Merrill Lynch won the mandate to lead a €103m ($122m) convertible bond for lastminute.com, the UK online travel company that was brought to the market by Morgan Stanley at the height of the dotcom boom just three years ago.

Morgan Stanley led lastminute.com's £125m (€181m) initial public offering in March 2000 and advised the company on its £52m acquisition of Degriftour six months later. Last year the bank was replaced by Cazenove as broker and Goldman Sachs as financial adviser, although the spokeswoman for lastminute.com said Goldman no longer has this role.