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Mandated lead arrangers ABN Amro (bookrunner), Bank of America (bookrunner), BNP Paribas, Citigroup/SSSB (bookrunner) and Deutsche Bank (bookrunner) have signed 27 banks into the $3.5bn revolver for Royal Philips Electronics. Despite a 50% oversubscription, the loan was not increased.

Amount: $1bn and A$133m Legal maturity: July 7, 2034

Investors rushed into Wal-Mart Stores' $1bn five year global bond this week as new accounting scandals and a plunging equity market only strengthened the demand for quality credits. As the rest of the bond market weakened, Aa2/AA rated Wal-Mart priced its five year issue at 50bp over Treasuries, which on a Libor equivalent basis was flat to slightly through secondaries.

The difficulties faced by investors in dealing with fallen angels were thrown into the spotlight again this week, as Moody's downgraded telecoms equipment supplier Alcatel to junk and Pimco managing director Bill Gross' highlights the destructive potential of hedge funds. Moody's cut Alcatel's rating from Baa2 to Ba1 on Tuesday and left the company on negative outlook. The rating agency said that its move was based on its expectation that demand for telecoms equipment will continue to fall over the next two years.

Italian utility ASM Brescia's Eu333m IPO is expected to fall when trading begins today (Friday), after the deal closed last week just 1.1 times covered. The offering was priced over the weekend at Eu1.85, below the initial range of Eu2.1-Eu2.5. UBS Warburg, IntesaBci and Mediobanca led the flotation.

Hennessee Group, a global hedge fund investment consulting group, published research this week that said hedge funds have invested too heavily in distressed securities. The US advisory group, which advises institutions on over $1bn of assets, believes that hedge funds have been too aggressive in their strategy towards distressed companies. Hennessee explained that distressed hedge funds had seen a big increase in the amount of money being allocated towards the asset class, which has made hedging difficult and has forced managers to put money to work in companies such as WorldCom. Assets invested in distressed hedge funds increased nearly 100% to $17bn in 2001 according to Hennessee.

Sole mandated arranger Standard Chartered will launch syndication of the $60m facility for Iran Petrochemical Commercial Corporation next week. The facility will be a single-stage syndication and pays a margin of 75bp over Libor.

Iran made a strong showing on its debut in the euro denominated bond markets this week with the launch of a well received Eu500m five year issue via its central bank, Bank Markazi Iran.

Iran made a strong showing on its debut in the euro denominated bond markets this week with the launch of a well received Eu500m five year issue via its central bank, Bank Markazi Iran.

Despite investor aversion to the telecoms sector, Telecom Italia's Eu7bn refinancing has been well received in syndication with up to Eu8bn raised from the market. Books are due to be closed either today (Friday) or Monday.

The Eu400m three year revolver for Anglo Irish Bank has been closed oversubscribed with around Eu550m raised from the market. Arrangers Danske Bank (facility agent), Royal Bank of Scotland (joint bookrunner) and WestLB (joint bookrunner) invited banks to join as co-arrangers committing Eu25m for 12.5bp, as lead managers taking Eu17.5m for 10bp and as managers committing Eu10m for 7.5bp.

Banks continue to review the documentation for the ¥8.75bn five year LBO facility for Tower Records KK arranged by JP Morgan. No date has been set for the completion of the deal although the arranger is keen to sign the deal by the end of July.