Search results for

* 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."

Pemex issued a blowout $500m 10 year Euro/144a offering this week, its first plain vanilla dollar deal in over a year. Led by Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, the transaction, issued by its fully guaranteed new funding vehicle, the Pemex Master Trust, was about four times oversubscribed.

* Bayerische Handelsbank AG Amount: Eu350m Hypothekenpfandbrief series 2220

Independent Dutch oil company Petroplus braved difficult markets on Tuesday, issuing Eu150m of B1/BB- 10 year paper via sole bookrunner ING Barings. The deal was priced with a 10.5% coupon - outside the 10%-10.25% indicated price range, but in line with spread widening in the high yield market since last Friday.

Poland's largest commercial bank Pekao began premarketing yesterday (Thursday) for a $380m secondary issue that will see the government sell off almost all of its remaining holdings in the former foreign savings bank. The issue is also expected to coincide with a listing on the London Stock Exchange. Syndicate members for the deal did not agree about how much the issue will raise, but conservative estimates put the total at around $380m.

* GZ Bank AG Rating: A1/A+/AA-