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Brazil ABN AMRO Bank, BankBoston NA and Export Development Corporation of Canada have been mandated to arrange a $91m three year club deal for Brazilian cellular phone company, Telemig Celular.

THE DUTCH equity market is gearing up for a brisk second quarter, with a number of large deals scheduled to come to market. Like other European centres, the Amsterdam primary market has been relatively slow to regain confidence after the turbulence of last year. Several companies planning to float this year have so far been deterred by the market's high volatility.

THE REPUBLIC of Lithuania made its long awaited debut in euros this week with a Eu200m five year Euro/144A offering. Lead managed by Credit Suisse First Boston and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, the Ba1/BBB- rated transaction's launch had been frustrated for several weeks by unsettled market conditions.

MANNESMANN has selected Deutsche Bank to sole co-ordinate the Eu7.65bn term loan that will part finance its proposed acquisition of Olivetti's interests in Omnitel Pronto Italia and Infostrada. Deutsche's position as sole arranger has surprised many in the market -- bankers had expected that because of the large size of the deal, at least two banks would arrange it. Indeed, Commerzbank and Merrill Lynch have been linked with the deal since Mannesmann made it clear that it was planning to buy up Olivetti's telecom assets.

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GLOBAL co-ordinator Morgan Stanley Dean Witter has completed the sale of stock in UK commercial property group, Canary Wharf. The US firm priced the sale of shares at 330p and, despite some scepticism in the market last week, the flotation has been a success. Some bankers in London have been concerned about the group's dependence on selling space to the financial sector -- which is a rapidly consolidating industry -- and on the success of the Docklands area, which is highly geared to the completion of London Underground's Jubilee Line.

Egypt The first phase of sell-down for the project financing for the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (ECMS) has been well received by the market with a 100% hit rate among the banks approached to join by overall global coordinator Chase Manhattan and arrangers Commercial International Bank and National Bank of Egypt.

THE HELLENIC Telecommunications Organization (OTE) is sounding out the market for a credit facility, perhaps to partly refinance its $700m six month (plus a three month extension option) term loan signed on December 18 last year. That loan was arranged by NBG International Ltd. Participants, receiving an fee of 8bp, were Citibank, Dresdner Bank Luxembourg, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Alpha Credit Bank, Commercial Bank of Greece, Ergobank and National Bank of Greece.

THE KINGDOM of Morocco launched its debut euro offering this week. Lead managed by CCF Charterhouse the Eu138.7m five year issue bore a partial guarantee from France's triple-A rated Agence Française de Développement, which covered 100% of principal and 50% of coupon payments on the Ffr1bn equivalent transaction. AFD's guarantee effectively left investors exposed to just 8% Moroccan risk. The par priced issue featured a 3.95% coupon to give a spread of 55bp over the 5.5% April 2004 OAT -- at the tight end of the 54bp-58bp price talk.

* Lehman Brothers is preparing the flotation of stock in Software, the German provider of systems software used as the underlying foundation to run thousands of large companies' business applications. Pre-marketing has started and the lead manager reports a good reception to the initial sales calls. Some 65% of the group's equity capital will be sold -- mostly by the company's founding shareholder, but with some primary capital being raised by the group itself.

* MEPC has joined the ranks of property companies which have established debt facilities this year, setting up a Eu1bn Euro-MTN programme arranged by Deutsche. The UK property investment company owns a portfolio valued at £3bn, including the Centrepoint building in London. The programme will be mostly used for private placements, and will not provide core funding for MEPC. It has no plans to issue an inaugural bond, and any issues under the programme will be relatively short term and small.

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