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Credit SuisseFirst Boston and Royal Bank of Scotland expect final commitments for the sub-underwriting phase of Enodis' $445m multi-tranche facility to be in by the end of next week. Arrangers have confirmed that banks have responded positively to the deal which forms part of Enodis' recapitalisation package. The recap includes a £72m rights issue that was successfully completed in March.

USA Education, the parent company of the soon to be private Student Loan Marketing Association (Sallie Mae), made its debut in the global fixed rate bond markets this week with a blowout $850m five year transaction. The deal, led by Bank of America and Credit Suisse First Boston, was increased from an original $500m, after being priced at 95bp over Treasuries, against comparable issues trading in the mid to high 80bp region. The deal has since traded in to 93bp bid.

The long end of US dollar was busy with 11 issuers choosing to go out over 10 years. Fuji Photo Film Finance (Netherlands) did a $5 million 10-year note and Export Development Canada did a $10 million 10-year note with semi-annual payments. Two other financial corporates were also in the market. Principal Life Global Funding closed a $100 million three-year trades and Sigma Finance Corp did a $3 million three-year note via BNP Paribas. Two oil companies, Statoil and Tecpetrol were at the short end of the market. A1-rated Norwegian Statoil did a $200 million two-month and 24-day note via JPMorgan and Tecpetrol did a $30 million one-year and one-month trade. It is the companyÆs first trade since it issued two $50 million five-year notes in 1998, via ABN Amro. And Nordic Investment Bank went for a mid-term maturity. It announced a $103 million note via Mizuho that goes out four years and two months. The note was sold to Japanese retail investors and pays a final coupon of 4.55%. Caisse National de Credit Agricole did a $100 million two-year note. Three building societies were in the market with notes for $11.82 each. Bradford & Bingley, Brittania Building Society and Irish Life & Permanent all did the four-year notes via HSBC.

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Volvofinans, the market company owned by Ford Credit International and the Swedish Volvo dealers, has signed a euro500 million ($440.4 million) Euro-CP programme to complement its domestic CP and MTN programmes. SEB Merchant Banking is the arranger. Lars Norland, treasurer at Volvofinans, says the programme's main purpose is to diversify the funding sources of the company, but the issuer is not planning to use the facility in the immediate future. He says: "The Swedish market will still be our main source of funds, and we only appointed two dealers on the Euro-CP facility as we don't expect to be a very frequent issuer. However we will use it from time to time, and will make our first trade in the near future." It is the first time Volvofinans has had access to the international capital markets, and with an A-2 rating from Standard & Poor's, it may find the competition intense. But Volvo Group, which wholly-owned Volvofinans before it sold a 50% stake to Ford Credit International last summer, has had a long relationship with the Euro-CP market, and the name recognition factor will play a big part in helping the newcomer sell its credit. Norland says: "This is a new type of funding for us, as we only had our Skr15 billion ($1.46 billion) domestic CP programme and our Skr4 billion domestic MTN programme before. Although they both had the capability of issuing in euro, we only use them domestically, so this new programme will be a helpful addition." Euro, sterling and US dollar will be the main currencies used, and maturities will be concentrated around one month and six months, although others will be considered. Credit Suisse First Boston joins SEB Merchant Banking on the dealer panel.

France CIBC is close to wrapping up the retail phase of a modest portion of senior debt that forms part of a £265m financing that backed the buy-out of Renault's transport and logistics business Compagnie d'Affrement et de Transport (Cat) in 2001.