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The financial covenants in Ericsson's $600m five year multi-currency facility signed in July 2001 have been altered. This is to allow the company greater financial flexibility. Moody's this week downgraded Ericsson from Baa2 to Baa3 and to avoid triggering the ratings covenant certain conditions in the loan were eased.

Glencore International has increased its $2.5bn 364 day revolver to Eu3bn. Barclays Capital (joint bookrunner, documentation), BNP Paribas (joint bookrunner), Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and SG (facility agent) will sign banks into the deal today (Friday).

Svenska Handelsbanken has dropped Lehman Brothers and ABN Amro as dealers off its $10 billion Euro-MTN programme. The two banks have been replaced by Goldman Sachs and UBS Warburg.

Guarantor: Tate & Lyle plc Rating: Baa2/BBB

Threadneedle Asset Management has added three people to its corporate bond team, completing a strategic expansion across the full range of fixed income asset classes. Trudie Pearce has joined as a portfolio manager from Axa Investment Managers, with expertise in investment grade industrials, while Paul Kirtley and Victoria Port have joined as credit analysts from Friends Ivory & Sime and Fidelity Investments, respectively.

Spanish utility Union Fenosa, rated Baa1/BBB+, scored a success this week with its third attempt to price a benchmark debut issue, while Vattenfall and TXU Eastern Funding were not so fortunate, having to shelve their deal plans. A deal for Fenosa was first roadshowed in the week of September 11, 2001. The issuer failed a second time to get a deal away in February when market conditions proved unfavourable.

Guarantor: Tiscali SpA Amount: Eu150m

Rating: Aa1/AAA Amount: Eu500m

Mandated arranger RZB signed banks into the $15m one year term loan for Banque du Bosphore on June 14. The deal has been increased to $27m.

The $50m facility for Union International de Banque (UIB) is due to be closed over the next week and will be signed through mandated arrangers ABC (facility agent) and Citigroup/SSB (bookrunner) in early July. Arab Investment Company has joined for a title of lead arranger and for a take of $10m.

Rating: A- Amount: Eu400m

Tryg I Danmark, the Danish benevolent institution, sold a Skr4.57bn (Eu503m) block in Nordea, the Nordic financial services group, this week to finance the acquisition of Nordea's non-life insurance group. The sale of 93m shares was completed at Skr49.1 on Wednesday by Credit Suisse First Boston and Carnegie. This price represented a 0.8% discount to Nordea's close on Wednesday of Skr49.5, but a 6% discount to Tuesday's close. The offering, which was 1.4 times covered, was sold mostly to Scandinavian investors which made up 58% of the final book.