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There is a frantic game of musical chairs taking place in the Euromarkets, with more money being waved around than at any time since the loony mid-1980s. In these spendthrift times you never seem to hear of a guaranteed compensation package of less than £1m, and that is for young movers and shakers in their twenties who, only a few years ago, were wearing short trousers or going to girl guide summer camps. At Merrill Lynch the prospective arrival of 'TJ' Lim has put the cat among the pigeons. The Merrill pack is being constantly reshuffled to make way for TJ's pals. Some Merrill folk may not be the happiest of bunnies but the overall message is that the firm is on a hiring spree. Merrill knows that it is being kippered in international fixed income by Deutsche Bank and TJ's mission is to close in on Edson Mitchell and to put a potato up Deutsche's exhaust pipe.

SALES of BSkyB stock by Kirch and Vivendi raised a total of Eu2.2bn this week and sent the media company's share price tumbling, amid recriminations on the timing of the deals. Having closed at 1,371p on Monday before the deals, the stock fell more than 6% on Tuesday and a further 5.76% on Wednesday. Yesterday (Thursday) it closed at 1,145p. Market observers were divided on which deal had done the stock price more harm.

Market report: Compiled by Frank Hracs, TD Securities, Toronto

Glencore International AG, the Swiss based commodities company, this week launched the largest ever securitisation of trade receivables in the bond market - a $700m, triple-A rated transaction lead managed by Deutsche Bank. The deal parcels Glencore's revenues from trading metals, minerals and oil products with customers in 42 countries worldwide.

Turkey's largest private sector bank, Türkiye Is Bankasi, closed its first securitisation this week, with a $150m deal lead managed by Citibank/Salomon Smith Barney. The transaction parcels future dollar payments to Is Bank made through SWIFT MT 100 payment orders and cleared through five US banks.

* Australian Mortgage Securities Ltd, ABN Amro's Australian mortgage financing company, this week executed a small private securitisation that is believed to have been directly placed with investors without the help of a lead manager. ARMS II Fund VII issued A$97.5m of senior bonds rated triple-A by Standard & Poor's and A$2.5m of notes rated AA-. The 'A' tranche, a 2.5 year soft bullet, priced at 28bp over the three month bank bills swap rate, and the junior piece at 69bp over.

Banca Popolare Pugliese, a regional bank in the south of Italy, launched its first securitisation this week, parcelling performing mortgages and non-performing loans (NPLs) into Eu79.5m of bonds lead managed by Crédit Agricole Indosuez. The deal is the second in Italy to combine performing and non-performing pools in a single SPV. In March another regional bank, Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie di Chieti, issued Eu35.9m of bonds backed by performing mortgages and a Eu37.9m deal backed by non-performing loans through Creso 1 Srl.

European investors will be offered what is effectively a new asset class in July when Fiat SAVA SpA, the Italian car manufacturer's finance arm, launches its first securitisation of Italian auto loans. The deal will be worth up to Eu1bn, making it by far the largest securitisation of European car loans.

Over the past 10 years, the market for equity derivative-linked structured products in the U.K. has grown dramatically in size and sophistication.