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n Western Corporate Federal Credit Union (WesCorp) Rating: Aa3/AA-

ABN AMRO Rothschild and Merrill Lynch have launched the Eu1.1bn capital increase for the Dutch publishing group, VNU. This involves the sale of between Eu250m and Eu500m in convertible bonds and between Eu600m to Eu850m of straight equity.

THE US HIGH YIELD market showed renewed life this week when VoiceStream Wireless Corp priced a highly successful $1.503bn bond issue - one of the biggest telecom offerings since July. The deal helps lift an eight week long curse on the high yield market: persistent mutual fund outflows and investor worries about Y2K - many have developed an aversion to anything but top rated corporate bond issues - has made for an unpredictable and consequently soft market.

Warburg Dillon Read is hoping to launch the first ever Eurobond by an Egyptian borrower in the week beginning, Monday, November 15. The bank is building a book for the planned $100m-$200m five year Euro/144A dollar issue for healthcare and industrial conglomerate, Lakah Group. The company has a BB+ rating from Fitch IBCA - one notch below the agency's BBB- sovereign ceiling for Egypt. Market speculation is that Lakah will need to pay a launch spread of at least 500bp to tempt investors to buy a deal from a country which has no obvious pricing references.

Markets gave a unanimous thumbs-up to the European Central Bank's decision to raise its repo rate by 50bp yesterday (Thursday), ending weeks of uncertainty over the outlook for interest rates. Not only was the increase already priced into the market, but the decision to opt for a 50bp rise rather than a 25bp rise to maintain stability for longer periods boosted confidence in the ECB.

Rating: AAA/AAA (S&P/Fitch IBCA) Amount: Eu477m (fungible with three issues totalling Eu1.03bn launched 06/10/98, 17/02/98 and 24/06/98) Öffentlicher Pfandbrief series 7505

France Arrangers and joint bookrunners Banque National de Paris and Crédit Lyonnais have launched the acquisition facility for Oberthur Smart Cards, backing its acquisition of the smart cards division of De La Rue.

n KfW International Finance Guarantor: Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau