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Bidding is underway to secure the mandate to arrange a $1.5bn seven year facility for Sociedade Nacional de Combustiveis de Angola (Sonangol). This will be the largest facility ever sought by the state owned petroleum company and it will also carry the longest tenor. The company is hoping to raise the $1.5bn facility from its relationship banks - 10 of which have been invited to submit bids. The deadline is understood to be early January.

HVB Group has signed banks into the Eu213m project financing of the Eurovento 201MW wind energy projects. Fortis Bank has joined as sole mandated arranger and HVB as an underwriting arranger.

The six banks invited by mandated lead arranger JP Morgan into the senior debt facilities backing the 91.15% buy-out of Hirslanden from UBS Warburg by BC Partners, have responded positively. "Although the deal only has around 25% equity support, it is a strong business," said one banker.

Cheng Loong Co, the largest industrial paper manufacturer in Taiwan, has awarded a working mandate to Citibank (Taipei) to arrange a US dollar financing. The borrower last tapped the market in July 2000 with a NT$2bn deal that was well received by investors and was upped from NT$1.5bn.

Guarantor: TotalFinaElf SA Rating: Aa2/AA

Mandated arrangers ABC and Crédit Lyonnais will sign banks into the $50m amortising five year term loan for L'Enterprise Tunisienne d'Activitiés Petrolières (ETAP) today (Friday). The deal has been oversubscribed but no increase will be accepted. Eight banks have joined the deal including the mandated arrangers. For more details see EuroWeek 778.

The 17 mandated arrangers signed banks into the $250m 365 day term loan for Türkiye is Bankasi in London on Tuesday. The borrower's relationship lenders stepped up and the deal was well supported and increased to $300m. The credit paid a margin of 75bp over Libor. Mandated arrangers were ABN Amro, American Express Bank, Bank of New York, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Citigroup/SSSB, Commercial Bank of Kuwait, Commerzbank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Gulf International Bank, HVB Group, Natexis Banques Populaires, Standard Chartered Bank, Simitomo, UFJ Bank, Wachovia Bank and WestLB. Al-Ahli Commercial Bank joined as an arranger.

The UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) has hit Credit Suisse First Boston International, formerly Credit Suisse Financial Products (CSFP), with a £4m fine for its attempts to mislead the Japanese regulatory authorities. The fine is the highest ever imposed by a UK financial regulator. "The unprecedented size of the fine makes it clear that we consider any attempt to mislead the regulators and other authorities, whether in the UK or in other countries, to be an extremely serious issue," said Carol Sergeant, managing director responsible for enforcement at the FSA. "Ensuring that firms have organisational cultures that prevent this kind of behaviour is essential to maintaining the confidence we all expect to have in our financial markets."

Guarantor: Volkswagen Financial services AG Rating: A1/A+

The end of 2002 will see investors staring down the barrel of a third consecutive year of negative returns on equity. And with corporate earnings yet to improve bankers will greet the start of 2003 with trepidation. Questions over a possible war in Iraq combined with uncertainty surrounding global economic growth mean that fund managers are reticent about making predictions for 2003.

Guarantor: Volvo AB Rating: A3