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Turkey Isbank has mandated an 18 strong bank group to arrange its 364 day $250m facility.

* Commerzbank has confirmed that Klaus-Peter Müller is to replace Martin Kolhaussen as chair of the Vorstad (see EuroWeek 673, October 6, 2000 page 8). Kolhaussen is due to step down at the bank's next AGM, in May. He is standing for election to the supervisory board.

Moody's has upgraded Hungary's foreign currency ceilings for bonds and bank deposits to A3 from Baa1 with the outlook stable. Along with the sovereign upgrade, several Hungarian corporates also saw their ratings improve. The agency cited the country's strong economy, continued gradual improvement in inflation, current account and fiscal performance. The agency also noted that it will focus its attention on exchange rate policy and public finances when reviewing Hungary's rating in the future.

* Mobile phone improvement company funkwerk successfully completed its Eu50m IPO on Wednesday, when the shares opened trading up 18% from the issue price. BHF-Bank priced the issue at Eu20, near the bottom of the Eu19-Eu22.5 range, after the deal was 2.5 times oversubscribed. "The market was very weak the day the deal was priced," said a banker close to the deal. Trading, however, started on Wednesday at Eu23.6.

Netherlands-based chemicals manufacturer, DSM NV, is planning to launch a Eu400m seven year bond next week via Schroder Salomon Smith Barney and UBS Warburg following a European roadshow. The market is expecting pricing in the 75bp-80bp area over mid-swaps. DSM is involved in three business groups: life sciences, specialty products, and polymers and industrial chemicals. Over the last decade, it has been moving out of the more volatile commodity businesses and focusing more on its speciality chemicals divisions.

Egypt The Arab Republic of Egypt has received proposals from 19 banks for its debut international bond. Bankers expect Egyptian funding officials to take at least a couple of weeks to weed through the bulky proposals and draw up a shortlist before inviting the selected banks to Cairo for a beauty contest.

Denmark The Kingdom of Denmark has opened bookbuilding for Dkr154m (Eu21m) of shares in Copenhagen Airports. The base offering consists of 1.38m shares, with a greenshoe of 154,000 shares. Including a placement of 50,000 new shares to employees, the deal will reduce the Kingdom of Denmark's stake from 51% to 34%. The shares are being offered at Dkr100. Danske Securities is lead manager and bookrunner for the deal, and Cazenove is co-lead manager. Bookbuilding closes on Tuesday.

The Netherlands' NIB Capital Bank is to add six staff to its structured finance team by January 2001, taking it to a total of 12. Three recruits will come from Bank Labouchère where Jeroen van Hessen, head of the NIB group, worked until last year. They are Michel Kant and Bas van Dijk, both at associate director level, and Sjoerd Wegener Sleeswijk.

Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW) has received underwriting commitments of $6.7bn for two loans. Five banks - believed to be Barclays, Bank of China International (BOCI), Chase Manhattan, Fuji Bank and HSBC - have agreed to fully underwrite PCCW's $4.7bn refinancing of its acquisition loan for Cable & Wireless HongKong Telecom.

* Eurohypo SA Luxembourg Rating: AAA

* Commerzbank AG Rating: Aa3/AA-/A+

In another bad week for the Neuer Markt, one company pulled its IPO, two companies priced below the bookbuilding range, one extended its subscription period and another saw its shares plummet after a secondary issue. The damage was done on Monday by a batch of profit warnings from Neuer Markt listed companies, after which the Nemax all-share performance index sank to 3,467 - its lowest level this year. As a result, Ares Energie decided to pull its IPO, Group Technologies was forced to extend its subscription period and Gericom and Biolitec had to price shares under the bookbuilding range.