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EURO GOVT-French yield spread widens on ratings warning

* French 10-year bond yield premium vs Bunds hits 16-year highBy Emelia Sithole-MatariseLONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The French risk premium over benchmark German bonds hit a 16-year high on Tuesday after Moody's warned on France's rating outlook and as German bond prices rose on ebbing hopes of a quick solution to the euro zone debt crisis.The cost of insuring French debt against default also jumped after Moody's warned late on Monday it may place France's top-notch sovereign rating on negative outlook in the next three months if the costs for helping to bail out banks and euro zone states stretch its budget too much.French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said the country's triple-A rating was solid as the country was taking deficit-cutting measures, while warning that a gross domestic product growth target of 1.75 percent by 2012 was probably too high.Bunds extended the previous session's gains as equities came under further pressure after disappointing U.S. corporate earnings and below-forecast Chinese growth data but trading was expected to be volatile before a weekend euro zone summit.German Bunds snapped three weeks of losses on Monday after German officials cautioned against expectations of a quick solution to the region's two-year debt problems when European leaders meet at the weekend."The nervousness is very high and negative comments will have a larger impact than positive comments. The balance of risk is we're definitely going to see more positive performance in Bunds," Nordea analyst Niels From said.The Bund future jumped more than a full point to a one-week peak of 135.75, breaking above the 38 percent retracement of the October sell-off at 135.18.This provided a further bullish trigger, paving the way to the 62 percent retracement level at 136.64 and even the 138.80 Oct. 4 failure high, UBS technical analyst Richard Adcock said.The contract was last at 135.37, up 75 ticks.The 10-year French/Bund yield spread was last 8 basis points wider at 104 bps, its widest since 1995, with the equivalent French/Dutch spread also near its widest in 16 years at 61 bps.VULNERABLERabobank strategists said they continued to play the risk of a potential French ratings cut via a long position in Dutch 10-year bonds versus French debt."This position has breached our revised target of -50 bps (mid-price), aided by Moody's cautionary comments on France's AAA rating," they said in a note."We are opting to move our target to -60 bps and lock in 20 bps of profit by bringing our stop in to -40 bps. We are mindful, however, of the sizeable imminent event risk in the form of this weekend's EU summit and will reassess this position in the coming days accordingly."Cash 10-year Bunds yielded 2.03 percent , 6.7 bps less than in late Monday trade and retreating from seven-week highs above 2.20 percent hit last week when market optimism was high that the European summit would unveil sweeping new crisis-fighting measures."There's more hedge fund intra-day type of buying and in Bund futures. Moody's warning with regards to France's triple-A rating also gave support to German Bunds ... but the market is very choppy and driven by the headlines," a trader said.Other lower-rated euro zone sovereigns underperformed the German benchmark. The Italian/German spread stood at 380 bps, 9 bps wider than on Monday.

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Swedish buyout fund EQT raises 4.75 bln euros

Strong demand enabled the fund to reach its funding target in less than nine months, the group said on Friday.EQT planned to continue to make investments in the health care sector, which is increasingly being funded by private money in northern Europe as governments cut costs.In July, the fund purchased Swedish firm Atos Medical, which makes artificial voice boxes for people who have had throat operations and other prosthetic tools and had 2010 sales of 64 million euros.The Wallenberg family fund Investor AB [INVEb.ST] remains the biggest investor in EQT with a maximum commitment of up to 450 million euros, a spokesman for the fund said.Even though financing markets for leveraged buyouts have faltered in Europe, EQT said Scandinavian banks would likely be willing to lend for buyouts."In the Nordic countries, financing is available with roughly around 50 percent leverage for investments between 1.0-1.5 billion euros," EQT spokesman Johan Hähnel said. ($1 = 0.730 euro)

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N.Y. artist can paint nude models only after dark

Golub's lawyer, Ronald Kuby, argued that New York laws do not prohibit public nudity in the name of art, and a compromise was reached that was the basis of the court ruling.Under the agreement, "he is permitted to paint bare breasts any time, anywhere, but the G-strings have to stay on until daylight goes out," Kuby said after a hearing in Manhattan criminal court.State laws against public exposure exempt "any person entertaining or performing in a play, exhibition, show or entertainment," Kuby said. Municipalities are allowed to devise their own restrictions, but New York City generally does not do so, Kuby said.Golub, of Nyack, New York, said he likes to paint nude models because their bodies have energy and dynamism that he finds lacking in canvas."I feel that when I do live body painting it's a good thing, a positive thing," he said.Charges against Golub will be dropped in six months if he abides by the terms of the agreement and is not arrested again. Charges against Karla Storie, a model from Texas arrested with him, will be dismissed if she too is not arrested again in the next six months.Golub said he was planning to return to criminal court on Friday and paint a nude model in a park near the courthouse.

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UPDATE 1-NTT unit to offer repairs for big solar plants- Nikkei

The service, scheduled for next spring, will prevent the deterioration in performance that can reduce power output of a solar plant by about 15 percent over about a 17-year life, the paper said.NTT is targeting trading companies, financial institutions and other enterprises building mega solar plants to cash in on the introduction of the feed-in-tariff mechanism for renewable energy resources that takes effect next July in Japan, the Nikkei said.Initially, NTT Facilities, which designs and installs solar plants for industrial purposes, will offer its new monitoring and maintenance service to the same customers that use its installation service, the daily said.The company intends to use special equipment built into power conditioners to monitor operations at solar plant from a server on the internet to identify times when declines in electricity output take place due to malfunctions and immediately dispatch maintenance staff to make repairs, the paper said.NTT Facilities, which hopes to sign up about ten customers in fiscal 2012, will charge 400,000-500,000 yen ($5,206-$6,508) annually for monitoring service and a separate 500,000 yen to 1 million yen for each repair visit, the Nikkei reported. ($1 = 76.825 Japanese Yen)