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DESPITE two weeks of successful premarketing, lead managers Warburg Dillon Read and BCH may be forced to postpone the sale of General Optica until after Easter. The Spanish stock exchange authority, the CNMV, is suffering from a combination of administrative backlog and a staffing shortage. Deal launches have been held up and international investors expecting a deluge of mid-cap and large cap deals from Madrid are likely to be disappointed.

French corporates Carrefour and Elf Aquitaine launched debut Eu1bn 10 year transactions this week, but the contrast in the reception to the new issues highlighted the need for careful preparation - even in the face of strong demand for corporate debt. While Carrefour launched its transaction after roadshows in five countries and an extensive bookbuilding exercise, Elf tapped the market after less than two days of premarketing. Both deals were finely priced, but Carrefour's marketing efforts paid off as the deal was far the better received of the two.

The Republic of Colombia turned its back on difficult euro markets this week and instead went to the US bond market to raise $500m. The deal, led by JP Morgan (books), Chase and Merrill Lynch, was a five year structured issue with a one year option to exchange par for par the new 2004s for a new bond maturing in 2028 that will be issued next year.

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Corporate issuers stepped up their assault on the euro market this week as investors' appetite for corporate paper overcame concerns over market volatility. With a range of diverse credits queuing up to tap European investors' new-found taste for risk, the deal flow should maintain a heady pace. But a hastily prepared and difficult Eu1bn 10 year transaction for Elf Aquitaine showed the dangers of taking the corporate bid for granted. Carrefour followed a more thorough route for a similarly dated and sized issue, and was rewarded with attractive funding and a warm reception.

The diversity of credits issuing in the euro bond markets continues to amaze investment bankers, as the pipeline of new issues in the booming new currency sector - which for the first two months of the year has overshadowed the dollar bond markets - reaches full to overflowing. Successful issues are no longer the certainty they sometimes appeared to be in previous weeks. Swap spreads have come in by 10bp to 15bp, and credit spreads by similar margins.

The European Investment Bank demonstrated its intention to be bracketed in the same class as Europe's leading sovereign borrowers this week when it launched its Euro Area Reference Notes (EARNs) programme for issuance of its benchmark euro denominated transactions. As revealed last week in Euroweek, the EARNs facility - arranged by ABN Amro and Paribas - will attempt to mirror the borrowing programmes of EU governments.

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Goldman Sachs' management committee this week unanimously endorsed the firm's plan to float in New York in the second quarter this year in an offering that could raise between $3bn to $5.5bn. This is the second time in less than 12 months that the investment bank, one of Wall Street's most prestigious, has been brought to the brink of abandoning its partnership status.

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HONG KONG conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa this week successfully launched non-Japan Asia's first euro denominated bond, a Eu500m deal which could open a new and important source of funding for Asia's top credits.

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