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RADIO broadcasting and outdoor advertising company, Infinity Broadcasting, outlined the terms of its IPO this week, adding to the list of giant offerings slated to hit the US market in early December. The company, which is being spun off by parent CBS Corp, originally filed with the SEC in September, but did not specify the amount of shares to be offered. This week, Infinity revealed that a total of 135m primary shares will be sold globally. Some 20.25m of those shares will be offered outside the US.

US dollar straights

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CZECH aircraft manufacturer Aero-Vodochody's debut international bond had to contend with a shock ratings downgrade for the Czech Republic yesterday (Thursday), but still managed to come to market at the tight end of its pricing range and enjoy a successful reception. Bookrunner CIBC Wood Gundy Oppenheimer and joint lead Deutsche Bank launched the $200m seven year Euro/144A deal on Thursday morning in London on indicated terms of 280bp-300bp over the 5.875% November 2005 US Treasury. They priced it at the start of New York trading with a 7.5% coupon and a 99.405 issue/fixed re-offer price to give a margin of 280bp over the US government bond benchmark.

* First Security Bank Rating: A1/A-

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France Banque Nationale de Paris and Deutsche have won the mandate to arrange a Ffr4bn five year revolving credit for LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

THE INVESTMENT grade Yankee bond market finally re-opened this week after months of shutdown, with a $500m five year offering by Dutch chemical company Akzo Nobel. The deal, underwritten by ABN Amro and Warburg Dillon Read (joint leads, joint books), attracted more than 140 accounts and was priced at the tightest end of its 155bp to 160bp spread talk, which was narrowed from an initial price guidance of 162.5bp to 175bp.

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TALK that YPF may try to buy back its own shares from the Argentine government was fuelled on Thursday when the company uncharacteristically ignored wide secondary spreads and launched a $100m 30 put three year issue in the US bond market. The BBB-/Ba3 rated deal, led by JP Morgan, was launched with a 10% coupon, giving it a spread of around 560bp to 570bp at a time when BB/Ba3 rated Argentina's 2001s were around 578bp, YPF's 2003s were at 537bp and its 2007s at 505bp. The 30 put three year structure clearly appeals to investors who are looking for high convexity bonds.

US ASSET backed issuers roared back into action this week, as investors snapped up over $4bn of credit card paper and a $1.6bn auto lease deal from World Omni. Several of the deals were increased, and spreads appear to have turned the corner, with five year floating rate credit cards offered below 30bp for the first time in weeks. Spread tightening was even more marked in the fixed rate sector, where margins had blown out furthest since the Russian debt default. As swap spreads narrowed, investors regained confidence in fixed rate deals -- issuers crowded into the five year maturity and still did not exhaust demand.

WESTDEUTSCHE Landesbank's London securitisation group, hired en masse from Deutsche Bank in June, has some $2.5bn of mandates that it hopes to put into the bank's Compass Securitisation conduit by the year end. These include one portfolio of car hire purchase contracts and one of auto leases for two UK captive vehicle finance companies, and two pools of trade receivables from UK manufacturers.