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* ING Groep will announce today (Friday) the results of the strategic review of ING Barings instituted by David Robins, shortly after he assumed his role as its chief executive on October 1.

BEFORE THE arrival of the single currency, European sovereigns enjoyed the benefits of being the benchmark issuer in their domestic currencies. Investors regarded their debt as the risk-free benchmark, their products were the most liquid available in the currency, and competition from similar credits was minimal. With the arrival of the euro, the market landscape has changed dramatically. Smaller and medium sized EU states now face many of the same challenges that non-sovereigns have long encountered. Behind the benchmark issuers, France and Germany, the remaining EU members now form the top tier of the new credit market.

Chase Manhattan, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch have launched syndication of the £1.275bn left of the £3.625bn acquisition facility that partly backed the $10.9bn of debt facilities raised in 1998 by Texas Utilities to back the purchase of Eastern Group. The debt is split into a £750m four year term loan, a £200m 364 day revolver and a £325m four year revolver.

THE SALE of stock in United Pan-European Communications has attracted overwhelming interest from international institutions despite the slight weakening of global equity markets. The deal also demonstrates the huge interest in telecoms stocks from international equity investors and the fact that, despite their caution about high growth sectors, they are still keen to acquire exposure to the right groups.

* Asian Development Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

* Export-Import Bank of Japan Guarantor: Japan

THE US corporate bond market continued its strong run this week with over $6bn worth of deals priced, many of which were increased in size to accommodate growing investor appetite for spread product. Investors chased the top jumbo globals, but other high grade deals, like the $400m 10 year offering by the Washington Post at 67bp, (Goldman Sachs) and a $900m two tranche issue by BBB rated Equistar Chemical (Chase and NationsBank Montgomery) were equally in big demand, the latter having increased its offering from $700m.

* Bansud, Argentina's sixth largest bank, has closed a $115m securitisation of an undisclosed portfolio of loans, arranged by Bansud's leading shareholder, the Mexican bank Banamex, and WestLB. The fixed rate loan market transaction has a one year average life and two year legal maturity, and was divided into two tranches, targeted at domestic and international investors. The unrated deal is backed by a static, amortising pool, and was structured using an Argentinian fideicomiso, or trust.

NHP plc, the UK company that finances operators of homes for the elderly, priced its £265m lease securitisation on Friday, lead managed by Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan. "Care Homes 2 was a great deal for NHP, and the most successful of the UK nursing home deals so far," claimed Alexander Justham, vice president in JP Morgan's London structured products group. "The bonds were oversubscribed, and a very broad range of the core UK institutional investors participated. The pricing was sensible, with neither side leaving any money on the table."

Greenwich NatWest and a consortium of Deutsche Bank and Nationwide Building Society were shortlisted this week to buy the second portfolio of student loans to be privatised by the UK government. Barclays Capital had been the third candidate on the preliminary shortlist. The two leading bidders now have a week or 10 days in which to submit their final numbers.

THE PLANNED merger of SG and Paribas will combine two very different securitisation businesses. Like those of Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust, they could be highly complementary, and successful management of the merger could produce a formidable competitor in international structured finance. Neither bank would comment, but market participants said the danger was the two groups' approaches were so disparate that it could be hard to forge a common strategy and maximise the potential advantages of greater size, geographical reach and a wider range of skills.

NISSAN CREDIT Corp, the Japanese carmaker's finance subsidiary, launched its second securitisation of auto loans this week through Aries Funding Corp II. "The deal went very well," said Hideyuki Kawashima, head of syndicate at sole lead IBJ International. "We sold mainly to banks in continental Europe, plus some UK clients."