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Ceska Sporitelna will sign a resoundingly successful loan facility today (Friday), with joint arrangers Bankgesellschaft Berlin/ Zivnostenská-Banka, Commerzbank (books), DG Bank, Erste Bank, RZB Austria (books) and Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank. The deal was launched at Eu50m and raised more than Eu110m in syndication. Despite this oversubscription of more than 100%, the borrower only chose to increase the deal to Eu65m, so lenders have been heavily scaled back.

Hungary The $30m one year term loan for General Banking and Trust has signed, after being increased to $40m. The deal was arranged and underwritten by Chase Manhattan (bookrunner), National Savings and Commercial Bank (OTP) (regional co-ordinator) and Standard Bank London (documentation and facility agent).

* Autostrada Torino-Milano Amount: Eu120m

* Abbey National Treasury International Ltd Guarantor: Abbey National plc

Dresdner Kleinwort Benson will begin roadshows today (Friday) for a £140m securitisation of revenues from 689 pubs owned by Avebury Taverns Ltd. Avebury was formed by Daiwa Europe's principal finance group in November 1997 to acquire small batches of pubs and build a large portfolio. Last August funds advised by Cabot Square Capital, the London based principal finance investment adviser, acquired a majority stake in the company after Daiwa decided to abandon principal finance. Some of Avebury's senior managers hold minority stakes.

* ING Barings has executed a private securitisation of trade receivables for Asia Pulp and Paper. The Singapore and Indonesia based paper company has made repeated use of asset backed finance, through both trade receivables deals and inventory financings. * Société Générale is set to launch a securitisation of equipment loans and leases for its affiliate Korea French Banking Corp.

Nikko Principal Investments Ltd (NPIL) this week acquired a UK residential and commercial mortgage servicing company from the Bank of England for an undisclosed sum. The company, formerly National Mortgage Bank and now called The NMB Group Plc, belonged in the 1980s to National Home Loans, the centralised lender that is now called The Paragon Group of Companies. The Bank of England took over NMB as part of a stabilisation package for National Home Loans after the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).

UK mortgage bank Northern Rock's £750m MBS issue is already oversubscribed, even though lead manager JP Morgan will not launch the deal until next week. "We have a runaway success on our hands," said Nick Morgan, head of asset backed syndicate at JP Morgan in London. "Taking the higher end of investors' preliminary order ranges, the triple-A tranche is 50% oversubscribed, and even at the lower end, we are 100% sold. All three co-leads are looking for extra bonds to add to their 10% allocations."

EGYPT IS FAST becoming one of the most attractive investment opportunities in the Middle East. The loan market may be budding rather than flourishing but banks are keen, maturities are pushing out, and borrowing prospects for the year look robust.

All weather derivative contracts for trading or speculative purposes should be accounted for at their fair value, with subsequent changes in fair value reported in earnings.

THE REPUBLIC of Korea's three policy banks are preparing for an active return to the international debt markets this year, although the first deal may not emerge until the second quarter. Of the three, only the Korea Development Bank was particularly active during 1999. It is widely expected to be not only the first to return this year, but also the first domestic bank to issue in euros.

Two telecom companies are this week demonstrating the importance of geographical location to investors despite the coming of the global communications age. Flag Telecom and Carrier1 have similar carrier operations and are generating considerable interest from investors. However, each issue is attracting a different type of investor, due to the location of the companies and their assets.