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France The Eu1.52bn and Eu312.5m facilities for French outdoor advertising agency JC Decaux and holding company JDCI were launched into general syndication after a well attended bank meeting this week. Arrangers are Goldman Sachs, Barclays, BNP Paribas and HSBC/CCF.

Westland/Utrecht Hypothekenbank has upped the ceiling of its euro5 billion ($4.3 billion) debt issuance shelf to euro7.5 billion. The issuer has also added itself as a dealer.

What is it about banks that dish out huge salaries to MTNers? No sooner had DLJ offered obscene amounts of money to Luca Favero to move from Lehman, than it announced its merger with CSFB. And although Garrath Fulford has been in the ludicrously overpaid Chase job for only a few weeks, he is now off to turn the fab four at JP Morgan into the famous five. But Leak can't really see the jolly Morgan gang of Rupert Lewis, Gayle Turner, Rob Stoole and Connor Gallagher having much time for the Chase upstarts. Don't be surprised if, after the dust settles, Rupert pitches up somewhere other than MTNs. Leak suspects that there are only so many power reverse duals the star of Leak 99 can take before bigger and better things beckon. If this pattern continues Dresdner will be the next bank to partake (at last) in a successful merger. Henry Nevstad, come on down. After three years at Tiina Lee's side at Deutsche, the time has come to run a desk of your own. Dresdner is perhaps an odd choice for the young Norwegian. But we hear Henry is to be paid a telephone number salary and is bringing another dealer with him. Watch this space. But where does this leave poor old Jon Saunders who has steered Dresdner through some rough and rocky waters over the last year? We gather that though he is staying at the bank he will probably bid a sad farewell to MTNs after many years of dutiful service.

The Lebanese Republic has put back its planned $500m 20 year global bond issue until December at the earliest, but is considering other financing options in the meantime. The turnabout in its funding plans comes after the change in government following the surprise election victory last week of billionaire former prime minister Rafiq Hariri and Moody's decision to place Lebanon's B1 domestic currency debt rating on review for possible downgrade.

Athlon Group, the Dutch motor company, signed a euro250 million ($214.78 million) Euro-CP programme on Monday, September 4. ING Barings arranges the facility. Athlon is the lowest-rated corporate to enter the market since March 1998, joining only three other European issuers rated A-3 by Standard & Poor's. This has not deterred Athlon's group treasurer, Frans De Jong. He says: "We see our rating as a passport for entering the European capital markets." Athlon will not be going out to promote the programme. De Jong says: "We have very good contacts with our investors and analysts and have decided not to roadshow." He also says, however, that Athlon is more than happy for investors to come and meet the management team. Attached to the programme is a Belgian dematerialized treasury facility. De Jong is a fan of the Belgian market. He says: "The Belgian CP market is quite impressive and has developed faster than the Dutch market." Following Shell Finance, Athlon is the second Dutch corporate to enter the Euro-CP market this year. It operates 36 auto body repair shops in the Netherlands. The dealers are the arranger, ABN Amro and SG. On the dematerialized programme the dealers are Bank Brussels Lambert and KBC Bank.

Macquarie Bank has added Barclays Capital as a dealer to its $3 billion debt instrument programme. The facility can issue both Euro-MTN and Euro-CP notes.

Turkey Koçbank is looking to refinance a $120m term loan signed on December 6, 1999.

Sterling bonds rallied yesterday (Thursday) on the release of the Institute of Actuaries' minimum funding requirement (MFR) review, which strengthened the market's belief that demand for corporate bonds will be boosted over the coming years by revisions to regulations governing pension funds' investments. Should the proposals included in the review be accepted by the UK government, pension funds will have more freedom to buy corporate bonds in place of the Gilts they have until now been forced to hold.

* Lehman Brothers has promoted Dan Cohen to head of equities in its Paris office reporting to John Phizackerley, head of equity sales for Europe. Cohen has been with the firm since 1989. Mick Chu has been appointed an executive director in European equity sales. He will be based in London, reporting to Garry Jensen, managing director and head of global European cash sales.

THE Middle East loan market has been attracting attention this week as three financial institutions move into the market. Two deals are from Bahrain, an area that has already tapped the market for $1.9bn this year compared to $801m in 1999.

France Transiciel, a French computer services company, completed the sale of the institutional tranche of its Eu100m capital increase, which represents 8% of its market capitalisation. "The deal went very well. Demand came mainly from UK and French institutional investors, with close to 50% sold to UK institutional investors," said a banker from Crédit Agricole Indosuez Lazard, which led the sale. The 10% retail tranche sale closed yesterday (Thursday).