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NIB Capital Bank, the Dutch bank recently acquired by a consortium led by US financier Chris Flowers, has recently opened an office in Frankfurt. The bank will focus on three key areas in Germany: acquisition finance for small and medium sized companies, real estate finance and public-private partnership deals. "Our main focus is on acquisition finance, including leveraged finance and financing of management buy-outs, with a strong focus on the Mittelstand," explained Victor Ruitenberg, who heads the Frankfurt office. "We will be working on lead positions on deal sizes of around Eu50m-Eu500m enterprise value and underwriting positions in larger transactions to support German equity firms, including mezzanine and senior financing packages."

Guarantor: Republic of Austria

Slovenia's Nova Ljubljanska banka decided this week to scrap plans for a Eu250m five year syndicated deal. It is now asking for commitments of Eu25m-Eu30m towards a club loan of about Eu350m. Although the borrower's last deal was also a five year club facility, bankers say the move was a surprise because at the end of September NLB asked lenders to underwrite a third of that Eu250m sum with a view to reducing final commitments to Eu30m after a syndication. NLB signed a Eu540m club loan in June to avoid Slovenia's 25% withholding tax by involving only banks from countries with a 0% withholding tax weighting, or banks with booking units in 0% weighted countries.

Mandated lead arrangers Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Barclays, Calyon and Mizuho have launched syndication of Oman International Bank's $150m five year term loan. Arrangers can lend $15m for a fee of 30bp, co-arrangers $10m for 25bp, and lead managers $5m for 20bp. There is a commitment fee of 15bp.

In these columns last week, we said that the refloating of Parmalat in Italy was being treated as the most exciting event since the Resurrection.

Rating: Aaa

Jamaica made an audacious sally into the global bond markets this week when it issued a $250m 20 year global bond amid a market correction.

The $500m three and five year financing for Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is receiving a strong response from the market and is heading towards an oversubscription. Standard Chartered Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, Calyon, HSH Nordbank and ING Bank are the lead arrangers.

EuroWeek has learned that Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch are preparing to launch the £150m IPO of a company comprising the Pizza Express, Ask and Zizzi chains of Italian restaurants in the UK.

Poland trumpeted its return to the global dollar market this week with a two tranche transaction priced at the tight end of guidance through leads Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan.