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LEHMAN Brothers has launched a new bond index, the Euro-aggregate index, in a bid to position itself as a major indices provider in Europe ahead of the arrival of the single currency. The index will only include bonds denominated either in Ecu or those currencies entering European monetary Union and will be a rule-based measure automatically including all issues which fit the inclusion criteria. These criteria state that bonds must be investment grade, fixed rate and with a maturity of at least one year. Treasury securities must have a minimum size of Ecu500m and all others a minimum size of Ecu100m. Over 6800 bonds are in the index which has a market cap of Eu3.6tr, and portfolio managers will be able to follow the aggregate index or a sub index derived from the aggregate index which can be customised for their fund.

THE LOAN market is split over the fate of the general syndication for the $720m Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company (Kemya) expansion financing for sponsors, Sabic and Exxon. The arrangers -- Barclays Capital, Citibank, Riyad Bank, Saudi American Bank, and Sumitomo with Al Bank Al Saudi Al Fransi, Arab Banking Corporation, Arab National Bank, Apicorp, Gulf International Bank, IBJ, Morgan Guaranty Trust Company and Saudi British Bank -- argue that only a few banks were expected to join in retail, with a target to sell no more than around $100m of the project's debt. And so the syndication, with a reported three banks coming on board, must appear successful.

DESPITE the continuing volatility of Wall Street this week, there has been enough new issue activity to encourage the optimists. All eyes were focused on the Merrill Lynch led flotation for Republic Services. Fears that the deal would falter, because of its size and the mixed market, were unfounded and the company raised a total of $1.3bn making this the largest IPO to date -- just ahead of Goldman Sachs' $1bn deal for Heller Financial.

Abu Dhabi Three bidders have been shortlisted for the $900m Al-Tawellah power and water desalination project. CMS is being supported by Barclays Capital. Enron is being supported by IBJ. The third bidder, Tractebel, has not revealed its bankers.

* SGZ-Bank has signed a Eu2.5bn Euro-MTN programme arranged by Deutsche Bank. The programme will provide the framework for future debt issuance by the bank in the international capital markets. The bank will use the facility for the issuance of public deals and private placements. Issuers documented under the programme are SGZ-Bank AG, SGZ-Bank International and SGZ-Bank Ireland. The parent will provide a keepwell for issuance by the other two issuers. SGZ Bank AG has received a long term senior debt rating of A1 from Moody's, a long term counterparty rating of A+ from S&P's and a long-term security rating of AA- from IBCA.

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MUNICH RE, the largest reinsurer in Europe, has announced plans for an ambitious DM3.3bn ($1.8bn) issue of new shares to finance a rapid expansion programme, while it is aiming also to list its stock on several foreign stockmarkets and simplify its share structure. These plans, which will make its shares more accessible to retail investors and to foreign buyers, put Munich Re on the same path as many blue chip German companies which as a group have embraced the goal of maximising shareholder value over the past 12 months.

* The retail offer of 2m shares in Portuguese insurance company Imperio has been more than 21 times oversubscribed. This tranche, combined with the 6.5m share institutional tranche, represents a 17.58% stake in the company and will increase the insurer's freefloat from 19.64% to 37.22%.

* World Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

* Nomura International's principal finance group has extended the already impressive range of UK assets its owns, making an agreed bid for Thorn, the owner of the Radio Rentals group. Although Nomura is keeping its options open, the financing for the acquisition looks certain to include securitisation of the underlying cashflows from the TV and video rental and rent-to-own business. A Nomura spokesman pointed out that the business was a mature one, with a strong and stable cashflow. Bankers said although issues such as a declining market share had to be addressed, the collateral looked ideal for the asset-backed markets.

PARIBAS has launched a Ffr4.232bn mortgage-backed security for its real estate subsidiary UCB, in an attempt to channel underlying cashflows into investor friendly instruments. Launched via special purpose vehicle Domos 4, the bonds are structured as a series of soft bullet instruments at two, five, seven and 10 years. "We wanted to create a benchmark spread curve for UCB in the French franc asset-backed market," said Adrian Carr, head of asset-backed securitisation at Paribas in London. Using a carefully controlled substitution schedule allowed UCB to avoid the amortising pass-through fixed rate structures that had characterised the market until now.

GREENWICH NatWest has launched a rare beast -- a bond backed by performing UK mortgages. Issued via special purpose vehicle TMC Tattenham No 1, the £330m bond parcels collateral garnered from 14 called TMC mortgage backed securities. "The main driver was the margin improvements we could achieve," explained Chris Higgins, head of capital markets at Mortgage Trust, the UK subsidiary of Ireland's First National, which bought former centralised lender TMC in 1996. "The existing deals have margins over Libor that are not attractive -- some have stepped up or will soon step up to 50bp over."