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A celebratory signing was held this week at the Armourer's Hall in London for the £275m (increased from £200m) five year revolving credit for Courts plc, the high street furniture and electrical appliance retailer. Arrangers of the deal are Barclays Capital, Royal Bank of Scotland and Scotiabank. The loan carries a margin of 125bp over Libor and offers a commitment fee of 62.5bp.

Globals * Bank of America

* Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel

A bank meeting will be held in Holland today (Friday) for the $3bn 364 day interim financing backing Dutch publisher VNU's purchase of US based market research company ACNielsen. The loan is arranged by Merrill Lynch, and before the launch to syndication ABN Amro joined as joint lead arranger and facility agent.

British Telecommunications' Eu9.7bn equivalent transaction dominated the international market this week as investors prepared to absorb the next batch of telecoms supply. The six tranche jumbo offering in euros and sterling, launched on Thursday by lead managers Barclays Capital, Deutsche and HSBC CCF, was originally marketed as a Eu5bn package, but the deal was increased in response to huge demand. The two, three, five and 10 year euro tranches will be priced today (Friday) at the tight end of initial talk, while the £400m five year paper was set yesterday afternoon at 197bp over Gilts and the £700m 15 year tranche at 267bp.

Cyprus Cyprus Development Bank (CDB) has mandated Bayerische Landesbank (facility agent), DePfa Investment Bank and NBG International Limited to arrange a Eu30m five year amortising term loan. The margin is 50bp over Libor and banks were invited in as senior lead managers taking Eu4m for 40bp and lead managers taking Eu2m for 20bp.

Westpac Banking Corp (Westpac) has issued its second US dollar trade of the year. The $10 million matures in January 2011 but is callable after the first two years. Mizuho is the lead dealer. Chris Bannister, at Westpac's treasury, says that the trade is consistent with their US dollar funding targets. Westpac has also announced a $300 million FRN to be issued on January 29, paying a final coupon of Libor+0.1%. It matures in 2004.

Chart coming soon.

Bankers covering central and eastern Europe are eagerly awaiting news of three sovereign mandates for euro denominated issues. The deals - for Croatia, Lithuania and Slovenia - will follow the year's first new offering from Poland. The Republic of Poland starts the European roadshow for its minimum Eu500m 10 year deal on Monday. Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch are lead managing the deal, which will be Poland's first since its blowout Eu600m 10 year deal last March, led by BNP Paribas and Credit Suisse First Boston.

* ABB International Finance NV Guarantor: ABB Asea Boveri Brown Ltd

While the rest of the market prepares for a busy first quarter, France is leading the way with a series of deals launched or about to launch in the corporate and leveraged sector. Deutsche Bank has fully underwritten and launched a Eu2.4bn multi-currency revolver for Vivendi Environnement (VE). The facility will be used to refinance existing indebtedness consisting of an inter-company loan extended to VE by Vivendi Universal.

Unibail, one of the surprising stars of the private market last year, made its debut in the public market with a euro400 million ($391.5 million) five-year trade. The French property company, which last year specialised in issuing Eonia-linked notes, chose a fixed rated trade that pays 5.625% annually. Its favourite bookrunner Merrill Lynch lead managed the trade with BNP Paribas. The issue date is January 30 2001.