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German conglomerate Mannesmann this week posed the sternest test yet of the depth and maturity of the European convertible bond sector, launching a highly aggressive Eu2bn deal into a market where issuing conditions are far from favourable. Although the terms of the deal shocked some market participants, the jumbo bond was priced and allocated in the early hours of Friday morning - less than 48 hours after its launch - with all the signs indicating that the company and its bankers had pulled off an audacious piece of financing.

Exchange Fund Investment's landmark $1bn to $2bn Hong Kong equity offering began pre-marketing this week with an institutional roadshow set to begin on October 25. The government will officially announce the new index product - thought to be called the tracker fund of Hong Kong - on Monday, launching a media blitz that will run through to the close of the deal on November 5 with listing on November 8.

n Paul Tregidgo, a managing director and head of Latin American debt capital markets group, has been appointed head of emerging debt capital markets at Credit Suisse First Boston. He will oversee the origination and execution of debt transactions in the emerging markets. Carsten Stoehr, director, will be moving to Hong Kong at the end of the year. He has been appointed as head of emerging Asian debt capital markets. Peter Malik, vice president assumes a new position as head of emerging European debt capital markets. Stoehr and Malik will report to Tregidgo.

n Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch have abandoned their marketing efforts for a planned Eu150m-Eu200m two or three year euro issue for the Republic of Romania in the face of widespread antipathy from investors in Europe and the US. The news has been greeted with little surprise by market participants, many of whom had long regarded the B3/B-/B- rated sovereign's chances of securing investor support as negligible.

Credit Suisse First Boston overcame testing market conditions this week to complete the third internet-related IPO in the UK to date, floating £50.46m of shares in online auction house QXL.com to value the business at £263m. The offering came at a time when commentators have been questioning the valuations attached to internet businesses, with the two main exchanges for technology companies - Nasdaq in the US and Germany's Neuer Markt - both exhibiting high degrees of price volatility in recent weeks.

The Republic of the Philippines continued to enhance its status as Asia's most sophisticated and prolific borrower with the launch this week of its most ambitious offering to date. With its exchange of Brady debt for new uncollateralised global bonds, the republic should further distance itself from the ranks of stigmatised debtor nations, ease its current fiscal burden and greatly increase the flexibility of its liability management.

Bond markets were subdued this week, with market participants awaiting the results of the US FOMC, Bank of England and European Central Bank meetings. No changes to interest rates were announced, but both the Fed and the ECB announced a move towards a tightening bias. ECB president Wim Duisenberg said that he would need more evidence of a pick up in European inflationary pressures before tightening monetary policy. His comments, coming after a week of higher than expected European price and output figures, suggest that the market's bearish trend ahead of these data was overdone. After falling through the week, government, swap and credit markets stabilised on the news of no rate hike. But the Euromarkets remain bearish and although many borrowers are still looking to raise funds ahead of the year end, the opportunities are fading. With the US Fed likely to increase interest rates at its meeting next month, the likelihood of heavy supply before the end of the year is diminished further. Primary traders this week said they wanted to avoid having bonds on their books come November. In a quiet week, Crédit Foncier de France grabbed the limelight with its Eu1.5bn long 10 year obligations foncières deal, opening the new market for French style Pfandbriefe. Crédit Local de France's Dexia Municipal Agency should launch a five or 10 year deal next week totalling Eu2bn to Eu4bn. Caja Madrid launched what was arguably the most successful of the mortgage bonds to have emerged from Spain in the last month. Launched at 7bp over Euribor, the Eu1bn 10 year cédulas hipotecarias tightened by 2bp. Corporates generally gave the difficult market a wide berth, but after careful preparations unrated Preussag went ahead with its Eu750m seven year issue. Priced at 89bp over the Bund, the deal quickly sold out as investors, predominantly in Germany, bought into the company's turnaround story. In the dollar sector, GECC sought to build an institutional investor base by launching a three-pronged increase to existing retail deals. Paribas was behind the strategy, which created three bonds of over $1bn - although some bankers questioned why GECC had not chosen to launch a new, jumbo bond instead. The IADB also launched a tap to an existing issue, in the yen sector, to create a ¥150bn bond which quickly traded through JGBs as investors in Europe and Asia sought scarce yen product. Morgan Stanley and TMI were bookrunners on the increase. Vodafone should launch a Eu1.5bn seven year fixed rate deal next week via Barclays Capital. A level of around Euribor plus 35bp equivalent is anticipated for the A2/A rated issuer. Northern Rock is planning to launch a Eu300 to Eu500m floater via lead managers HSBC and Lehman Brothers. The issue is being roadshowed in Europe this week and will have a three or five year maturity. Aguas de Barcelona, rated Aa3/AA-, has appointed Deutsche as books and Invercaixa joint lead for its debut Eurobond. The Eu500m 10 year issue will be roadshowed in Europe this month. Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz has mandated Dresdner, Salomon and WestLB for a Eu1.5bn global Pfandbrief in the five year area. And Renault Credit International has mandated BNP for a three year euro floater. The cupboard of new issues in the dollar sector is relatively bare, with Freddie Mac having a clear run for its $4bn of three year reference notes next week. The US agency wants to increase European investor participation in its quarterly bullet bonds, and has appointed two European lead managers to run the deal - ABN Amro and Warburg Dillon Read. They will be joined as bookrunner by a sole US representative, Morgan Stanley. A new Japanese government guaranteed issuer, JBIC - the successor to Jexim - is said to be looking to launch an inaugural deal. A $1bn 10 year Eurodollar issue could emerge as a result. And Ford is taking soundings on a multi-billion dollar 10 year GlobLS issue.

The second stage of Rhône-Poulenc's divestment of its 67.3% stake in speciality chemicals group Rhodia began this week when Credit Suisse First Boston and Paribas launched a Eu1.1bn exchangeable bond into Rhodia shares. The launch of the exchangeable notes comes two weeks after Rhône-Poulenc began marketing a straight equity offering of up to 69.5m shares in Rhodia, representing 39.8% of its capital. The global institutional equity offer consists of 55.1m shares, with the French retail offer accounting for 6.12m shares and a greenshoe option covering a further 8.3m

Denmark The popular $1bn five year revolver for AP Moeller closed on Wednesday night after a strong response in general syndication. This round will probably not lead to an increase in the facility.

Amount: Eu500m Öffentlicher Pfandbrief series 672 Maturity: March 15, 2002

SCOTTISH & NEWCASTLE has secured a stunning success in its bid to raise £1.55bn from the loan market to back its acquisition of the pubs, restaurants and budget hotels of Greenalls Group plc. Arranger Warburg Dillon Read launched the deal to 28 sub-underwriting co-arrangers in mid-September, offering banks a fee of 37.5bp for underwriting £125m.