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In a bid to expand its corporate and investment banking business in China, SG has hired Joan Xia from FleetBoston Financial and transferred Yang Liu from its Hong Kong office. The two appointments are part of SG's strategy to distinguish itself from other foreign bank entrants into the Chinese market and concentrate on promoting advisory roles and capital guaranteed products.

ABN Amro Bank has joined mandated arranger Development Bank of Singapore in the S$150m three year fundraising for Singpost. The deal is scheduled to be launched shortly.

Some £160m has been raised in syndication of the £112m dual tranche project financing for Severn River Crossing. Because of the oversubscription commitments from the nine banks to have joined the deal will be scaled back.

Two jumbo demerger facilities were launched into syndication in the Euroloan market this week - a $2.65bn credit for InterContinental Hotels Group and a £1.5bn loan for pub operator Mitchells & Butlers - respectively the hotel and retail arms of Six Continents. Barclays, Citigroup/SSSB, HSBC, JP Morgan and Royal Bank of Scotland have been mandated to arrange both of the deals.

Standard Bank London and SMBC are arranging a $250m loan for telecommunications company Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN). Proceeds will refinance a $450m two year term loan signed in February 2001. That deal backed the borrower's acquisition of a licence and the buildout of operations in Nigeria. The margin started at 150bp over Libor and increased through the life of the loan to reach 250bp in the final year. The facility took a long time to syndicate and was cut from $500m. A $250m loan will probably be more digestible.

BNP Paribas has been mandated to arrange the debt facilities backing the recapitalisation of Itevelesa. Senior debt will be around Eu150m.

Rating: Aa3/A-/A+ Amount: £75m (fungible with £200m issue launched 24/02/02) upper tier two capital

Mandated arrangers Citigroup/SSSB, HSBC, JP Morgan and SEB Merchant Banking signed banks into the $1bn five year multi-currency revolver for Investor AB on Wednesday by power of attorney. The deal was oversubscribed, but not increased. BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Svenska Handelsbanken, Morgan Stanley, Nordea and UBS Warburg joined as co-arrangers. Swedbank and Barclays joined as senior lead managers. The facility pays a margin that ratchets according to a ratings grid and is close to 30bp over Libor.

Rating: A3 Amount: Eu50m subordinated debt

The Nordic region continues to keep bankers busy. Yesterday (Thursday) the mandate to arrange the new $450m five year multi-currency revolver and $250m swingline credit facility for Sweden's Autoliv was awarded. Bidding - which was believed to mainly involve the borrower's relationship banks - was kept quiet, but the recipients of the mandate are Bank One (documentation agent), Commerzbank, SEB Merchant Banking (joint bookrunner, facility agent) and SG (joint bookrunner).

Rating: A1/AA- Amount: Eu300m