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

BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan (bookrunner) have been mandated to arrange a $550m refinancing for oil supply company Vitol SA. The loan is split into a $220m three year revolver offering a margin of 75bp over Libor and a 30bp commitment fee and a $330m 364 day revolver paying a margin of 55bp and a commitment fee of 22.5bp. Both tranches offer a utilisation fee of 5bp if over 50% of the deal is drawn and 10bp if over 75% is drawn down.

The high yield market closed to borrowers this week as TI Automotive and Brake Brothers postponed new issues and Jefferson Smurfit's Eu905m equivalent transaction from last week widened. TI Automotive, the British fuel and braking systems company had planned to launch a $300m issue via JP Morgan, but postponed it on Tuesday.

David Charters was a managing director in equity capital markets at Deutsche Bank for five years before quitting investment banking in 2000. Having published in September a collection of short stories about life in the City, he spoke to Steve Metcalfe about his experiences; why he left and what he thinks of the challenges facing the equities market. David Charters picked a busy time to start writing fiction. Camped out in Frankfurt for six weeks in 1996 during the toughest few weeks of his career - the DM20bn IPO of Deutsche Telekom - he found inspiration during quiet moments of the immense bookbuilding process.

The bids for the arranging mandate for the Tawellah Reverse Osmosis project are due in on October 14. The project will require around $250m to $275m of debt and will be structured along similar lines to Abu Dhabi's existing power and water projects such as Tawellah A2. Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority will be the majority shareholder in the scheme.

News hit the markets this week that Permira was in poll position in the auctioning off of Compass Group's businesses, Travelodge and Little Chef. Permira is said by bankers to have financial backing from CIBC.

Food and beverage company Whitbread & Co plc may be looking at doing an early refinancing of a £625m three year tranche of its £1.25bn revolving credit signed in May 2000. Proceeds of that deal, which was arranged by Barclays and HSBC, were used to support the borrower's agreed bid for Swallow and to amend and increase a £750m loan signed in 1999.

Russian investment bank United Financial Group has strengthened its research team with the appointment of Derek Weaving as director of utilities research. He joins from rival Russian investment bank Aton where he held a similar position for a year. Previously Weaving was head of emerging Europe energy research for Deutsche Bank in London for four years and was consistently rated a top-three analyst in independent surveys.

Rating: Baa2/BB+/BBB Amount: $150m