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Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland have the mandate to arrange a £660m senior debt facility for betting chain William Hill. The deal will partly refinance the debt facility backing the leveraged buy-out completed in 1998 when CVC and Cinven bought William Hill from Nomura. Some £400m of senior debt that backed the buy-out was refinanced in 1999. BT Alex- Brown International lead arranged the deal.

At the end of May, WorldCom enters Merrill Lynch's benchmark European high yield index. It will become the second biggest credit in the index, behind the leader Xerox, which commands 5%. The majority of high yield funds will have to buy the name, and it will be a bold manager that declines exposure. "Portfolio entry timing is critical, given the volatility in the name," said Anthony Robertson, fund manager at New Flag Asset Management. Some high yield accounts may find room for WorldCom, having cashed in on another telco, KPN, which has ridden smoothly through the volatility in the broader telecoms sector.

Yell, the UK-based directories business, yesterday (Thursday) confirmed plans to raise £750m from an IPO, just a year after being bought from BT Group by a private equity consortium. JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch are leading the deal, which is expected to be roadshowed in the week of June 10. The IPO is also likely to include a sale of secondary shares from the venture capitalists.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein has signed banks into YTL's £545m debt facility backing its acquisition of Wessex Water. Joining the deal for takes of £102.5m are Barclays, BayernLB and HSBC. Dresdner has underwritten £237.5m of the deal.

Sanpaolo IMI has added five dealers to its Euro-MTN programme. The additions take its dealer panel up to 14. ABN Amro, Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse First Boston, Dresdner Bank and HSBC are the new arrivals. The borrower has also lifted the limit off the facility from euro12.5 billion ($11.58 billion) to euro17.5 billion.

The $250m facility for Arab Petroleum Investment Corp (Apicorp) is due to be closed today. The deal has received an oversubscription and the borrower is due to accept the increase, the amount of which will be announced before signing next week.

Guarantor: Shell Petroleum Co Ltd, Shell Petroleum NV Rating: AAA (S&P)

The S$67.5m facility for TT International has been closed successfully by arranger OCBC. The facility is divided between a S$40m four year term loan and a S$27.5m five year revolving credit.

Rating: A2/A-/A+ Amount: Eu500m lower tier two capital

Citigroup/SSB, Commerzbank and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein have been formally awarded the mandate to arrange a $130m three year reducing revolver for steel company Iscor. The revolver carries a margin of 95bp over Libor.

Vodafone's announcement next Tuesday of its full year financial results to March 2002 will either comfort or alarm banks invited to join the Eu1.481bn guarantee facility for Airtel Movil that is fully recourse to the UK mobile operator. At this stage analysts expect Vodafone's results to be positive and the telco to retain its A- rating, which bodes well for projects that Vodafone is sponsoring.

Syndication of the £400m 20 year debt financing for the Spalding independent power project is set to be launched by the end of the month through mandated arrangers Barclays Capital and Citigroup/SSSB. A bank meeting is scheduled for the week of June 10. The syndication strategy is likely to be a one-stage process.