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The European Investment Bank once again failed to impress the investment banking community with its EARN programme, choosing timing, pricing and a bidding process which market participants considered ill advised. The Eu3bn 10 year EARN was awarded as a result of a competitive bidding contest among the bank's primary dealers. A spokesman for one of them described the process as a return to the bad old days of the Marchat era. "We were sent an e-mail during the week saying that the EIB wanted Eu3bn 10 years at Euribor minus 10bp/12bp and we were asked to sign on the dotted line. We thought those days were long gone."

Latin America's new issue market ground to a halt this week as volatile US equities and Middle East concerns hit the asset class. The only deal announced during the week was a Eu200m five year offering by Caracas based Supranational, Corporacion Andina de Fomento, which will begin roadshows on the week of October 23 via underwriters Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers.

Lebanon * Republic of Lebanon

* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

Gilles Martin will not be cashing in on the success on the food analysis company he founded when it completes its dual listing on the Neuer Markt at the end of this month. Although the Nouveau Marché-listed company, Eurofins Scinentific, is expected to raise about Eu40m with a secondary issue simultaneous with the listing, bankers had a tough job even persuading him to contribute to the greenshoe.

* Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

Lafarge, one of the world's top roofing and cement suppliers, has finally announced the details of its funding strategy. The French borrower is to sign a euro1.5 billion ($1.61 billion) Euro-MTN programme in the next two months. Deutsche Bank is the arranger, as first reported in MTNWeek, issue 117. Lafarge bought the British building group, Redland, in 1997 which originally had an MTN programme. The new programme is the second part of the group's strategy to help refinance its existing debt through equity and capital markets. Last year Lafarge launched a rights issue and a eurobond. The euro500 million bond was considered a success and has encouraged the borrower to set up a facility capable of continuous issuance. The choice of dealers off the programme hints at a belief that European houses provide the best coverage in Euroland. Jean-Marc Doucet, funding manager at Lafarge, says: "We hope the dealer panel, with five European banks and one American, will provide us with very good distribution in the core European area." The dealer panel contains the arranger, ABN Amro, Banque National de Paris, Paribas, Salomon Smith Barney and Warburg Dillon Read. All the banks have previously worked with Lafarge and Deutsche Bank in particular has lent to the group on a corporate basis. The programme will be operational by the end of May. The fact that Lafarge found Deutsche's reputation for structured products attractive is noteworthy. It is rated A by Standard & Poor's.

Leveraged buy-out specialists are watching anxiously for news of Finelist, which has gone into receivership. Finelist was put into the hands of receivers, with Ernst & Young appointed as administrator, following the discovery of financial irregularities within the company.

The hunting season is well under way. And we are not talking about Dresdner's capture of Henry Nevstad, who started at his new post on Monday. No, this week saw the annual Citibank Credit Structure huntin-shootin-fishin' get-together in snowy Scotland. This is strictly for the big guns of the MTN world. Last year Salomon's Peter Jackson and Morgan Stanley's Olivier Jalouneix proved they were MD marksmen extraordinaire. But apart from Jacko himself there aren't that many MDs left in MTNs. One of the few remaining, Deutsche's Tiina Lee, who we feel certain could kill a stag at 100 paces, was languishing in a spa in Colorado. Frank Ciaravalli from Merrills in New York flew in for the event and Goldman's Andrew Devenport made up the MTN MD quotient. But somehow Morgan Stanley new boy, Richard Tynan, muscled his way in and managed to just miss shooting CCS's Sean Murphy. And as if to prove Matt Carter is not the only person to have worked on the Paribas MTN desk and survived, Paul Cohen, who used to be Daniel Cogoi's sidekick at the French house, has been appointed to Dresdner's syndicate team. And John Muros, who worked alongside Sam Amalou at Daiwa, has moved to TMI.

The Republic of Lebanon has launched a Eu250m tap via Commerzbank Securities of its Eu300m 2004 bond issued last February. The deal, out this week, confirms the country's unusual status as a credit largely immune to market jitters.