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Bertelsmann is on the verge of awarding the mandate for its new Eu2bn facility. After Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan were knocked out of the bidding, final contenders are said by bankers to include ABN Amro, BNP Paribas and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Citigroup/SSSB and National Bank of Greece Capital launched a $350m three year deal for cellular telecommunications company Cosmote into syndication on Tuesday September 24. The facility is split into a $250m term loan and a $100m revolver. The margin moves on a grid according to the company's net debt to Ebitda ratios. For a ratio of between 0.5 times and 1.5 times the deal pays an initial margin of 55bp over Libor. If the gearing falls beneath 0.5 times, the margin drops to 50bp and if net debt to Ebitda rises to between 1.5 times and 2.5 times, the margin is 60bp. For net debt to Ebitda over 2.5 times the margin is 70bp.

Co-ordinating arrangers Citic Ka Wah Bank and WestLB have launched a HK$100m 1-1/2 year term loan for A-Max (Asia), a BVI-incorporated wholly owned subsidiary of Yue Fung International Group. The facility is guaranteed by a number of entities including the parent, Yue Fung International, Gold Asia Realty, Supercam Cybertech and Yue Fung Development.

Sole mandated arranger Barclays has released the names of banks which joined syndication of the £305.2m senior and £70m of subordinated debt facilities supporting CVC's buy-out of Halfords. They are Crédit Agricole, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland, Abbey National, Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Scotland, BayernLB, Commerzbank, Crédit Lyonnais, Danske Bank, KBC, NIB, SG, IKB and a number of non-banks.

Demand for high quality credits continued to dominate the US new issue market this week, with only the best names able to issue a total of about $5bn in high grade bonds. The stellar list of new issues included names such as Province of Ontario, Gillette, Royal Bank of Scotland, IBM and Pitney Bowes.

The mandate to arrange the Eu130m seven year loan for the Municipality of Budapest will now be awarded before the elections for the capital city's mayor. The successful banks from the two remaining bidding groups - BNP Paribas and BayernLB; and ABN Amro, KBC and Bank Austria - will be notified next week.

Rating: A1/A/A+ Amount: $130m

Guarantor: Kingdom of Spain Rating: Aaa/AA+/AA+

Amount: $150m Maturity: September 26, 2005

Guarantor: Kingdom of Spain Rating: Aaa/AA+/AA+

Rating: A1 Amount: Eu100m (fungible with Eu500m issue launched 27/02/02)

The pulling of US medical technology company Liposcience's $75m IPO this week added further gloom to the IPO market in the US, which has not seen a deal since August 15. Merrill Lynch was appointed to lead manage the Nasdaq offering, but Liposcience in conjunction with the bank decided to initially delay and then pull the offering on Monday.