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LEAD manager Bankers Trust Alex Brown brought a £150m high yield bond issue for William Hill this week, completing the capital structure put in place to finance Nomura's acquisition of the betting chain at the end of last year. Launched and priced on Thursday, the 10 year £150m senior subordinated notes will be freed to trade today( Friday).

* Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Rating: Aa3/AA-

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A TWO tranche Euro 144A issue comprising dollar and Deutschmark components was launched this week for Derby Cycle Corp, the biggest manufacturer of bicycles in the world. Both tranches were 10 year transactions with call options in year five and annually thereafter. The $100m element pays a 10% coupon while theDM110m issue pays a 9.375% coupon to give a yield to maturity of 9.44%.

LATIN AMERICA's first equity issue of the year failed to lift the gloom this week as investors turned their noses up at the Dominican Republic telephone company's $74m offering. The Tricom deal, led by Bear Stearns, involved the issue of 5.7m ADSs, priced at $13, the bottom of its $13 to $15 filing range.

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Malta * Freeport Terminal (Malta) Ltd

INTERNATIONAL issuers this week continued to expand the range of central and eastern European currency instruments available to investors with the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) launching its fourth Russian rouble denominated Eurobond and Finland's Merita Bank issuing its second Latvian lats denominated offering. ING Barings and the EBRD continued their partnership in the rouble Eurobond sector with the launch of a Rb600m four year zero coupon offering. The transaction was both the first four year issue in the currency and the first to feature a zero coupon. It was priced to yield 31% on a fixed re-offer price of 33.96, equating to a pick-up of around 2,600bp over US Treasuries and 2,450bp over German Bunds. In mid-March the EBRD was the first issuer to launch an international bond denominated in roubles -- a Rb400m (increased from Rb300m) one year coupon bond -- and has since issued two and three year offerings. ING Barings has been the lead manager on each occasion.

The strategy behind Fannie Mae's benchmark note programme came into sharper focus this week as the US agency's $3bn 10 year issue coincided with the Treasury's announcement of a revamp of its debt issuance programme on the back of falling financing needs. Fannie Mae priced its deal, led by Credit Suisse First Boston, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley, just as the Treasury's plans were hitting the screens on Wednesday.

THE REPUBLIC of Finland supplied the final piece of the euro-fungible jigsaw this week when it became the first Emu founder member country to launch a euro denominated transaction structured as a domestic government bond. Sweden, an opt-out in the first wave of Emu, launched a similarly structured Eu2bn bond just over two weeks ago. Launched by JP Morgan and Paribas, this week's Eu2bn transaction marks Finland's determination to increase international participation in its government bond market. Despite a long history of successful Eurobonds, international buyers are relatively rare in the Finnish domestic market.

* Crédit Commercial de France Rating: Aa3/A1