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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac scored a victory in their battle to head off legislation aimed at undermining their government links yesterday (Thursday), when plans by the two government sponsored agencies (GSEs) to subject themselves to greater transparency and scrutiny from the market place resulted in tightening of agency spreads.

Texaco and Chevron on Monday announced that they plan to merge their businesses. The combined company will be called ChevronTexaco and should emerge as the world's fourth largest publicly traded integrated oil and gas company with 11.1bn boe (barrel of oil equivalent) reserves, 2.7m boe per day of production (pro-forma) and a more diversified and global exploration and development portfolio. Standard & Poor's and Moody's have confirmed their ratings for Chevron - AA stable and Aa2 stable respectively. The two rating agencies placed Texaco, rated A+/A1, on review for a possible upgrade.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac scored a victory in their battle to head off legislation aimed at undermining their government links yesterday (Thursday), when plans by the two government sponsored agencies (GSEs) to subject themselves to greater transparency and scrutiny from the market place resulted in tightening of agency spreads.

ASB Bank has raised the limit on its $500 million Euro-CP shelf to $1 billion. The UBS Warburg arranged facility was signed in 1996.

Asia * HAN LSP (KDB) plc

Hong Kong The deadline for the HK$3.3bn, 15 year project financing for Hong Kong International Theme Park, arranged by Chase Manhattan Asia, is October 27.

Despite looking into the abyss on Wednesday, when stock markets looked set to plunge the financial world into a desperate October to match those of the Russian and Asian crises, fixed income players can look forward to the coming week with a hint of optimism. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened sharply lower, hitting levels not reached since March 1999. Depressed by earnings warnings and missed forecasts from both old and new economy stocks, and few signs of peace in the Middle East, investors panicked.

Australia A railway project connecting central and northern Australia, the Darwin-to-Alice Springs Rail, has received government approval.

Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter managed to complete the Eu535m IPO of financial advisory group AWD yesterday (Thursday) despite having to delay the end of the subscription period because the prospectus had been incorrectly amended. The company also had to price the shares at the bottom of the Eu54-Eu62 range as investors shied away from a falling market in Germany.

Our moles down at the Dead Bond Trader public house in the fetid swamps of Canary Wharf (we are already receiving complaints from the Salomon Smith Barney new arrivals), say that the DLJ bondies who passed the CSFB smell test were chained to the galley oars at 1, Cabot Square on Monday this week. The new oar pullers totalled around 60 out of the 110 who formerly led a blissful life at DLJ. That is quite a respectable retention ratio and supports the CSFB view that the firm is far more user friendly than we have recently been suggesting. The new global fixed income supremo at CSFB, the supremely artful Stephen Hester, has clearly been very successful at pouring oil on troubled waters. We would expect nothing less and let us be the first to congratulate Hester on his decision to promote John Walsh in New York. In the recent CSFB bond reshuffle, a friend at Goldman Sachs had suggested that Walsh "would be turned into a spam sandwich". Our response, mentioned in these columns last week, was that the ebullient Walsh had more lives than a cat and could teach survival in the jungle to Dr Livingston and Henry Morton Stanley. We are delighted to say that our Goldman pal now owes us $100.

Baltimore Technologies completed a £167m fundraising and sell-down by venture capital firms this week, despite the stock falling 13% on the day of placing, in what bankers described as a "struggle in the face of immense adversity". The total raised in the deal, which was lead managed by Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, was sharply down from the £200m plus expected last week and the £290m expected when the deal was announced in September. Bankers said the deal was 1.5 times covered.

Baltimore Technologies completed a £167m fundraising and sell-down by venture capital firms this week, despite the stock falling 13% on the day of placing, in what bankers described as a "struggle in the face of immense adversity". The total raised in the deal, which was lead managed by Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, was sharply down from the £200m plus expected last week and the £290m expected when the deal was announced in September. Bankers said the deal was 1.5 times covered.