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STRONG demand for French retailer Groupe André's debut this week allowed Crédit Lyonnais and Merrill Lynch to increase the size from Ffr800m to Ffr900m, making it the largest French franc high yielder to date. The deal surfaced on Tuesday at the bottom end of initial price talk of 150bp to 180bp over Pibor. "The pricing demonstrates the strength of demand," said a syndicate official at Crédit Lyonnais. "Even at 150bp over we had to scale back allotments."

HAVE PEOPLE forgotten about the FOMC? Bond markets have put in stunning performances over the past couple of weeks, with the DTB March Bund future reaching a contract high several times and the US long bond flirting with the 6% yield level. Much of the strength has been driven by renewed troubles in Asia, particularly Korea, and in world stockmarkets. The flight to quality on Thursday following Korea's overnight downgrade spurred government bonds in the US and Europe to new heights, and safe haven currencies such as the Swiss franc are again in vogue.

India A ¥18.34bn refinancing loan for National Thermal Power Corp Ltd has been launched by arrangers Banque Paribas (Singapore), Development Bank of Singapore, DKB Merchant Bank (Singapore), Fuji Bank (Singapore), Sakura Finance Asia, Sumitomo Bank (Hong Kong) and Tokai Bank (Singapore).

AS FORESHADOWED in Euroweek several months ago, Italian insurance group INA plans to spin-off its real estate interests in a separate company which is likely to seek an independent listing for its shares. Analysts and investment bankers say the real estate interests of the insurer have clogged INA's balance sheet for years with low yielding assets that have contributed little to the group's bottom line.

* Abbey National Treasury Services plc Guarantor: Abbey National plc

JUST WHEN the market had started to believe that it had recovered from October's credit crisis, the spectre of Korea came back to disturb its newly acquired confidence. The country's downgrading by Moody's -- to Baa2 from A3 -- and Standard & Poor's -- to BBB- from A- -- sent stockmarkets into a nosedive again. Korean spreads widened massively, with KDB 2006s as wide as 500bp over on Thursday afternoon having traded at 260bp over a week ago.

THE KOREA Development Bank yesterday failed to launch a planned $2bn Yankee bond via JP Morgan, plunging the world's 11th largest economy into still deeper financial crisis.

THE KOREA Development Bank yesterday failed to launch a planned $2bn Yankee bond via JP Morgan, plunging the world's 11th largest economy into still deeper financial crisis.

FOLLOWING an extended marketing period lead managers Robert Fleming and Daiwa Europe have completed the $60m offering of shares in Poland's Kredyt Bank PBI. The deal was launched last month and was due to be completed last week but the volatile conditions in world stockmarkets made this a difficult timetable to maintain. The banks reaped the rewards of allowing investors more time to look at the bank's investment case.

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