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* Swedish Export Credit Rating: Aa3/AA+

Corporates Expect news soon of a rare North Sea related financing. Euroweek hears early reports that Chase Investment Bank has been mandated to arrange a $200m borrowing base facility for first time borrower Intrepid Energy North Sea Ltd.

* Following the news that Mannesmann of Germany is to tie up with Olivetti, it has been announced that the Italian group is to be recapitalised using the issue of new shares, warrants and convertible bonds. The refinancing programme will amount to around Lit600bn and is being handled by Lehman Brothers.

INSTITUTIONAL pre-marketing will begin next week for the A$12bn flotation of Telstra, Australia's national telecom carrier. One third of the company's capital to be offered to investors in an eagerly awaited IPO that will be Australia's largest privatisation to date.

* General Electric Capital Corp Rating: Aaa/AAA

ANZ Investment Bank is continuing the expansion of its global structured finance team with two senior appointments. Sinbad Coleridge is to become executive director of the division while Scott McInnis becomes head of project finance. Coleridge joins the bank from BZW where he was chairman and chief executive of the structured finance division. Before that he was with Barclays Bank, where he was deputy head of the corporate division responsible for relationship management with large international corporations.

BZW has announced several new hires for its fast growing loan trading business. Steven Zander and Cecilia McAnaulty have joined as associate directors in the bank's high yield investment group reporting to David Forbes-Nixon, director, European loan trading and high yield investments.

Ashanti Goldfields Company Ltd, one of Africa most highly regarded borrowers, has completed a landmark limited recourse project financing to fund the development of its Bibiani gold project in the western region of Ghana. Over the past two years, the company has redefined its borrowing strategy and successfully moved its bank financing from being under the umbrella of the IFC to using the stand-alone financing techniques that were previously only available to its peer group in western Europe and North America.

Crédit Lyonnais is expected to announce its long-awaited mandate for the second Cyber-Val securitisation today (Friday). Among firms in the running for the prized lead role among domestic banks are said to be Société Générale, CDC Marchés and BNP. Merrill Lynch is expected to have a key role. The bank has delayed choosing lead managers in the hope of a decision from the German authorities on a risk weighting for the transaction, since this will affect distribution in Germany.

TWO landmark asset backed transactions both took the CLO structure in new directions this week, giving a foretaste of the bold and innovative deals to come in this market. SBC Glacier Finance Series 1997-1 and 1997-2 securitised credit-linked notes issued by Swiss Bank Corp's New York branch in a $1.74bn transaction divided into two equal halves, at five and seven years. Each consisted of $798.225m of senior bonds rated Aa1/AA+, and a privately placed $71.775m subordinated tranche.

TOYOTA Motor Credit Corp's first securitisation of auto leases was hailed as a triumph by bankers as extensive roadshows in three continents contributed to heavy demand and larger sales in Europe and Asia than in the US. Global co-ordinator Merrill Lynch ran the books in North America, Morgan Stanley covered Europe and Lehman Brothers concentrated on Asia.

THE Korean government is under mounting pressure to push back the timetable and reduce the size of Korea Telecom's (KT) $1.2bn privatisation, thereby allowing more room for the long pipeline of third and fourth quarter issuers which has been rapidly building up over the past few weeks. Specialists estimate that with $2.28bn of fourth quarter approvals, in addition to $1.2bn from KT and some $400m left over from the third quarter, bankers will have a struggle placing upwards of $4.5bn of paper with nervous investors.