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* International Home Foods raised $272m through lead manager Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette this week. The firm priced the shares at $20, at the top of the pricing range of $18-$20. Some 13.6m shares were offered, of which 3m were sold by existing shareholders. Some 20% of the stock was targeted at international investors. The deal was significantly oversubscribed, with particularly strong demand reported from the US.

* Autonomous Region of the Azores Rating: A2

* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

THE FIXED rate Eurodollar market came back to life this week with new issues from three of the Euromarket's top borrowers -- the World Bank, the EIB and the Kingdom of Sweden.

THE FIXED rate Eurodollar market came back to life this week with new issues from three of the Euromarket's top borrowers -- the World Bank, the EIB and the Kingdom of Sweden. The World Bank re-opened the sector, which had been closed for four weeks after global financial market volatility sent bond spreads spiralling, with a $300m five year deal led by SBC Warburg Dillon Read.

* MBNA made another successful raid on the global asset backed market this week with an $832.5m three year deal launched by Merrill Lynch. MBNA Master Credit Card Trust II Series 1997-N came in two tranches: $765m of triple-A rated class 'A' notes paying 7bp over three month Libor, and $67.5m of subordinated notes with a 23bp margin. Both tranches were sold at par and are expected to mature in November 2000, with a two year tail.

BACOB issued its second residential mortgage securitisation to a rapturous reception from the Belgian domestic market last Friday. MBS-2 sold Bfr15bn of bonds at par, backed by Bacob fixed rate mortgages. The issue was lead managed by Bacob with a syndicate of seven European banks.

PARIBAS brought a Lit279.27bn securitisation of leasing receivables for two Italian leasing companies this week. BN Finproget, which securitised car and truck leases, is a subsidiary of the other seller, BN Commercio e Finanza -- which sold equipment receivables into the structure. Both companies are owned by Isveimer, a bank which has gone into voluntary liquidation as part of the reorganisation of the Banco di Napoli group.

BEAR STEARNS ushered First USA into the French franc market for the first time last Friday, but made few friends among its syndicate members in the process. The Ffr2bn seven year deal came in a single tranche, rated triple-A by Fitch, Moody's and Standard & Poor's. It was issued and re-offered at 99.584 with a 5.5% coupon to yield 27bp over the 6.75% October 2004 OAT.

* Korea's Ministry of Finance and Economics has waived the requirement for banks to seek approval before securitising certain dollar denominated assets. The change, which took effect on November 1, may speed up securitisations for Korea's merchant banks and leasing companies, many of which are facing a liquidity squeeze. Bankers Trust intends to take advantage of the relaxation to bring a $300m FRN backed by export bill receivables for one of the largest Korean banks.

DEUTSCHE Morgan Grenfell kicked off its roadshow this week for Indonesia's biggest stockbroking firm, PT Makindo Tbk, which plans to raise $100m through its IPO. Although it is one of the first deals launched since the IMF finalised its loan agreement with Indonesia two weeks ago, bankers are wondering why the company is listing in a battered market.

THE INDIAN government is poised to give the go-ahead for the formal launch of its ambitious privatisation of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), encouraged by initial indications of demand following two weeks of intensive pre-marketing, The result of a meeting between the leads -- Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Merrill Lynch -- the company and the government's core group on divestment are expected to be made public today (Friday), with early reports suggesting that the issue will bow to market sensitivity by scaling down its offering size. It had been hoped to raise up to $800m via a 107m share sale comprising 60m new and 47m existing shares, but finance ministry officials were saying late yesterday (Thursday) that the company's financing will be scaled back to 20m shares, with the addition of a 10m share greenshoe.