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LEHMAN Brothers and Goldman Sachs closed Tele1's Skr5.36m ($615.4m) IPO around 37 times subscribed on Wednesday having priced toward the top of the $17-$19 range. The Nasdaq and Stockholm listing sold 33.3m shares - just 15% of the company - priced at $18.5 from a raised range of $17-$19. The previous range for the deal was $14-$16.

Akbank, usually only seen in the market with one year term loans, is raising $400m over five years in an asset backed deal led by WestLB. The facility pays a margin of 275bp, plus a top participation fee of 50bp for a $20m ticket.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Warburg Dillon Read have made the smooth transfer from advisers to underwriting arrangers on the friendly bid by Texas Utilities' European branch for Spanish power generator Hidroeléctica del Cantabrico. The bid is worth Eu2.4bn, and the banks are arranging a Eu3bn loan in three tranches as support.

* lastminute.com proved the controversy of the week when the Morgan Stanley Dean Witter-led deal fell to just above its issue price amid heavy buying from the lead manager days after debuting on the London Stock Exchange. The £125.4m IPO priced at the top of the sharply raised price range following heavy oversubscription. Despite the small size of the deal it attracted unprecedented coverage in the UK largely due to the slim size of allocations to retail investors.

Chase and Warburg Dillon Read plan to close the restricted syndication of the £570m senior debt package backing Wengen Acquisition's takeover of Wassall on Monday. Banks were offered a choice of tickets - £50m and £100m.

* Province of Alberta Rating: Aa2/AA+

* Svenska Handelsbanken Rating: Aa2/A+/AA-

Deutsche Bank is thought to be arranging a $120m facility for Ictsi International Holdings Corp (IIHC). The borrower is listed in Manila and operates a container terminals business. The debt will be used in the management of the borrower's non-Philippine interests. It is said to be paying a margin of 275bp plus a 70bp commitment fee.

BOND markets fell victim to dramatic movements in the Dow Jones and Nasdaq indices this week as equities dropped early in the week, only to rise sharply on Thursday, the Dow posting its highest daily points gain. Credit markets could not ignore the volatility and swap spreads widened too. The euro market fared better than the dollar market, having faced fewer hurdles for most of the year. Even a 25bp rate hike from the ECB on Thursday failed to impact on government bond yields, but as credit spreads began to follow swap spreads wider, issuers had to proceed with caution.

THE PROVINCE of Buenos Aires enjoyed a highly successful return to the dollar markets this week with the launch of a well received $350m 10 year Euro/144A offering via JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch - the issuer's largest and longest dated international bond to date. Originally targeted to emerge at $250m, strong domestic and offshore investor demand for the sole Latin American new issue this week enabled the two US lead managers to grow the transaction to its eventual $350m launch figure.