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THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) this week tapped its Ft20bn ($100m) domestic forint issuance programme for the second time, with a Ft5bn five year floating rate note. EIB officials said that the issue had been prompted by growing reverse enquiry from investors looking for forint denominated risk. This matched the bank's on-lending requirement for floating rate funds for infrastructure development projects in Hungary.

KRAKOW has become the first Polish municipality to tap the Euromarkets, launching a DM66m two year floating rate note via Bank Austria Creditanstalt and WestLB. The debut transaction for the BBB- (S&P) rated borrower -- Poland's capital under Austro-Hungarian rule -- featured a coupon set at 100bp over six month Libor and paid a discount margin of 106bp over Libor at the issue/fixed re-offer price of 99.90.

THERE IS an urgent call from Mee No Li, our delicious far-eastern informant and gossip 'deep throat'. Hadn't she told us last week that Stefan Ludwig at Nomura was wobbly on his perch and that his colleague Michael Thoms might be used as ammunition for the Hong Kong noon-day gun? Of course, our girl was absolutely right and it would seem that Ludwig, who was once Simon Fry's right hand, and Thoms have been presented with a pair of cement boots and an introductory swimming lesson in Hong Kong Harbour.

CHARGEURS, the French wool trading and processing company, this week completed a highly innovative $201m securitisation of its revenues, sole managed by Merrill Lynch. The deal takes a whole slice of Chargeurs' business off balance sheet, freeing the company to make capital investments. "This is not so much a financing as a corporate finance transaction," said Dorian Klein, managing director in Merrill's European structured finance group. "Chargeurs has used securitisation to transform the structure of its business."

* BankBoston's $2bn CLO is set to price on Monday, via bookrunner Lehman Brothers and joint leads Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. "It's a blowout," said a syndicate official at Lehman Brothers in New York. "The deal is emerging as the new benchmark for the CLO sector. There will be monthly collateral reports on Bloomberg, it is 100% ERISA eligible, has very good loan diversification, and the syndicate structure with three leads will allow for greater liquidity."

NOMURA executed its first European agency securitisation this week -- a £155m bond for UK brewer Marston, Thompson & Evershed, financing the divestment of almost all its tenanted pubs. At closing, the 569 pubs will be sold to a new company, The Premier Pub Co. The purchase is financed by a bond issue from The Premier Pub Finance Co, backed by rents and beer sales from the pubs.

CRÉDIT Lyonnais brought the second securitisation of housing loans to French borrowers from its Titrilog programme this week -- at Ffr10bn, the deal is the largest French securitisation apart from the Cyber-Val deals. In response to demand from a specific group of investors, including one large lead buyer, Crédit Lyonnais split the deal in half, carving out unlisted, private tranches that matched the public bonds exactly in size, maturity, rating and price.

DEUTSCHE Bank this week brought a third class of its own assets to the asset backed market, with a DM1bn deal backed by equipment and vehicle loans to German corporates -- the first public securitisation of the asset class in Germany. The 12,790 fixed rate loans were originated by its subsidiary Gesellschaft für Absatzfinanzierung (GEFA). The loans finance cars, commercial vehicles and buildings, and industrial and agricultural equipment.

FUJI BANK has quietly executed a $2bn securitisation of 56 of its loans to investment grade UK corporates, arranged by Greenwich NatWest. The transaction uses a special purpose vehicle called Fuji Asset Backed Funding (UK) Ltd, which is funded from a variety of sources, including the bank loan market. London banks were last week asked to participate in an $800m syndicated liquidity facility related to the deal.

KBC Bank this week launched the biggest securitisation of Belgian assets so far -- Bfr20bn ($600m) of bonds backed by residential mortgages originated by Cera Bank, which merged with Kredietbank in July to form KBC Bank. "KBC Bank is growing at a huge speed nationally and internationally," said Kristof Moens, a new issues official at KBC Bank. "Securitisation is a very useful way to release regulatory capital, diversify our investor base and enhance return on assets and equity." Home Loan Invest-2 offered a straightforward senior subordinated structure, with pro rata passthrough amortisation.

PROBLEM: The goal of hedging is to offset the risk inherent in a perhaps illiquid position by taking positions in liquid instruments.

CHINESE sanitary products manufacturer Hengan this week received a setback when the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong failed to approve the launch of a HK$700m ($90m) IPO. Sources close to the deal declined to speculate when approval may now be granted.