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Syndication of the Eu170m five year facility for Polskie Sieci Elekroenergetyczne (PSE) will be closed on August 18. Mandated arrangers Citigroup/SSB and ING are still collecting commitments. Signing will take place at the end of August. There has been a slight oversubscription but the deal will not be increased.

Rating: Aaa Amount: Z300m

Credit committees at the eight banks expected to join the Eu900m 9-1/2 year dual tranche facility for Optimus Telecomunicacoes are still ploughing through financial information before signing off on the deal. The facility will partly refinance a Eu400m multi-tranche loan signed in 1999 and will help fund Optimus's UMTS build-out.

Bondholders voting at a meeting on Wednesday agreed to buy back all but two of Railtrack's £1.6bn of bonds, delaying the completion of Network Rail's purchase of Railtrack debt until September. At least 75% of the bondholders needed to vote and a clear majority had to be in agreement for the sale to proceed.

The pressure is building for EuroMTN dealers. The number of new programmes being signed is falling and the emphasis on gaining new dealership mandates and retaining existing dealerships is becoming immense. More than 20 houses can claim to be credible dealers in the market, but Deutsche Bank and Citigroup/SSSB are arguably the two most established names and this is reflected in the dealer added league table (see table). But despite being a dealer on over half of the new facilities signed this year, Chris Cox, head of EuroMTN trading at Citigroup/SSSB, said that it is not the group's policy to go for every mandate available.

Rating: B2/B-/B- Amount: $750m

Royal & SunAlliance's share price fell 21.5% yesterday (Thursday) after it admitted that it was looking at a rights issue to make up for a shortfall in capital. The UK insurer embarked on a programme earlier this year to raise £800m in capital through disposals and restructuring. It has nearly raised that amount, but yesterday said that the £800m would not be enough to fund all the business that it wants to undertake.

Mandated arrangers BNP Paribas, Citigroup/SSSB and WestLB are due to launch the $450m five year facility for Sibneft into general syndication next week. RZB and Natexis Banques Populaires have joined as arrangers and BGB, Fortis Bank, HSBC, Moscow Narodny Bank and Shell also joined during senior syndication. The facility consists of two tranches: a $300m 3-1/2 year tranche that carries a margin of 350bp over Euribor; and a $150m five year tranche paying a margin of 410bp over Libor.

Senior syndication of the Eu2.35bn acquisition financing for Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) is proving harder work than expected. A couple more banks are still to decide whether to commit - if they do it is likely to be with take-and-holds.

Sole mandated arranger Sumitomo has launched the Eu97m five year facility for Slovak Telekom into syndication. The deal carries an EIB guarantee and carries a guaranteed fee of 85bp over Libor. Two levels of participation have been offered: lead arranger for a ticket of Eu15m for a fee of 75bp; and arranger for a ticket of Eu10m for a fee of 65bp.

After weeks of bad news, the announcement that the IMF had granted Brazil a $30bn crisis rescue package brought a glimmer of light into the market. It not only boosted Brazilian bonds and stock market, but offered a ray of hope to international markets as well. Spreads on banking sector bonds rallied and equity markets also improved. Corporate spreads generally were a touch wider but bonds of companies with Brazilian exposure, such as Telefónica and Portugal Telecom, had a field day, both credits tightening by 50bp and 35bp respectively.