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Top global retailer, Carrefour, became the second French corporate to come to market this year when it signed a euro2 billion ($2.06 billion) Euro-MTN programme on Tuesday, June 1. Paribas has won the arrangership mandate for what promises to be a strong credit in the market. The issuer's long-term debt carries the best rating of French corporates independent of the state. It is rated double-A by Standard & Poor's and Aa3 by Moody's. Investors are already familiar with the credit. It's been active in the public markets most recently with a euro1 billion Eurobond launched in March, this year. It also has a domestic CP programme and a Euro-CP facility. Carrefour was incorporated as a French Societe Anonyme in 1959, and it was behind the hypermarket idea in shopping. It opened the first such store in 1963. It now owns 351 worldwide. At the end of 1998 Carrefour's total assets amounted to Ffr114 billion ($17.94 billion), with total sales of Ffr179.8 billion. The company makes up about 4% of the CAC40 index. An official at Carrefour says setting up the programme was the logical next step in its funding strategy. It will help fund its acquisition of Comptoirs Modernes which took place in October, last year. The new facility will also build on existing funding opportunities from syndicated loans and Billets de Tresorie. He says: "We need a vehicle to fill in the gap between our short-term funding in our domestic CP market and our long-term funding. That will be maturities from one to 10 years." Details of an inaugural deal have not been disclosed but the official, at Carrefour, says: "Like most corporates, we'll begin with straight vanilla trades. Then we will look at more structured notes." Reverse enquiry will be accepted. The programme will be listed in Luxembourg and Paris and open to a wide range of currencies. Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Salomon Smith Barney and the arranger make up the dealer group.

Chase H&Q bucked the trend for telecoms related offerings this week with a nine times subscription for TTP Communications's £68.6m IPO. The 28m share offer was priced at the top of the 195p-245p range in response to the strong demand and a banker involved in the deal said there had been almost no price sensitivity in the book. Of the total shares sold, 13.85m were new shares and 14.15m existing shares, sold by venture capital firms such as 3i. There is a 4.2m share (£10.3m) greenshoe.

Cheung Kong Finance has doubled the ceiling off its Euro-MTN programme to $2 billion. Hang Seng Bank has been added as a dealer.

City of Gothenburg has added Depfa-Bank Europe, DG Bank, MeritaNordbanken, SEB Debt Capital Markets and Westdeutsche Landesbank as dealers to its $1 billion Euro-MTN programme. Credit Suisse First Boston, Daiwa SBCM Europe, Enskilda Debt Capital Markets, Nomura and UBS Warburg have been dropped as dealers.

Colombia's decision to pay up for European access paid off this week when it extended its euro curve with a Eu300m five year transaction. The deal, led by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and JP Morgan, carried an 11.25% coupon and was priced to yield a generous 11.5%, or 638bp over government bonds, which was about 225bp over Argentina and 275bp over Brazil in five year euros. The deal traded up to a price of 100.25 from a re-offer of 99.087.

Colombia's decision to pay up for European access paid off this week when it extended its euro curve with a Eu300m five year transaction. The deal, led by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and JP Morgan, carried an 11.25% coupon and was priced to yield a generous 11.5%, or 638bp over government bonds, which was about 225bp over Argentina and 275bp over Brazil in five year euros. The deal traded up to a price of 100.25 from a re-offer of 99.087.

Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) has caused a stir in Euro-CP by announcing its intention to re-enter the market. And to herald its new product-offering the bank has lured practically all of the Euro-CP desk from Barclays Capital. The shock move comes after almost a 10-year absence from Euro-CP. This will increase competition among providers of Euro-CPs and Euro-CDs and also open up the market to the possibility of other banks following suit. Banking consolidation on a global scale makes providing a complete range of services to clients almost a must. Former head of the desk at Barclays, Andy Jones, will now head up his team at CSFB. The other defectors from Barclays Capital include Rebecca Bishop and Colin Murphy. Jonathan Eyles, who recently left Barclays Capital for Citibank, also joins the team.

CosmOte, Greece's second mobile operator, priced its Dr156tr ($400m) IPO toward the bottom of the range as investor sentiment toward the overall telecoms market soured. But the deal was still the largest Greek IPO of the year. The shares were priced at Dr3,200 from a range of Dr3,120-Dr3,494, valuing the company at $2.7bn. Global Depository Shares (GDSs) were sold at $15.5906. Both will list on October 11.

* Finance for Danish Industry A/S Rating: A1

The relative rarity of a short dated $1bn two year global bond for triple-A rated GECC appealed to a nervous investor base this week as supply, credit and interest rate concerns returned to plague the US dollar fixed income market.

Borussia Dortmund is set to become the first German football club to float, listing on the Amtlicher Handel on October 31 with an IPO expected to raise more than Eu100m. The club will push on with the deal despite concerns that the European Commission will force clubs to abandon the traditional transfer system.

The relative rarity of a short dated $1bn two year global bond for triple-A rated GECC appealed to a nervous investor base this week as supply, credit and interest rate concerns returned to plague the US dollar fixed income market.