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Citicorp Securities Inc has arranged a $1.25bn refinancing for Fox Kids Worldwide Inc. The loan is split into a seven year $602m reducing revolver, a $298m seven year reducing revolver and a nine year $350m term loan. Pricing is based on the company's leverage ratio. The Prime margin range for the revolvers is Prime flat to 125bp, the Libor margin range is 50bp to 225bp and the commitment fee range is 20bp to 50bp. The Prime margin range for the term loan is Prime flat to 175bp and the Libor margin range is 100bp to 275bp.

JP MORGAN and Merrill Lynch are strongly tipped as likely joint winners of the ratings advisory and lead management mandate for the planned Eurobond issue from the Republic of Bulgaria. The two US investment banks are believed to have beaten off competition from Goldman Sachs, ING Barings, SBC Warburg and UBS. Officials from all six banks were in Sofia this week for discussions with the Bulgarian finance ministry. An official confirmation of the mandate is expected by the end of the month.

NEW EURODOLLAR issues again struggled to get off the ground this week, leaving debt syndicate managers increasingly concerned about the state of the sector. Issuers such as KfW and SEK suffered, while others such as SNCF postponed their launch plans. Some bankers say in current market conditions it is almost impossible to launch successful transactions. Few can see an immediate end to the difficulties.

Belgium First Chicago is quietly arranging a rare foray into the syndicated loan market for Crédit Professionnel. The five year facility is understood to carry pricing of 25bp over Libor and is being organised on a confidential private placement basis.

Ghana Syndication of the finely priced $275m trade finance facility being organised for Cocobod by co-ordinating arranger Citibank International plc, plus arrangers Standard Chartered Bank and the Agricultural Development Bank of Ghana, has been a blow-out success.

INGRAM Micro, which is in both the Euro, US and Canadian markets for a series of three financings worth $1.65bn, has mandated NationsBank NA and ScotiaBank to arrange and co-ordinate the financings. European based lenders are being offered a $500m multicurrency revolving credit funding the company's European operations for which the borrower is Ingram Micro Co-ordination Center NV.

CITIBANK is in the initial stages of launching its DM1bn and $135m loan for Tarkett AG. The facility is to finance the German flooring products company's DM705m acquisition of Sommer's flooring business. In addition, the loan will provide the enlarged group with working capital and replace existing arrangements including the DM300m five year revolving credit signed in November 1995 and a $135m high yield bond issue.

Kuwait Syndication of the $1.2bn refinancing being sought by Equate Petrochemical Company has been completed oversubscribed. The syndication was targeted at existing syndicate banks, and few took the opportunity to withdraw from the deal.

Finland The well supported $350m seven year multicurrency revolving credit being arranged for Nokia Oy by Chase Investment Bank, Citibank NA and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell was signed last Friday in Helsinki.

Croatia The recently syndicated DM35m five years at 95bp over Libor term loan for Dalmatinska banka being arranged by Bayerische Landesbank and Bayerische Vereinsbank AG was signed on Tuesday in Zadar.

THE FRENCH real estate sector and the growth of securitisation continued to march hand-in-hand this week as Société Générale unveiled a new funding structure for French real estate lender Comptoir des Entrepreneurs.

SAKURA Bank has set up a unique partnership with Japan's biggest property developer, Mitsui Real Estate, to recover some of its delinquent commercial real estate loans using securitisation. A special purpose company, Reif Ltd, sold ¥10bn of five year bullet Eurobonds on Wednesday. The transaction was rated AA- by Nippon Investors Service, and broke down into 70% of fixed rate paper and 30% floating. The deal was privately placed with sophisticated European and Japanese investors after about two months of marketing.