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The State of Qatar this week launched a $450m five year refinancing facility. This is the first loan from a Middle Eastern sovereign to hit the market in 2002 and it is stirring considerable interest in the market. Joint arrangers are ABC, Sumitomo and Gulf International Bank. GIB is also the facility and documentation agent.

Nigeria Royal Dutch/Shell, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Eni and TotalFinaElf have announced plans to invest some $7.5bn over the next three years in the Nigerian energy sector. Key projects linked to the financing include the Bonny LNG plant which will be doubled in size, making it the biggest facility of its type in the world.

Asia Pacific * Eden Park Trust No 5

Transactions increased: * Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale

Brazil made a less than spectacular return to the euro market yesterday (Thursday) with a Eu500m seven year offering widely criticised for being too large, too long and too tightly priced. The deal, led by ABN Amro and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, was priced at 99.769 to yield 11.55% or 626.5bp over the January 2009 Bund. But even before it was launched it was being sold at 50-70 cents below its re-offer price in the grey market as traders roundly condemned the offering.

Bayer AG, one of Europe's largest chemicals and pharmaceuticals companies, will next week launch its long awaited debut benchmark issue, a possible Eu5bn multi-tranche offering via Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan. The company will finish today (Friday) an extensive European roadshow in Madrid, during which the management has been grilled on the company's future structure and business focus.

Bombardier, the Canadian aircraft and rail manufacturer, has signed a euro500 million ($442.89 million) Euro-CP programme. Citibank is the arranger and is joined on the dealer panel by ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale. Bartlomiej Muszynski, treasurer at Bombardier, explained the motivation behind the signing of the debt facility. He says: "The funding off the programme will mainly be used for the transportation side of our group in Europe. It will allow us to be much more liquid and flexible." Bombardier has already issued five trades off the programme, which have ranged between euro10 million and euro30 million in size. Muszynski says: "Our funding target this year depends on our liquidity, but we will not reach the euro500 million limit as we have no need for so much money." The issuer is rated A- by Standard & Poor's and A3 by Moody's. Bombardier recently announced full-year results for fiscal 2002 (year ended January 31). Net income fell to C$391 million ($247.63 million) from the previous year's level of C$975 million, reflecting special charges of about C$1.1 billion related to programme re-valuing in Bombardier's aerospace division, restructuring charges in its transportation programme and asset re-valuing at its finance subsidiary, Bombardier Capital.