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DEUTSCHE Telekom's Eu10bn-plus secondary offering will establish a new benchmark for retail offerings with the government's third selldown in the European giant to be sold worldwide for the first time. The Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Goldman Sachs-led deal continues a tradition of innovation from Deutsche Telekom. In June 1999, the DT2 deal sold shares to more than 600,000 private investors outside Germany.

Czech Republic Arranger Sumitomo has signed banks into the Eu85m EIB guarantee facility for Czech power utility Cez. The facility raised around Eu130m but was not increased as it is tied to an EIB loan. Arrangers are San Paolo-IMI and the European Investment Fund.

Argentina * Argentina

Moody's has downgraded the juniormost tranche of Chêne Finance Ltd, the securitisation of French apartment blocks for property firm Compagnie Vauban. Greenwich NatWest lead managed the Eu228.67m deal in February 1999. The Eu53.357m 'D' tranche was originally rated Ba3 by Moody's only, but has now been downgraded to B1. Moody's has confirmed ratings of Aa2, A2 and Baa3 on the other three tranches. "Net rental receivables generated by the property portfolio have remained unchanged since closing," Moody's said. "However, net cash flow available for debt service has been impacted negatively due to capital expenditures and other refurbishment costs that have been, and will continue to be, higher than originally contemplated. At closing, a capital expenditure reserve fund of Eu5.3m was established, which has been completely utilised."

Moody's Investors Service has restructured its European structured finance group after the departure of two senior officials. Managing directors Robbin Conner and Catherine Gerst, two of the group's three co-heads, have both left in the last few weeks for careers with other companies, believed to be outside the rating industry.

A new player made its entry in the busy UK non-conforming mortgage securitisation market this week as Mortgages plc launched a deal that has been expected for over a year. The £178m transaction, lead managed by Barclays Capital, achieved tight pricing by the standards of recent months - even compared to the levels paid by more seasoned issuers. The £154m triple-A tranche came at 40bp over three month Libor.

NIB Capital Bank (formerly De Nationale Investeringsbank) is set to launch its sixth and largest securitisation of Dutch residential mortgages next week. Joint bookrunners BNP Paribas, Merrill Lynch and NIB Capital Markets expect to bring the European roadshow to a close in London on Tuesday and price the Eu800m deal on Thursday. An official at one of the lead managers said the junior pieces had already been placed, as well as around half the senior notes.

Nomura International's principal finance group opened yet another acquisition campaign this week, by making an initial approach to Associated British Ports Holdings Plc, which operates 23 UK ports. Nomura would not comment and ABP would only confirm that an informal approach had been received from a third party, "at a level which would significantly undervalue the company and its prospects".

Rabobank hopes to launch its Eu212.5m leveraged, synthetic collateralised loan obligation Sundial Finance Ltd in the next few weeks. The bank has held roadshows for the deal in Asia, Europe and the US, and more presentations are planned.

Australian non-bank mortgage lender Interstar Securities (Australia) Pty Ltd this week launched the third issue from its Interstar Millennium Trust mortgage securitisation programme with an A$700m transaction, the country's second largest ever domestic MBS deal. The Australian market is booming. A record A$6.6bn of MBS was issued in the first quarter of 2000, according Standard & Poor's - a 23% increase on issuance on the final quarter of 1999.

JP Morgan last Friday launched the fourth transaction using its innovative Sequils-Mincs structure for cashflow collateralised debt obligations. Like the first Sequils-Mincs deal in April 1999, the $565m transaction will be managed by TCW Advisors, and parcels US leveraged loans. Under the structure, one SPV, called Sequils, issues notes and buys loans worth an equal amount. Morgan Guaranty Trust provides a credit wrap for the portfolio of about 16% through a credit swap, and transfers the risk to Mincs through a second credit swap.

Colin Mercer this week joined the London office of US law firm Brown & Wood as a partner, six months after resigning his partnership at UK practice Simmons & Simmons. Mercer decided to make the move in November, one week after his colleague John Russell - but while Russell was able to start work at Brown & Wood almost immediately, Simmons & Simmons obliged Mercer to spend six months on gardening leave. Both Russell and Mercer have some experience in securitisation and have done a lot of repackaging work.