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Senior syndication of the $350m credit for Sociedade Nacional de Combustiveis de Angola (Sonangol) has been closed. General syndication was launched this week. EuroWeek understands that the deal is being fully underwritten and mandated arranger Standard Chartered will be joined at senior syndication level by a number of other relationship banks.

Construction and engineering company Ashtead has renegotiated the financial covenants on its $550m five year acquisition facility. Bank of America, Citigroup/SSSB and Lloyds TSB arranged the loan in 2000. Proceeds supported the borrower's £186m takeover of BET USA, an equipment rental business formerly owned by Rentokil Initial.

UBS Warburg has solely underwritten a A$2.1bn, one year bridging loan for Amcor, a global packaging company. The facility will be repaid via new equity, bond issuance and the sale of Amcor's 45% interest in Kimberly-Clark Australia.

Some household Euromarket names are seeking an easier life. On Monday afternoon we heard that our friend TJ Lim, who doesn't look a day over 18, but has had a hugely successful career in the Euromarkets for more than 20 years, is departing from Merrill Lynch. We were still recovering from the shock over a pint of Vodka Martini, when the phones rang again - "Markus Granziol has upped sticks at UBS Warburg". We drained the pint of Vodka Martini before you could say, "Who's next?". We are sorry to see TJ Lim choosing to step down at Merrill and before you ask, no there wasn't a shoot-out with debt capital markets supremo Dow Kim in New York. Of course TJ was disappointed to lose the top job to Dow Kim, but remember that running fixed income for Merrill in Europe is a huge responsibility, especially when debt is driving many of Merrill's other businesses.

The mandate to arrange the $300m five year facility for Arab Banking Corporation (ABC) has been awarded and the deal will be launched into syndication next week. Arrangers are ING, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (facility, documentation), BNP Paribas (international bookrunner), HSBC (international bookrunner), National Bank of Kuwait (regional bookrunner) and National Bank of Abu Dhabi (information memorandum).

Guarantor: Baloise-Holding Amount: Sfr175m

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA Amount: Nkr400m

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA Amount: Eu505m

Bank of Ireland announced yesterday (Thursday) the acquisition of 61% of Iridian Asset Management, the US institutional fund manager. The $198m acquisition will strengthen Bank of Ireland's position in US equities, adding $11bn to its existing $52bn of assets under management.

WestLB is among the list of victims of what may turn out to be the largest bank fraud ever perpetrated, according to statements by the FBI and the bank. Dresdner, JP Morgan, KBC and HypoVereinsbank were also among the banks that allegedly lent money to a family metal trading empire which has since collapsed. As the companies involved found themselves unable to pay their creditors, they appear to have entered into an elaborate scheme of deception to fabricate customer accounts.

Rating: Aaa/AAA Amount: Sfr200m