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Fitch IBCA and Duff & Phelps announced their merger this week, in a bid to acquire the critical mass necessary to compete with the dominant rating agencies, Moody's and Standard & Poor's. Fimalac SA, the diversified French company that owns Fitch IBCA, has made a recommended offer of $100 per share for DCR, valuing it at $528m.

Ford Motor Credit Corporation came with a $5bn transaction issued under its GlobLS programme via Chase, CSFB and JP Morgan. The deal was split into a $3bn five year fixed rate tranche and a $2bn three year FRN. The five year straight was priced at 105bp over the November 2004 Treasury. The commonly held opinion among swap dealers in New York was that the proceeds of this five year piece had been swapped to floating, as would be normal practice for this borrower when it raises debt for its financing vehicle. However, the leads and Ford itself declined to comment.

Ford Motor Credit this week shunned the US Treasury as a benchmark when marketing its new $3bn five year GlobLS, choosing instead to use one of its own outstanding bonds. The 7.5% March 2005 transaction was benchmarked at a level of 3bp-5bp against the Ford 6.75% February 2004 bond and ultimately priced at 4bp-5bp over, which equated to 105bp over Treasuries.

Heller Financial issued its inaugural euro denominated bond this week, a Eu300m 5.75% Euro-MTN due 2005. The single-A rated financial services firm had been preparing to offer debt in this market for much of last year, said a treasury official at Heller. He added that the proceeds had been swapped into a mix of floating euros and floating dollars. The greater proportion of Heller's business is dollar-based, but about 20% is conducted internationally, explained the official.

THE STATE of Israel proved a popular debutante in the global dollar bond markets this week, with the A3/A-/A- rated Middle Eastern sovereign able to launch an aggressively priced issue in the face of swap and credit market volatility. Lead managed by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, the $500m 10 year transaction was priced on Wednesday with a 7.75% coupon to give a yield of 7.81% and spread of 144bp over US Treasuries on the back of an enthusiastic response from both US and European accounts which put in $850m worth of orders. Indicative pricing for what is expected to be Israel's sole international bond in 2000 had been pitched in the 145bp over Treasuries area.

TELECOMS equipment provider Marconi will next week launch a Eu1.5bn two tranche issue, offering investors a rare opportunity to gain exposure to the high grade telecoms sector without the event risk associated with former state monopolies or mobile. Led by ABN Amro and Warburg Dillon Read, the A3/BBB+ rated financing will be split into Eu500m five year and Eu1bn 10 year tranches. The five year is expected at around Euribor plus 40bp, the 10 year in the high 50s over Euribor.

Bahrain Arab Banking Corporation is understood to be finalising a mandate for a new facility.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter will today (Friday) price a Eu380m securitisation of non-performing loans for Italy's Banco di Sicilia. Island Finance (ICR 4) SpA is Morgan Stanley's fourth securitisation of Italian NPLs, but unlike the earlier deals, which parcelled loans Morgan Stanley had bought from Italian banks, it is an agency securitisation.

* JP Morgan has hired Brian McBride, Steve Conway, Doug Clarisse and Matt Whitcomb from Deutsche BT. McBride and Conway join the European high yield origination group as managing directors. Between them, they have 13 years of leveraged finance experience.

Mexico Moody's Investors Service this week raised its Ba1 long term foreign currency rating for Mexico to Baa3 from Ba1 - marking the first time that a major Latin American sovereign has secured an investment grade rating. Moody's move prompted a further tightening in Mexican bond spreads, with the country's $1.5bn 9.875% February 2010 dollar global bonds trading on Thursday at 218bp over Treasuries, in from 315bp over at launch in late January. Mexico still has speculative grade BB ratings from Standard & Poor's and Fitch IBCA.