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Two new deals for Iranian borrowers - a $100m 1-1/2 year facility for Iranian Petroleum Corporation (IPC) and a $150m three year club-style loan for the Iranian Foreign Investment Company (IFIC) - were launched by Standard Chartered this week. They are the first syndicated facilities from the country this year and may presage a number of large project finance deals.

Fixed income bankers were this week cautiously optimistic about the bond market's ability to remain open in the event of a US-led war with Iraq, the prospects of which should become clearer today (Friday) after chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has reported his latest findings to the UN security council. Although France, Germany, Russia, and now China are likely to push for further weapons inspections, the likelihood of war increased this week, as the US and the UK focused on Iraq's missile programme and the release of a recording said to be from Osama Bin Laden calling for Muslims to resist any invasion of Iraq.

Football securitisation is back in the limelight this week, but for all the wrong reasons. The collapse of Fiorentina's Lit67.5bn securitisation in September 2002 sent shockwaves through the market. It appeared to vindicate bankers who doubted that football clubs were suitable for the financing technique.

Arrangers Barclays, Citigroup/ SSSB, JP Morgan, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland hope to launch Six Continents' £1.5bn demerger facilities into syndication next week. Six Continents will announce full details of its demerger on Monday. The demerged hotels and retail businesses will each take out a £1.5bn loan. The retail business which is indicatively rated Baa3 will pay a margin north of 1% over Libor, while the hotel business will pay just below 1%.

Rating: A2/A/A+ Amount: $500m

The City of Bratislava has approached a select group of banks to bid for the mandate to arrange its debut $75m facility. The bank group should comprise both international and local banks. The borrower has asked for bids on various options from short to long term financing. The mandate should be awarded by the middle of March. Banks understood to be looking at the deal include Bank Austria Creditanstalt, ING and RZB.

The global junk bond default rate began to fall in January from the highs of 2002, according to Standard & Poor's (S&P). The rating agency announced that the 12 month global junk bond default rate fell to 8.33% in January, from 9.2% in December. The US rate fell to 6.56% from 7.24%, while the rate for the European Union fell to 13.01% from 13.48%. In 2002, more than $178bn of bonds went into default, led by issuers such as WorldCom and NTL.

Royal Bank of Scotland, coordinator for the Eu1.5bn five year club-style facility for Endesa, has been joined by ING, Banesto, Crédit Agricole Indosuez, JP Morgan, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, BNP Paribas, Caja Madrid, HSBC, La Caixa, Banco Popular Espanol, Bank of China, BayernLB and WestLB in syndication. The loan will be repaid in half yearly instalments and has an average life of 4-1/2 years. The transaction will follow the issue of a Eu500m 10 year Eurobond.

Mandated arranger Deutsche Bank has launched syndication of the $350m 3-1/2 year refinancing for Skandia Capital. A bank meeting will be held in Stockholm next Friday. The deal pays a margin of 45bp over Libor. A commitment fee of 20bp is also payable and there are no utilisation fees. Three tickets are on offer during syndication: $40m for 15bp; $30m for 12.5bp; and $20m for a fee of 10.5bp. Proceeds will be used to refinance the borrower's $350m seven year facility which it secured in 1996. Mandated arrangers were Den Danske Bank and SEB Merchant Banking. That transaction paid a margin of 17.5bp for years one to five and 22.5bp for years six and seven. Proceeds will also be used for working capital purposes.

Rating: Aa2/AA+ Amount: NZ$100m

Syndication of the debt facilities backing the BC Partners-led buy-out of Hirslanden Healthcare from UBS Warburg is progressing well. The deal, split into Sfr645m of senior debt and Sfr110m of mezzanine, was launched into general syndication at the end of January. Five banks committed to the deal before the retail phase.

Uni President Enterprises is inviting banks to bid for a NT$4.8bn 16 year fundraising project financing that involves the development of a 15 storey commercial centre and a station for the Taipei Rapid Transit System. The borrower, Taiwan's largest food company and one of its largest conglomerates, will take a 50% stake in the construction project. Under the build-operate-transfer proposal, Uni-President will operate the commercial centre for 50 years before handing it over to the city government.