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South Africa Anglo American has completed its $2.25bn syndicated revolving facility. Some $3bn was raised from the market and despite increasing the loan by $25m, banks have been heavily scaled back from $200m to $150m and $100m to $75m.

Argentina's provincial governors yesterday (Thursday) rejected a plan to reduce their share of federal tax revenues, dashing hopes that any future international swap would include multilateral guarantees. The first leg of the country's debt restructuring - a planned swap of as much as $60bn of debt for below market rate loans open to everyone, but targeted at locals - has already been roundly rejected by international investors surveyed by Wall Street firms. Argentina's government never expected international investors to like the terms of the first phase of the swap.

Brunei Arrangers ABN Amro, BNP Paribas and HSBC are still working on the structure of the first ever syndicated loan for the Sultanate of Brunei. Prospective banks have been sounded out on a margin of 105bp over Libor for the $250m five year transaction. The deal will be launched next week.

Hong Kong * Jardine Strategic Finance Ltd

Europe * Rosy Blue Carat SA

Australia Westpac Banking Corp is arranging a A$135m one year term loan for National Foods. The borrower is involved in the milk and dairy foods industries and is Australia's largest publicly listed dairy firm.

Trading on credit-default swaps referenced to Enron and Dynegy dried up last Thursday as Dynegy appeared to be moving closer to acquiring a stake in its struggling rival, according to traders. Trading volumes on Enron, which just a few weeks ago was trading every day, was non-existent as the acquisition talks intensified, said traders in New York. "There's no flow at all. The only thing we're seeing is firms' unwinding previous trades," said one trader. Most of this business came from hedge funds that had previously bought protection. Another trader said "it's hard to offer protection on risk that's just hanging out there." Trading flows on Dynegy, which were already thin--averaging about one trade every three months--followed the same path as Enron.

J.P. Morgan has launched what it believes is the first high-yield credit-default swap index representing the five-year credit risk of a linear basket of 100 junk bond issuers, according to officials at the firm. "The main reason we did this is because until now, there have been no good alternatives to trade the market as a whole from the long and short side," said Angie Long, head of high-yield credit derivatives trading in New York. The product has been correlated to traditional high-yield bond indices and will allow clients to both invest and hedge their exposure to the U.S. high-yield market through the use of high-yield credit derivatives. The product is designed to cater to clients looking to allocate assets in high yield, Long said.

Joe Hegener, managing director and global head of non-investment grade credit derivatives and collateralized debt obligation business at TD Securities in New York, has been promoted to head investment banking and securities in the U.S. His promotion is part of an ongoing integration project by the firm that entails joining its products groups with its corporate financing business, Hegener said. Hegener has replaced Gordon Paris, who left the firm last month, according to a company official, who declined further comment. Hegener reports to John MacIntyre, global head of investment banking and Mike MacBain, head of global debt capital markets.

Diners Club Italia, the central operating branch for the Diners Club franchise in Europe, is preparing to launch next week what is believed to the first pan-European securitisation of credit card receivables. Lead managed by Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, the Eu339.4m securitisation, which will use a master trust structure, will be backed by charge and credit card receivables originated by the Diners Club franchises in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Italy.

Credit Suisse First Boston is preparing to launch FARMS Securitisation Limited in around two weeks. The Eu1.6bn synthetic securitisation of Swedish agricultural mortgage loans is believed to be the first portfolio consisting purely of farm loans to be securitised. Loans are originated by FöreningsSparbanken Jordbrukskredit AB, a subsidiary of Spintab, the second largest mortgage lender in Sweden. The fixed portfolio will comprise 43,000 loans secured on farmland (14%), forestry (46%), agricultural real estate (12%) and residential farm buildings (19%).