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Oberosterreichische Landesbank (Oberosterreichische) signed a euro1 billion debt issuance programme on July 27. Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) is the arranger. The inaugural issue, a Sfr200 million ($116.57 million) Pfandbrief, was launched on July 28. The issuer, an Austrian landesbank, had been planning the programme for at least a year but first had to get a rating. Friedrich Schopf, at the landesbank's treasury, says: "We talked about signing the document for quite some time, but we had no rating. This process took time and we got a rating in January 2000. We wanted to relax and not to hurry things." But the programme was eventually rushed through in just two and a half weeks. Schopf explains: "We had the opportunity to do a Sfr200 million issue. The investors wanted a listing on the Zurich bourse which was only possible under a Euro-MTN programme because we did the issue under Austrian law. We got the Euro-MTN programme within three weeks - one of the fastest ever." CSFB's Zurich branch was lead-dealer off the inaugural issue. An official from CSFB's Zurich transaction advisory group says: "The issue was launched before the programme, but we knew they were going to be parallel. We knew that a standalone Pfandbrief couldn't be issued in Switzerland because it's under Austrian law." The facility has just two dealers: the arranger and the issuer. Schopf says this is due to the haste with which the shelf was signed. He says: "That's explained by the way the programme was set up. We are planning on adding more dealers - probably our partner banks. We'll decide on that in a couple of weeks." Due to the rushed beginning, the issuer has yet to determine a clear funding strategy. But the treasury says: "We will issue mainly euro and Swiss francs. We are very Euro-driven, as most of our investors are in Germany and Austria. We don't intend to issue yen or dollar, but we are open to them." The issuer is rated Aaa by Standard & Poor's. It is the third Austrian issuer to join the market in 2000, following Bank fur Arbeit und Wirtschaft (Bawag) in June and EVN in March.

Regie Autonome Des Transports Parisiens has doubled the ceiling off its euro1 billion ($915.3 billion) Euro-MTN programme to euro2 billion. BNP Paribas arranged the shelf in 1995 and it has $860.35 million outstanding off five issues.

Sumitomo Chemical Company has added the following banks to the dealer panel off its $2 billion Euro-MTN programme: JP Morgan, Sumitomo Trust and Merrill Lynch. Salomon Smith Barney is the arranger.

Sakura Finance has added Deutsche Bank as a dealer to its ¥500 billion ($4.6 billion) Euro-MTN programme.

* Rabobank Nederland NV

Signs of fatigue started to emerge in the US corporate bond market this week as borrowers rushed to launch new issues before September, when supply is expected to be extremely heavy. About $13bn of bonds were scheduled for pricing by the end of today (Friday), including: $3bn from the financing arm of US telecoms company Qwest, $2bn from Wells Fargo, $1.5bn from Federal Home Loan Banks, $2.3bn from First Union Corp, and $750m from Heller Financial.

E-BUSINESS strategy provider Syzygy has reaffirmed the Neuer Markt's leadership of the European high growth markets by choosing to list on the Frankfurt exchange. The company, which is the product of a merger of three firms - the British firm Syzygy, United Media of Germany and France's NetForce - appointed HSBC Trinkaus to manage the listing.

Domestic issuance:

GERMAN Engineering group ThyssenKrupp was forced to postpone the DM3bn (Eu1.5bn) IPO of its steel unit this week, after it became apparent the sale would not be able to achieve the valuation the management had expected. The company had pushed ahead with the issue of between 25% and 35% of the unit, despite warnings that it would be difficult to sell (see EW658).

GERMAN Engineering group ThyssenKrupp was forced to postpone the DM3bn (Eu1.5bn) IPO of its steel unit this week, after it became apparent the sale would not be able to achieve the valuation the management had expected. The company had pushed ahead with the issue of between 25% and 35% of the unit, despite warnings that it would be difficult to sell (see EW658).

Tokyu Corporation has added Sanwa International and Zenshinren International as dealers off its ¥100 billion ($920.5 million) Euro-MTN programme. These banks have been dropped as dealers: Credit Suisse First Boston and Dresdner Bank. The programme was signed in 1996 by IBJ International and has $620.31 outstanding off 46 trades.