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National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corp has increased the debt ceiling of its debt issuance programme from $2 billion to $4 billion. The programme, which was signed in February 1998, has $1 billion outstanding off six trades. The facility is rated A1 by Moody's and AA- by Standard & Poor's. The dealer panel is made up of the arranger, JP Morgan, ABN Amro, Lehman Brothers and Tokyo-Mitsubishi International.

The Neuer Markt celebrates its fourth birthday this weekend, and its participants are praying for some good presents. The secondary market still looks extremely volatile, but banks continue to launch issues and hope investors can be persuaded to part with their cash. The Nemax 50 performance index recovered strongly at the beginning of the week from a staggering all-time low of 1,789.52, but then fell 3.7% yesterday (Thursday) to close at 1,991. To make matters worse, a second company on the Neuer Markt filed for insolvency, and shareholders in flagship company Intershop initiated legal action in the US.

Denmark Danish satellite equipment manufacturer Thrane & Thrane generated enough interest in its Eu38m IPO to price in the middle of the range this week. The deal, managed by Carnegie, was three times oversubscribed despite the dismal equity markets.

* GMAC International Finance BV Guarantor: General Motors Acceptance Corp

Nordea has signed banks into a Eu105m five year multi-currency revolver for Finnish company Elcoteq Network Corporation.

A number of German mortgage banks are looking to enter the Pfandbrief market in the near future, market sources say.

The Eu20m 364 day term loan for Parex Bank, arranged by Standard Bank, has been launched. It is the second syndicated loan for Parex Bank since the Russian crisis in 1998.

The UK market for management buy-outs (MBOs) is set to offer banks some interesting transactions over the coming months. The sector is increasingly busy with a number of companies in various industries in talks with private equity houses and relationship banks. This week saw ABN Amro Capital and CVC in talks with the former management of WH Smith over a potential management buy-in of the company's magazine and newspaper distribution operations. Although these talks are at an early stage, bankers familiar with the business expect there to be a number of other bids before any sale. The value of the business is put at around £240m.

Philips Electronics has announced the dealer panel off its $2.5 billion global CP facility, which it signed on February 23. The European dealers are BNP Paribas, Citibank, which is also the arranger, Dresdner Bank, Goldman Sachs, ING Barings/BBL and JP Morgan. The US dealers are Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Merril Lynch.

* Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz Girozentrale Rating: Aa1/AA/AAA

Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz Girozentrale has done its third Polish zloty trade of the year. The Z200 million ($50.58 million) note is issued off the German bank's $15 billion Euro-MTN programme, which is arranged by Merrill Lynch. The note has a two-year maturity and pays a final coupon of 15%. Its two previous Polish zloty trades this year were both for Z100 million.

The first deals of the year from Nordic financial institutions are demonstrating that borrowers have forfeited the Nordic premium and can expect to start paying margins in line with the rest of Europe. The 28.5bp margin on the Eu87.5m five year term loan for Forstaedernes Bank proved popular in the market. The deal closed oversubscribed and was increased from Eu45m. Arranger LB Kiel was joined by co-arrangers Bankgesellschaft Berlin, Hamburgische Landesbank and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg.