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INVESTMENT analysis and decision support software provider Brainpower announced this week that it will list on the Neuer Markt. Robertson Stephens International will be global co-ordinator and lead manager for the sale, scheduled for later this year. Although the headquarters of Brainpower are in Lugano, Switzerland, and its largest operations are in Italy, the company chose the Neuer Markt. "That is where most of the technology stocks are listing," Brainpower CFO Jennifer Wick told Euroweek. "We went straight there." Brainpower has offices in Lugano, Zurich, Paris, Milan, Madrid and London.

British Telecom's plan to raise up to $10bn through a global dollar bond issue in September was almost derailed last Friday (August 18) when Standard&Poor's (S&P) said it would downgrade the company to BBB+ if it was not satisfied BT was taking enough measures to maintain its credit quality.

Bank of America, Chase Manhattan and Citibank/SSSB are on the verge of winning the mandate for the next cable financing deal to arise from the sell-off of Deutsche Telekom's regional cable assets. The new facility is for the sale to Callahan Associates of 55% of DT's assets in the state of Baden-Württemberg, and should bring a deal of around Eu2bn to the loan market. This follows the slow selldown of Callahan's current Eu3bn deal supporting its cable acquisition in North Rhine-Westphalia.

British Telecom's plan to raise up to $10bn through a global dollar bond issue in September was almost derailed last Friday (August 18) when Standard&Poor's (S&P) said it would downgrade the company to BBB+ if it was not satisfied BT was taking enough measures to maintain its credit quality.

South Africa

The Republic of Argentina pushed ahead with its funding programme this week, with the launch of a ¥61bn five year Samurai. The deal, led by Nikko Salomon Smith Barney and Nomura Securities, was increased from ¥50bn after the leads increased the coupon by 10bp from 4.75% to 4.85%. The issue was priced to offer a spread of 351bp over yen Libor, which, according to an official at Nomura, swaps into 426bp over dollar Libor - about 100bp inside Argentina's dollar yield curve.

The Republic of Argentina pushed ahead with its funding programme this week, with the launch of a ¥61bn five year Samurai. The deal, led by Nikko Salomon Smith Barney and Nomura Securities, was increased from ¥50bn after the leads increased the coupon by 10bp from 4.75% to 4.85%. The issue was priced to offer a spread of 351bp over yen Libor, which, according to an official at Nomura, swaps into 426bp over dollar Libor - about 100bp inside Argentina's dollar yield curve.

China

Here in Sotogrande, did we ever think we would be able to get far from the madding Euromarket crowd? Dream on McDuff. There are wall-to-wall bankers from CSFB and Morgan Stanley, fund managers from London who seem to have made almost as much money as Jupiter's John Duffield, and private bankers from Geneva who are upset their billionaire net worth status has been exposed in several highly regarded financial publications. We even saw a couple of high-rolling Goldman Sachs managing directors - who said that Goldie folk hardly ever take holidays? We have mingled with the high goal polo crowd, who seem to take the game slightly too seriously for our liking, but who can blame the patrons, who now have to fork out at least £1m per year just to put their team on the field and receive next to nothing in return?

Asia