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WHAT WAS the real inside story about the senior management changes within Merrill Lynch's debt capital markets group? Was it to be a night of the long knives? Were the hired assassins out in New York with a contract to kipper Connie Volstad? Had Steve Blakey and Steve Rumsey disappeared off the face of the earth or were they lying on a beach somewhere in the South Seas enjoying some well deserved R&R?

THE EUROSTERLING mandate coveted by investment banks for much of the year -- to lead manage the first tranche of the £2.65bn financing for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) -- has been won by HSBC and Warburg Dillon Read. It is likely to be launched early in 1999. Schroders, adviser to CTRL, held a bidding competition between five international banks to run the prestigious transaction, which will be the largest borrowing outside the Gilt market.

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Domestic issuance: * Banca Popolare di Novara

BARCLAYS has signed the Dfl 1.7bn debt facilities backing CVC and Cinven's acquisition of Kappa Packaging from KNP BT NV. Funding will take place today (Friday). General syndication attracted 14 banks -- a better result than many bankers had expected.

* Abbey National Treasury Services Guarantor: Abbey National plc

AFTER A long time in the market, syndication of the Sultanate of Oman's $300m (with an option to increase to a maximum of $400m) five year facility was closed by coordinator Gulf International Bank on December 16. The final amount raised was $350m -- scotching rumours that GIB had struggled to locate support for the Sultanate.

* Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten NV Rating: Aaa/AAA

* Axel Thill is transferring from the Dresdner Kleinwort Benson's syndicate desk in London to take a senior role in the firm's debt capital markets division in Tokyo, which will include setting up a Japan-based syndicate function for the bank. * WestLB has appointed Tim Richards as global head of debt syndicate (excluding emerging markets). Richards joins from Daiwa Europe in London, and will report to Erwin Sell, global head of new issues and syndicated loans.

FOLLOWING the hugely successful sale of stock in France Télécom, the Trésor is preparing the next phase of its privatisation programme. Next year the government plans to sell shares in Air France, Crédit Lyonnais and Crédit Foncier, the French mortgage bank. The markets had expected the sales of FT2 and either one of Crédit Lyonnais or Air France in 1998 but the government's divestment in the national carrier and the troubled bank had to be shelved due to difficult market conditions and problems with the labour unions at Air France.

THE B1/B rated Republic of Turkey this week completed its final fundraising of 1998, a DM200m tap of its DM800m 9.5% November 30, 2001 Euro-Deutschmark offering. Conducted as a block trade by sole lead Deutsche Bank, the increase was launched at an issue price of 101.80 -- flat to the offer side of the outstanding DM800m transaction.