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Chase Manhattan has won the mandate to arrange a senior debt facility backing Wassal's proposed acquisition of Thorn Lighting Group. The £351m bid counters a £321m bid for Cooper Industries of the US. Syndication will be aimed at Wassal's relationship banks.

A renewed wave of volatility threatened to sweep through the financial markets in eastern Europe as a result of growing investor concerns over the measures proposed by Russia to alleviate its economic predicament. Western banks yesterday (Thursday) urged the Russian government to rethink the terms of a debt workout scheme where domestic investors would receive preferential treatment over international investors, which hold an estimated $15bn-$17bn of GKOs.

Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Banque Paribas this week successfully floated shares in Brokat Infosystems, defying recent market volatility with an offer that was many times oversubscribed. "The deal shows all the signs of the old days when the second tier markets throughout Europe were roaring ahead," said one salesperson on the Continent.

France became the first euro zone country to offer investors an inflation linked bond this week with the launch of its OATi. The template may be followed by other borrowers in the new single currency bloc. Despite losing ground to Germany in the race to become the euro-benchmark issuer in recent months, the move helped France impress market participants by maintaining its reputation as an innovative borrower.

LANDESBANK Kiel and WestLB have had to reduce the $150m multicurrency term loan facility for Bolig-og-Naeringsbanken (BN Banken) to $100m. The arrangers blamed the volatile market conditions for the cut in size. However bankers suggest that appetite for Norwegian debt has waned due to the enormous amount of debt required by Norwegian borrowers over the past nine months and particularly since June.

Investor presentations began in Singapore yesterday (Thursday) for what may prove to be the only public debt transaction out of Asia during the second half of the year - a $300m World Bank guaranteed deal for the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). With ABN Amro as lead manager, separate ratings for the issue and borrower should be released today (Friday), the former potentially piercing the Kingdom of Thailand's BBB-/Ba1 rating by several notches. Fixed income analysts said that the prospective 10 year deal has been given a boost by the news that the World Bank has strengthened the structure with the provision of a rolling coupon guarantee.

Hopes that some stability may return to the international bond markets built up early in the week but were snatched away again yesterday (Thursday) by yet another sharp fall on the world's equity markets. This time, the reasons for the short lived nature of the confidence were two-fold: first, concerns reappeared about Brazil's ability to withstand a potential withdrawal of international capital; second, Fed chairman Greenspan and the UK monetary policy committee dampened hopes that imminent rate cuts would be introduced to help ease the global financial and economic crisis.