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* The Republic of Romania was this week downgraded for the third time in less than six months, with Standard & Poor's cutting the country's long term foreign currency rating to B- from B+. In late May S&P had already downgraded Romania from BB- to B+ while in September Moody's Investors Service cut its rating for Romania from Ba3 to B1.

LEAD managers CSFB, National Bank of Greece and Salomon Smith Barney are entering the final stages of the privatisation sale of stock of OTE, the Greek national telecoms operator. The deal has suffered from the upheaval in global financial markets as dedicated emerging market equity buyers' funds have been depleted. Despite some market scepticism, the deal now looks in good shape as the bookrunners prepare to lead the company to one last round of investor presentations. Salesmen are avoiding making any commitments on how much the book is likely to be covered -- an understandable reaction given this is the least popular form of offering in the current market: a secondary sale of liquid stock.

THE SULTANATE of Oman is returning to the international syndicated loan market with a $300m five year credit facility. Gulf International Bank has won the role of co-ordinator and will, over the next few weeks, appoint a club of arrangers.

GENERAL syndication of the extremely popular £2.4bn credit facility for PowerGen Finance has closed. Arrangers Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and HSBC report that the retail was a complete blow-out, matching the success of the sub-underwriting phase. In syndication senior managers were offered 15bp for £50m commitments and managers 10bp for £30m commitments.

CAZENOVE, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Robert Fleming have launched the sale of stock in SanLam, the South African life assurer, and are already reporting a good response from investors attracted by a high quality name from a region that has not offered many stocks to foreign buyers. "Despite the emerging market crisis, some companies will always inspire buyers. The chance to get SanLam stock at a fair price is likely to prove irresistible to investors," said one equity salesman.

Iceland Sumitomo will launch the $100m credit facility for Landsbanki either today (Friday) or on Monday. Euroweek has learnt that the bank will offer the deal to a medium sized group of arrangers, all on equal status.

GLOBAL co-ordinators Merrill Lynch and Merita have launched the bookbuilding period for the Finnish government's sale of stock in Sonera, the national telecoms group. The deal follows the flotation of Swisscom, which is widely regarded as one of the best international equity deals of the year and is trading far above issue price, attesting to the rush by international investors to defensive sectors with visible earnings streams.

Asset backed securities: * TDA 5 Fondo de Titulización Hipotecaria

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A SEMBLANCE of normality at last returned to the international bond markets this week as issuers took advantage of the first unbroken period of stability in months to come back to the market in force.

A SEMBLANCE of normality at last returned to the international bond markets this week as issuers took advantage of the first unbroken period of stability in months to come back to the market in force.

Swiss francs