.5m (Pta58.5bn) mortgage securitisation -- Spain's first in the single currency. Seville based Caja de Ahorros El Monte, Catalonia's Caixa de Terrassa and Caja General de Ahorros de Granada pooled 7,682 mortgages in TDA 6, a vehicle managed by Titulización de Activos. EBN Banco lead managed the bond -- Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo, SG, Crédit Agricole Indosuez and Bank Austria joined the three issuers as underwriters. Market participants believed a third to a half of the paper was sold to investors -- the issuers retained the rest for use as repo collateral.