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UK leveraged finance bankers are eyeing up the prospect of a public-to-private buy-out of the Pizza Express restaurant chain. Hugh Osmond, the founder of Punch Taverns, and private equity house Capricorn Ventures have teamed up to launch a £250m bid for the company.

Bids to arrange the new Eu200m three year facility for Polish Oil & Gas Company are due by today (Friday). Proceeds will be used to refinance existing debt and for working capital purposes. The borrower last tapped the market in July 2001 with a $150m 1-1/2 year facility. Mandated arrangers were Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Crédit Agricole Indosuez, Fuji Bank, ING, SG and Sanpaolo IMI. Proceeds were for general corporate purposes.

Harvey Pitt resigned on Tuesday night as chairman of the SEC, after weeks of criticism of his ability to reform the embattled US markets. Pitt's reforming efforts had been belittled by more radical moves that came from rivals such as Eliot Spitzer, New York attorney general. Pitt wanted the market to find its own solutions to the crisis, rather than forcing regulations on the industry.

Amount: Eu623m Rating: Moody's/Fitch

Rating: Aa2/AA- Amount: C$200m

Rating: Aaa/AAA Amount: Nkr250m (fungible with deal first launched 24/09/02 now totalling Nkr1.15bn)

Rating: Aa2/AA/AA Amount: Eu487.308m

Mandated lead arrangers Bank of America, BNP Paribas, HSBC (joint bookrunner and documentation agent), Royal Bank of Scotland (joint bookrunner and facility agent), and WestLB will close syndication of the £1bn loan for RMC Group plc next week. Banks have been offered tickets of £30m for 22.5bp, £20m for 17.5bp and £10m for 12.5bp. The initial margin is 75bp and ratchets between 50bp and 90bp according to a net debt-to-Ebitda ratio.

Alfa Bank this week achieved its goal of being the first private Russian bank to return to the international bond markets since 1998, with a $175m three year bond that was increased from an original target of $150m. Lead managers Merrill Lynch and UBS Warburg built a book of $300m for the transaction, which was priced with a 10.75% coupon.

ating: B1/B- Amount: $500m global bond

Struggling UK insurer Royal & Sun Alliance yesterday (Thursday) announced a wide ranging set of reforms aimed at reducing the cost base and capital requirements of the group. Falling equity markets and a drag on prior claims have forced the broadly focused insurer to address its weakening capital position. The company had previously admitted that it may be forced to launch a rights issue to cover its policy shortfalls. But instead, Royal & Sun Alliance yesterday announced a series of cutbacks that it hopes will see the group back on track by 2004.

Sole mandated arranger Standard Bank will sign banks into a $30m three year pre-export finance facility for Sidanco next week. Offtakers for the deal are BP and Vitol. The borrower last tapped the market in March with a $140m 1-1/2 year term loan. Mandated arrangers were Natexis Banques Populaires and SG. That credit paid a margin of 380bp over Libor and offered a top ticket of $20m for a fee of 90bp.