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THE JUMBO facility backing Vodafone's $62bn merger with AirTouch of the US is set to emerge by next Thursday, say insiders. The exact amount is still undecided, with bankers predicting the record facility will be anywhere between $13bn and $16bn. US tax issues are the main reason why the size has not been settled yet.

Both the euro and the dollar bond markets offered investors the widest range of credits to choose from this week as bankers continued to marvel at the astonishing tone of the major currency sectors in the first few weeks of 1999 and the wide variety of credits tapping them. Emerging market issuers made a welcome return to the international bond markets. Latin issuers continued to search for novel ways to raise funds, with Argentina raising $1bn of bonds with warrants and Pemex a similar amount in bonds linked to oil receivables.

The drought of Latin American corporate bond issues was finally broken this week when YPF launched a successful $225m 10 year Yankee bond at almost 300bp through the sovereign Argentinian yield curve. The deal, sole led by Merrill Lynch, was increased from $150m and priced on Thursday night at 99.684, with a coupon of 9.125% and a yield to maturity of 9.174. Its launch spread was 412.5bp over Treasuries at a time when the Republic of Argentina's 2006s have been trading around the 705bp region and its 2017s at around 669bp.

The drought of Latin American corporate bond issues was finally broken this week when YPF launched a successful $225m 10 year Yankee bond at almost 300bp through the sovereign Argentinian yield curve. The deal, sole led by Merrill Lynch, was increased from $150m and priced on Thursday night at 99.684, with a coupon of 9.125% and a yield to maturity of 9.174. Its launch spread was 412.5bp over Treasuries at a time when the Republic of Argentina's 2006s have been trading around the 705bp region and its 2017s at around 669bp.

The Republic of Lebanon broke new ground for the single European currency this week when it became the first Middle Eastern sovereign to raise funds in euros. Until now Lebanon's sole non-dollar bond financing had been a DM250m 6.5% five year Euro-DM issue in May 1997 - but this week the B1/BB- rated issuer launched a Eu300m five year euro tranche alongside a more traditional $200m five year dollar tranche.

HSBC and Warburg Dillon Read took advantage of the momentum generated by the success of part one of the financing of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link by immediately launching the follow-up tranche this week, a £1bn bond due 2010. The hard work of explaining the credit story of LCR Finance PLC - the vehicle set up to raise money to build the rail link between the tunnel and London, whose bonds are guaranteed by the UK government - had already been completed in the long run-up to the launch of LCR's record £1.225bn of 2028 bonds and £425m of 2038 bonds last Wednesday.

The British Sky Broadcasting Group, owned by News Corporation, issued its $600m 10 year global bond on Wednesday via Merrill Lynch. It was priced to yield 6.948%, or 198bp over the 10 year Treasury, a couple of 10bps inside the price-talk. All-in, the bonds yielded 7.03%, or approximately 207bp, over the 10 year. In mid-session on Wednesday in New York, swap dealers were alerted by London brokers that a German Landesbank - said to be Bayerische Landesbank (BLB) - had won the entire BSkyB swap position to floating and was looking to shift $600m.

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