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Guarantor: Banco de Sabadell SA Rating: A1/A/A+

The battle for Safeway plc is pulling almost every major lending house in Europe into the bidding war. It emerged this week that the latest suitor for Safeway, leading UK food retailer Tesco, had secured £2.9bn of financing from WestLB and HBOS. The banks declined to comment.

Russian pharmacy chain 36.6 postponed its $20m IPO this week, citing poor market conditions. The company was being advised by ING. The firm intended to float a 20% stake on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange this week, but according to a banker working on the deal, the sale was scuppered by falling markets. "We had just over a week of good meetings. But when you are targeting predominantly UK investors and the FTSE is down eight days in a row there is clearly a problem," he said.

Six Continents is close to mandating five banks to lead arrange two separate £1.5bn demerger facilities. EuroWeek understands that Barclays, Citigroup/SSSB, HSBC, JP Morgan and Lloyds will have leading roles in both facilities. This has not been confirmed by Six Continents. According to the company, however, a formal mandate will be awarded next week.

Six Continents is close to mandating five banks to lead arrange two separate £1.5bn demerger facilities. EuroWeek understands that Barclays, Citigroup/SSSB, HSBC, JP Morgan and Lloyds will have leading roles in both facilities. This has not been confirmed by Six Continents. According to the company, however, a formal mandate will be awarded next week.

Mandated arranger Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi has signed banks into the Eu75m five year facility for Slovenske Elektrarne. The deal was oversubscribed to Eu100m, but no increase was accepted. The credit pays a margin of 150bp over Libor with a commitment fee of 65bp of the undrawn and cancelled portion of the facility. Crédit Lyonnais joined the deal as an arranger. Alpha Bank, HSBC and HVB Bank Slovakia joined as co-arrangers for takes of Eu12.5m for a fee of 70bp. Bawag joined as a lead manager for a ticket of Eu10m for 65bp and Banque Misr, BayernLB and Unibanka joined as managers for Eu5m for 57.5bp. Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.

Rating: A1/A+ Amount: £450m lower tier two capital

Banks in ABSA's $300m one year term loan signed in March 2002 have until Monday to come back to the borrower with internal approvals for the refinancing of the loan. According to bankers working on the facility, the term sheet of the new deal is identical to last year's loan.

ABN Amro, Crédit Agricole Indosuez and SG are arranging a Eu800m or so project financing for AES Cartagina. Eléctricité de France is the offtaker.

Issuance between one and three years was highest this week, exceeding the next highest maturity range by almost $2bn. Over $4.7bn was issued between one to three years from 77 issues. Euro and dollar issuance dominated between one and three years with over 80% of total volume, but other currencies were also tapped. Sterling proved a popular choice. Bank of Ireland closed a £100m note that matures on July 30, 2004. The note pays a coupon of three month Libor flat and was led by ABN Amro.

Guarantor: Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo (CAM) Rating: A1/A-/A+

Capital markets veteran Tim Skeet is joining ABN Amro to head up European bank origination. Skeet will report to Spiro Pappas. Former head of financial institutions Pappas becomes global head of a new debt capital markets origination group called financial institutions and public sector (FIPS).