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Investor demand in the sterling corporate bond market is swelling further down the credit curve, tightening the price of single-A issues. Last week's seven year £200m bond from BOC Group plc, rated A+/A by Standard & Poor's/Fitch, was priced on April 11 at 65bp over the 5.75% 2009 Gilt. One of the funds that took the BOC paper was HSBC's Corporate Bond Fund, a UK retail fund managed by Colin Storrar. "On the face of it, it doesn't look like a very cheap new issue, but demand is that strong," he said.

Arranger HSBC has closed the HK$5bn six year fundraising for PCCW-HKT. Allocations are being finalised and will be released today (Friday). Arrangers ICBC, FleetBoston Financial and China Merchants Bank have launched a $200m term loan for China Merchants Holdings.

DZ Bank has closed syndication of the Eu50m term loan for Hungarian Foreign Trade Bank (MKB). Mandated arranger is Deutsche Bank. Co-arrangers are Baden-Württembergische Bank, Banque et Caisse d'Epargne de l'Etat, BBL Financial Services Dublin, Deutsche Postbank, Erste Bank, Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein, Norddeutsche Landesbank, WGZ-Bank and Zürcher Kantonalbank.

Gazprom looks set to price its $500m five year debut bond today (Friday) with a book of at least $1bn and at a spread to the sovereign of a mere 100bp. The book was closed yesterday afternoon to accounts that are not already in the deal, or not due to meet the roadshow team in London today. If Gazprom does get away an oversubscribed bond at such a level, it will prove that investors are so hungry for anything that can credibly call itself a proxy for the Russian government that they will overlook weak presentation skills and poor disclosure.

BNP Paribas has signed banks into the £162m debt facility that refinances a leveraged financing for IMO Carwash. Banks from the existing syndicate that have opted to remain in the deal are Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest, Bank of Scotland, NM Rothschild & Sons, Singer & Freidlander, KBC, Erste Bank, IKB, CIC, Banco Espirito Santo and LSE, a CDO managed by BNP Paribas

Barclays Bank will not be joining the senior group of sub-underwriters invited to commit to the Eu5.9bn equivalent facility backing Imperial Tobacco's acquisition of Germany's Reemtsma. The ticket on offer to Barclays was Eu350m for an expected final take of Eu275m.

Barclays Bank will not be joining the senior group of sub-underwriters invited to commit to the Eu5.9bn equivalent facility backing Imperial Tobacco's acquisition of Germany's Reemtsma. The ticket on offer to Barclays was Eu350m for an expected final take of Eu275m.

Mandated arranger Standard Chartered has launched the $140m five year facility for BSES Limited into syndication. Power company BSES is the first Indian corporate credit to tap the loan market this year and it is proving to be popular with lenders. The facility has been launched to sub-underwriters and is already oversubscribed. Standard Chartered has invited up to six banks to join in senior syndication and already twice that number have expressed an interest in committing to the deal.

Arranger ING Structured Finance has completed a $100m two year term loan for PT Indofood Sukses Makmur. The borrower is a leading producer of instant noodles in Indonesia. The deal is one of the largest offshore financings by an Indonesian corporate since the Asian financial crisis in 1997.

Intertek Testing Services, the global testing and inspection business, has selected Citigroup/SSSB and Goldman Sachs to lead an IPO within the next quarter. No firm valuation has been placed on the company, but bankers expect the flotation to be one of the biggest of the private equity exits to hit the market before the summer (see separate story, page 24). Press reports in the UK have suggested that the company could be worth about £1bn.

EuroWeek understands that despite some bankers' eagerness to hold off restructuring talks until Invensys has unburdened itself through asset sales, a refinancing is due to hit the market imminently. Invensys has an extended $1.46bn tranche due to mature in August 2002 that was first arranged as a one year deal in August 2000.

Guarantor: FSA Amount: £69m