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Speculation that NTL might merge with its main competitor Telewest Communications to form a group that could dominate the UK cable industry circulated this week. However, analysts said that should such a merger occur, it would be a highly complex deal. "The Dutch company UPC has seen its 25% stake in Telewest peak and then slump to record lows over the last year," said an analyst at a US investment bank.

The first half of Merrill Lynch's new Pfandbriefe and European covered bond origination team started work on Monday. Stephan Kaiser came from Commerzbank as a vice president and Gabriele Müller joins as a director at the beginning of January, from Hypovereinsbank. Merrill Lynch was involved in the Pfandbrief market at its start, acting for Bayerische Vereinsbank on its DM1.5bn January 2006 10 year bond. However, when the 1998 downturn came, Merrill slowed things down. Now it wants to re-enter the market.

* Christian Blanc, the former president of Air France and the Paris regional transport authority, RATP, has joined Merrill Lynch as chairman of Merrill Lynch France and vice chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe. David Jervis remains country manager for France in charge of day-to-day operations. Blanc will assist in strategy development and develop Merrill's relationships with companies and governments.

After almost a 10-year absence, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (MSDW) has returned to Euro-CP following the unprecedented growth in the market in the last year. The US bank will be ready for its first transactions mid-Feb but already demand is filtering through. Gene O'Shea has been transferred from the USCP operation to run the desk in London. The move follows the return of Credit Suisse First Boston to the market in August, last year. And it heightens rumours that other banks are looking to get in on the act. It's hardly surprising when market outstandings grew by 40% in 1999 to almost $175 billion for that year. This is largely thanks to the introduction of the euro, the rapid formation of money market funds and the increasing number of corporate and asset backed issuers seeking short-term funding. Bob Bonafide, executive director, global head of continuously offered products group, MSDW, says: "After having benign growth for years, the Euro-CP market is now taking off. That's largely due to the euro. If it continues to grow dramatically there'll be new opportunities everyday. As a global leader in capital markets, we're convinced we'll be able to carve out market share." But it is an ambitious task to attempt to muscle-in on a market dominated by Barclays Capital, Citibank and Deutsche Bank. However, Deborah Loades, head of Euro-MTN and Euro-CP origination at MSDW, says the bank is ready to shake up the competition. She says: "MSDW was the leading EMTN dealer in 1999 for trades of less than one year demonstrating that we already have excellent access to the short-term investors in Europe."

Credit Suisse First Boston completed a Eu141m secondary offering for e-commerce software provider Intershop at the end of last week. The shares were priced at Eu73, showing a 2.7% discount to last Thursday's closing price of Eu75.02. They rose as high as Eu77 after the issue, but fell again to close yesterday (Thursday) at Eu71.3.

* Cadbury Schweppes last Friday announced that it is interested in acquiring Orangina and some other non-alcoholic beverage brands from Pernod Ricard SA. The move comes only days after the UK company confirmed that it would purchase Snapple Beverages for $1.45bn (see EuroWeek 671), and further demonstrates the opportunistic nature of the consumer goods sector.

Czech Republic The City of Prague has asked banks to bid on a Cz5bn seven year bond issue, having decided that long term funding and bullet repayment was its best funding route.

New Skies Satellites finally came to market this week on its second attempt but was hit by a wave of negative sentiment toward technology stocks that sent it below the issue price. ABN Amro Rothschild, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter were global co-ordinators for the Eu293m IPO which had an Amsterdam and New York listing.

* Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG Rating: Aa3/A+/AA-

* Ford Motor Credit Co Guarantor: Ford Motor Co

While the LSE attempts to fight off its hostile takeover bid, OM Gruppen is busy at home selling a large chunk of its stake in technology unit Orc Software. Bookbuilding for the Skr391m-Skr476m (Eu46m-Eu56m) IPO is underway, and will close next Thursday.

Pfandbriefbank International this week launched its inaugural jumbo Eu750m lettres de gages issue via HypoVereinsbank and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. The deal was priced at 51bp over the Bobl 136 and 42.5bp over the 2005 OAT. "The response we got from investors was good and very encouraging," Christof Schörnig, head of treasury at PBI, told EuroWeek. "We had premarketed the issue to international investors to gauge opinion on, and to promote the Luxembourg model, and were very pleased with the reactions we got."