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Halifax, the UK bank, has confirmed the increasing importance of the asset-backed sector in the CP market by signing an asset-backed US CP on October 30. It also announced its intention to sign an asset-backed Euro-CP facility in the first quarter of 2001. Lehman Brothers has been mandated as arranger for both. The programmes are signed in the name of Pennine Funding, a Delaware-registered company. Halifax is the sponsor and provides the liquidity loan agreement. The joint outstandings off the US CP and Euro-CP facilities will not exceed a limit of $6 billion. Tony Dullaghan, Halifax's head of non-European funding and liquidity, says: "We expect our outstandings at the beginning of next year to be split 80/20 or 90/10 in favour of the US market. But we are very bullish that the Euro-CP market will grow and we're confident that we will be able to restructure that split later on." The funds raised from the programme will be used to buy asset-backed securities for three conduits called Pennine Funding, Pennine Purchasing number one and Pennine Purchasing number two. Most of the assets in the portfolio have already been bought with 44% of the portfolio being made up of credit card receivables. And Pennine launched $1.6 billion-worth of US CP on Wednesday, November 1. This is Halifax's first foray into the asset-backed CP market but it has a $4 billion US CP programme and a $3 billion Euro-CP programme, both of which are active and near their limits. Last week Dullaghan visited the States to meet the US CP dealers and some US investors. Halifax is hoping to attract US fund managers and security lenders as its main investor base. He says: "Once our outstandings have increased we will go out again. We see it as an important part of the business." Marketing in Europe is also considered important. He adds: "After all, the wider the investor base, the better the pricing." The facilities are rated A-1+ by Standard & Poor's and P-1 by Moody's. The dealers are the arranger, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. But Halifax will also be a dealer off the Euro programme.

Moody's and Standard & Poor's (S&P) have placed publisher Reed Elsevier on review for a possible downgrade after the company agreed to buy Harcourt for $5.65bn in cash and debt. Reed is taking on Harcourt's outstanding debt of $1.2bn, and acquiring outstanding shares for $4.45bn. The transaction is to be funded with $6.5bn of new bank facilities (see Loans roundup for more details), and Reed is expected to refinance some $4.5bn in acquisition costs. It will sell on some of Harcourt's assets to The Thomson Corporation for $2.06bn.

Credit Suisse First Boston and UBS Warburg launched the Sfr430m secondary offer for Novartis and AstraZeneca spinoff Syngenta this week, with pricing due on November 10. A total of 4.5m shares, or 4% of the company, will be sold at between Sfr85 and Sfr105 a share. The deal will offer both shares - to be listed in Zurich, London and Stockholm - and American Depository Receipts (ADSs) to be listed in New York.

The IMF this week made strong criticisms of the Czech government's alleged failure to tackle its fiscal deficit, in an otherwise positive report. The report was released in the same week that the finance ministry conceded that the central government deficit would overshoot the Ck35.2bn ($855m) target by 22%. According to the IMF: "The general government deficit [including local government and extra-budgetary funds, excluding privatisation proceeds] is set to expand from 5.2% of GDP in 2000 to more than 6% in 2001."

China Mobile (Hong Kong) has raised the largest ever equity offering in non-Japan Asia, catapulting it to the forefront of the global mobile telecommunications sector.

China Mobile (Hong Kong) has raised the largest ever equity offering in non-Japan Asia, catapulting it to the forefront of the global mobile telecommunications sector.

The European leveraged buy-out market is approaching full capacity as arrangers and borrowers attempt to get their deals out in time to avoid the year end market close. Most bankers consider the next week or so to be the last opportunity to get a deal away safely and two big LBO deals were launched this week and a number of other deals are expected to come to market over the next 10 days.

Argentina BSCH Investment has launched syndication of an $80m five year club deal for Banco de Galicia y Buenos Aires.

The European leveraged buy-out market is approaching full capacity as arrangers and borrowers attempt to get their deals out in time to avoid the year end market close. Most bankers consider the next week or so to be the last opportunity to get a deal away safely and two big LBO deals were launched this week and a number of other deals are expected to come to market over the next 10 days.

Keith Phair's love affair with the media has taken a new turn. The ex-head of HSBC's desk left the market in 1998 to become a consultant to such corporates as Marconi. But he spent most of his time either ringing up Points of View or appearing as financier extraodinaire on CNBC business TV. But he has gone upmarket. Monday, October 30 witnessed the FT, no less, printing a missive from the prophet himself. "The market dog would be much healthier if it had a variety of sector tails to wag," he declares. Wise words indeed, Keith. And one of the market's old dogs has come bounding back into the market. Andrew Taylor, who some think should take credit for inventing the MTN, has been appointed as general counsel (aka big hot-shot lawyer) at Barclays. His glory days in the MTN market were back in the 1980s when he was doing crafty things with programme documents. Leak is glad the glamourous world of Canary Wharf has tempted him out of early retirement. Giles Chapman, Citibank's star CP man, is getting married tomorrow. We wish him luck but, after this week's weather, we advise his guests to wear wetsuits.