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A STRING of new issues look set to revitalise Easdaq, as the pan-European exchange makes a renewed bid to gain the momentum which has eluded it since its launch four years ago. JP Morgan is sole bookrunner and lead manager for Easdaq-listed ActivCard's $200m capital increase and Nasdaq listing, which will launch next week.

The Nationwide Building Society this week launched a £300m issue of Permanent Interest Bearing Share receipts o become the largest single non-equity issuer of tier 1 capital in the sterling market. The transaction effectively doubles the nominal size of the outstanding PIBS sector. The deal is split into two tranches and unusually for PIBS issues, is callable at the option of the issuer. The two tranches comprise a £200m perpetual, non-call 15 year portion, priced at Gilts plus 305bp and £100m perpetual non-call 30 year element priced at Gilts plus 345bp. The coupons step up by 100bp if the calls are not exercised.

* Grant Metcalfe-Smith has joined the EBRD as director, client risk management, in the treasury department. He will advise on interest rate, forex and commodity risk, providing risk management techniques, and report to Axel van Nederveen, head of asset and liability management. He was a risk management consultant following a career in structured derivatives and debt capital markets at Sanwa International, Rabobank and Chase Manhattan.

Market report: Compiled by Glenn Blackley, RBC DS Global Markets, Australia. Tel: +61 2 9373 0431

DRESDNER Kleinwort Benson and Schroders overcame investor apathy for non-tech stocks this week when they priced Techem's Eu163.4m Amtlicher Handel IPO at the top of the range. The German measuring device firm impressed investors with its strong earnings background and substantial upside. As a result, the deal was over three times covered, according to bankers.

* AIG SunAmerica Institutional Funding II Rating: Aaa/AAA

THE queue of central and eastern European sovereigns set to tap the international bond markets continued to lengthen this week. A growing number of governments from the region are looking to capitalise on the strong secondary market performance of their outstanding bonds to secure competitively priced funding in the new issue markets.

Basel El Hini is to join ABN Amro as head of the bank's structured finance operations and as deputy country manager in Egypt. He reports to Barend Janssens, who is ABN Amro's head of structured finance for the Middle East and Africa. El Hini joins from Apicorp, where he worked for nine years. His last post was as head of the Middle East and North Africa group on the project and trade finance team.

THE LATEST French jumbo facility to hit the loan market shows a return to the slim pricing common to this market where the borrower has been traditionally able to lean on domestic and relationship banks. Carrefour, the supermarket chain, is tapping the market for a Eu1.5bn five year revolver through arrangers BNP Paribas, Barclays and Citibank.

CARRIER1 broke new ground this week with the largest Neuer Markt IPO to date, which achieved an oversubscription rate of 30 times despite pricing at the top of a raised range. The Eu937.9m dual listing rocketed by more than 50% on its Nasdaq debut yesterday (Thursday) closing at Eu135 from an issue price of Eu87. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Salomon Smith Barney were joint bookrunners and joint lead managers for the sale.

THE queue of central and eastern European sovereigns set to tap the international bond markets continued to lengthen this week. A growing number of governments from the region are looking to capitalise on the strong secondary market performance of their outstanding bonds to secure competitively priced funding in the new issue markets.

* Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA