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MORGAN STANLEY Dean Witter has followed its successful Highbury Finance sale and leaseback transaction for supermarket chain J Sainsbury plc with Dragon Finance BV, another special purpose securitisation vehicle for the UK retailer. "The difference to Highbury is the bond structure," said David Merchant, associate in securitisation at Morgan Stanley. "The underlying structure of the securitisation is much the same.

KLM, the Dutch airline company, has doubled the ceiling off its Euro-CP facility to euro500 million ($449.89 million). This is because the issuer wants more flexibility. Mark Biermans, treasurer at KLM, says: "Many banks are withdrawing from the short-term market, so we are increasing our direct access to investors." The issuer has no plans to sign an MTN programme, despite market rumours that they will sign. Biermans explains: "We have enough flexibility through our long-term financial leases and bank loans, so we are not planning an MTN."

Brazil

While the MTN market puts its feet up, content in the knowledge that Barclays and Chase have filled their positions, the CP market seems to have lost its head. We have all waited quite some time for Merrill Lynch to follow Morgan Stanley into the elite club of Euro-CP houses. And we will all have to wait a little longer, after it managed to hire someone for precisely one weekend. David Hayes, one of Citibank's leading CP traders, decided that he would grace Merrill's wannabe desk with his presence. But after the weekend he decided, on second thoughts, life at Citibank wasn't quite so bad after all and he returned to Victoria Plaza. However Susannah Savill, who was with Citibank's sales for 11 years, has gone to Barclays to join fellow ex-Citibanker Sally Vernon-Evans. And Andy Jones, who jumped ship from Barclays taking the entire desk with him to CSFB, is back at Barclays. A year running CSFB's CP desk was more than enough, we hear, and he has escaped into FRNs. He will be sitting next to one of the market's true stars: Rob Ford, who runs a rock band with the side-splittingly funny name, Light Alloy.

The wait is over. Yes, Barclays has found someone to run its MTN desk. After interviewing almost everyone in the market, it has managed to track down someone who was prepared to accept its infamously mean wages. And it has had to look far and wide. The new man hails from Lebanon. The bank has continued its policy of hiring traders with unpronounceable names and plumped for Nabil Aboulzelof who was last seen at ABN Amro in structured MTNs. He joins Apostolos Saflekos, who has been running the desk single-handedly since April. The two 28-year olds are joined by just-out-of-nappies Wayne Hiley, an internal transfer from UK corporates. And it seems Cliff Dammers remains young at heart by watching late-night TV. IPMA's head man has been waxing lyrical about how the market's leaders just seem to get younger and more glamorous by the day. It would appear one dealer in particular catches his eye. He was overheard comparing her to Ling from the cult TV show Ally McBeal. Leak will spare Cliff's blushes by concealing the dealer's identity but an Ally McBeal video will go to the first MTNer to guess who she is. Answers by email, please.

MOODY'S has acknowledged the rapid growth of structured finance outside the US by appointing a managing director to oversee the business in Europe and Asia. Group managing director Daniel Curry will relocate to London from New York to manage the structured finance business in Europe and Asia.

Kuwait

Hungary Hungary will decide in September whether to tap the international bond markets. Bankers stressed that it did not need the money, but favourable market conditions for its credit might prove too tempting for the sovereign to resist.

* Security and home networks specialist Electronics Line, which originally planned to list on France's Nouveau Marché, will instead list on the Neuer Markt next week with a Eu38m-Eu45m IPO. The Israeli company, which is listed on the stock exchange in Tel Aviv, had planned to list on the Nouveau Marché in Paris, but was forced to pull its IPO in April due to poor market conditions. When the management decided to try to list again, they chose to go to the Neuer Markt in Germany. "They think the Neuer Markt is more suitable than the Nouveau Marché in Paris," said a banker close to the deal.

* Deutsche Bank has created a new structured products group within the global credit derivatives business. The group consists of the existing repackaging and portfolio swaps desks. The structured products group's mandate includes all complex synthetic products. Stephen Stonberg will head the new unit and report to Rajeev Misra and Boris Gelfand, co-heads of global credit derivatives.

Market report: Compiled by Glenn Blackley

Pemex Project Funding Master Trust (Pemex Master Trust) has signed a $3 billion MTN programme. The issuer is the funding subsidiary of the Mexican state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). Pemex is responsible for nearly one third of the Mexican government's revenues. The arrangers off the programme are Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and Salomon Smith Barney. The inaugural note off the programme was launched on August 2. It was a euro500 million ($457.64 million) note with a tenor of seven years. CSFB lead-managed the transaction. Pemex, guarantor off the programme, has an existing Euro-MTN programme with a ceiling of $6 billion. It was signed in 1998 and has rule 144a eligibility. It has issued $3.62 billion off 10 trades. Pemex Master Trust's programme was put in place as a vehicle for funding capital expenditure. CSFB says that it is part of the company's funding strategy to keep the two programmes separate. The issuer was assigned a Baa3 rating by Moody's in July. The dealer panel is Chase Manhattan, CSFB, Goldman Sachs and Salomon Smith Barney. It is only the fourth MTN programme to be signed by a Mexican issuer since 1998. It follows guarantor Pemex and Bancomer in 1998 and Manufacturas Kaltex in 1999.