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Morgan Stanley Dean Witter expects to price a Eu165m seven year bond issue for real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle next Wednesday, following roadshows in Europe this week and presentations in the US next Monday and Tuesday. Investors said Jones Lang LaSalle is looking for an 8.25% coupon on the Ba2/BBB- issue of senior notes.

* Kommunalbanken AS Rating: Aaa/AAA

Olivetti went some way towards appeasing bondholders yesterday (Thursday) by unveiling the terms of the compensation package it has been promising since the announcement last month of its planned merger with Tecnost. The announcement confounded expectations of a merger between Tecnost and Telecom Italia, which was Olivetti's initial intention after acquiring the latter, and prompted Moody's to downgrade Tecnost's bonds from A3 to Baa2, and S&P to place its BBB+ rating on negative CreditWatch.

Olivetti went some way towards appeasing bondholders yesterday (Thursday) by unveiling the terms of the compensation package it has been promising since the announcement last month of its planned merger with Tecnost. The announcement confounded expectations of a merger between Tecnost and Telecom Italia, which was Olivetti's initial intention after acquiring the latter, and prompted Moody's to downgrade Tecnost's bonds from A3 to Baa2, and S&P to place its BBB+ rating on negative CreditWatch.

Fannie Mae and Federal Home Loan Banks took advantage of the strong bid for spread product this week to launch a total of $9bn of bonds. Fannie Mae led the agency sector with a blowout $5.5bn issue of Benchmark Notes at 82bp over Treasuries, via ABN Amro, CSFB and Lehman Brothers. FHLB jumped in soon after Fannie Mae's pricing with a $3bn two year global bond at 57bp over Treasuries, via Salomon Smith Barney and Barclays.

EFG-Hermes managed to complete the biggest IPO in Egyptian history this week with the $368m IPO of Orascom Telecom. Although the deal was priced below the bottom end of the bookbuilding range, it still gives the telecoms operator a generous valuation, say analysts. Orascom used a bookbuilding range of $19-$24 for the IPO, but set the final price at $16. "The company's first aim was to attract big foreign institutions, so it was focusing on the quality of the investors and not the price of the deal," an official at EFG-Hermes said.

EADS made a disappointing debut on the Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid exchanges this week, following its Eu2.4bn IPO on Monday. Although the deal was billed as an IPO, it faced the difficulty of a one-for-one swap of Aerospatiale-Matra shares. Therefore no range was given for the deal. In the event, the shares were priced at Eu19 from Aerospatiale's Friday close of Eu19.5.

KOREA Electric Power Corp. (Kepco) proceeded with its Euroyen transaction this week, and was followed by the Republic of Philippines pricing its Samurai bond deal, bolstering an already popular and active yen market. Bankers agreed that Kepco's ¥30bn five year euro bond issue received strong support from Japanese investors.

TWO companies bookbuilding for Neuer Markt IPOs hope to benefit from the increasing tendency of software manufacturers to outsource production and development work. CAA, which launched its Eu74m-Eu88m offer on Wednesday, and Condat, which will list on July 17 with a Eu51m-Eu59m IPO, stand to gain from the trend.

Iceland The $200m five year revolving credit for the Republic of Iceland has been launched into syndication by arrangers Bankgesellschaft Berlin, Citibank/SSSB and SEB.

Despite criticism of the borrower's balance sheet and growth strategy, and after a sceptical reception at launch, the Eu4bn facility for UPC (United Pan-European Communications) has raised solid support among the banks invited to join at the top level. Mandated arrangers Chase Manhattan and Toronto-Dominion went out to a targeted group of nine banks in this round, of which eight joined. Banks were asked to underwrite Eu350m for 170bp all-in.

ROADSHOWS began this week for the $2bn equity fundraising of Ares-Serono, which will list the world's third largest biotech company in New York. Merrill Lynch is global co-ordinator of the deal, which will be priced on July 26. A total of 973,336 new shares and 973,336 old shares will be sold by the Bertarelli family. The family will reduce its stake from 70% to just over 50%.. There is a greenshoe of 194,668 existing shares. Current shareholders will get the right to buy one new share for every 14 shares held under a rights offering.