Search results for

The Kingdom of Spain is poised to issue its first syndicated government bond, a 15 year transaction, to be led by BBVA, BSCH, CAI, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan - banks named by the kingdom as the most dynamic primary dealers in the Spanish debt market. Launch is planned for the week of March 4, following a roadshow, which so far is scheduled to visit the UK, Holland and Italy, with the possible addition of France.

* Bank Austria AG Rating: Aa3/AA (Moody's/Fitch)

* Réseau Ferré de France Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

* Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale Rating: Aaa/AAA

With 11 European telco deals worth $48.67bn up for refinancing in 2002, the telecoms sector is under the scrutiny of loan bankers hungry for business in a dry market. All eyes are on the secondary trading of France Télécom's (FT) refinancing, the primary syndication of Ericsson's $743.676m loan and H3G in Italy.

ThyssenKrupp, the German steel and engineering group, took advantage of a good stock run this week to sell a Eu89m stake in Kone, the Finnish lift manufacturer. The deal was led by UBS Warburg and Evli Securities, and according to a banker the company was an ideal stock for the current economic environment. "Kone is a cyclical stock, but a large part of its business is services which are stable," the banker said. "We felt confident that it was the right kind of stock in this environment."

Televisa, keen to take advantage of an extraordinary flight by high grade US investors out of the troubled corporate dollar market into Mexican bonds, will next week begin a roadshow for a $250m 20 or 30 year bond. The deal will be jointly led by Citigroup/SSB, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan, the Mexican media company's three relationship banks, which extended the company a bridge loan last year that it now intends to refinance.

Thirty-two notes were announced in US dollar and Freddie Mac's $250 million five-year note took nearly half the volume. HypoVereinsbank announced a $20 million FRN via Bank of America. The coupon is linked to 3m $Libor +7 basis points and the trade goes out to March 2005. Oesterreichische Kontrollbank issued a $94 million note with a maturity of four years and six months via Mizuho. The coupon is paid annually at a rate of 4.07% and the note is sold as a Uridashi offering in Japan. At the long end Salomon Smith Barney was bookrunner off two notes for Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg (LBBW) and for General Electric Capital Corp. LBBW's $10 million note goes out 10 years and General Electric Capital Corp's $20 million note goes out to 2017.

Lloyds TSB and Aareal (formerly DePfa Bank) have the mandate to arrange a £335m six year facility for The City of London Office Unit Trust. Deutsche Postbank, Landesbank Sachsen Girozentrale and Westdeutsche Immobilienbank have joined the loan in senior syndication.

Globals * European Investment Bank

Walt Disney Co launched and priced a blowout $1.75bn global bond in just six hours yesterday (Thursday), taking advantage of a continued flight to quality as the US corporate bond market takes time to recover from the after-effects of the Enron debacle. The deal was swamped with around $9bn of orders according to one investor, enabling lead managers Citigroup/SSB and JP Morgan to increase two tranche issue from $1.35bn to $1.75bn and price the 10 and 30 year tranches inside price talk.

Venture Production, the UK-based oil and gas company, is looking to brave the equity markets in the next few weeks with a £25m IPO. According to Bruce Dingwall, Venture's chief executive, the company is planning to take advantage of the positive environment surrounding its industry to secure future financing. Founded in 1997, Venture was created to eliminate the exploration risk associated with many oil developments by targeting stranded assets. The company buys these up at low costs and develops them.