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Bank of America, Chase Manhattan and Citibank/SSSB are on the verge of winning the mandate for the next cable financing deal to arise from the sell-off of Deutsche Telekom's regional cable assets. The new facility is for the sale to Callahan Associates of 55% of DT's assets in the state of Baden-Württemberg, and should bring a deal of around Eu2bn to the loan market. This follows the slow selldown of Callahan's current Eu3bn deal supporting its cable acquisition in North Rhine-Westphalia.

British Telecom's plan to raise up to $10bn through a global dollar bond issue in September was almost derailed last Friday (August 18) when Standard&Poor's (S&P) said it would downgrade the company to BBB+ if it was not satisfied BT was taking enough measures to maintain its credit quality.

South Africa

The Republic of Argentina pushed ahead with its funding programme this week, with the launch of a ¥61bn five year Samurai. The deal, led by Nikko Salomon Smith Barney and Nomura Securities, was increased from ¥50bn after the leads increased the coupon by 10bp from 4.75% to 4.85%. The issue was priced to offer a spread of 351bp over yen Libor, which, according to an official at Nomura, swaps into 426bp over dollar Libor - about 100bp inside Argentina's dollar yield curve.

The Republic of Argentina pushed ahead with its funding programme this week, with the launch of a ¥61bn five year Samurai. The deal, led by Nikko Salomon Smith Barney and Nomura Securities, was increased from ¥50bn after the leads increased the coupon by 10bp from 4.75% to 4.85%. The issue was priced to offer a spread of 351bp over yen Libor, which, according to an official at Nomura, swaps into 426bp over dollar Libor - about 100bp inside Argentina's dollar yield curve.

China

Here in Sotogrande, did we ever think we would be able to get far from the madding Euromarket crowd? Dream on McDuff. There are wall-to-wall bankers from CSFB and Morgan Stanley, fund managers from London who seem to have made almost as much money as Jupiter's John Duffield, and private bankers from Geneva who are upset their billionaire net worth status has been exposed in several highly regarded financial publications. We even saw a couple of high-rolling Goldman Sachs managing directors - who said that Goldie folk hardly ever take holidays? We have mingled with the high goal polo crowd, who seem to take the game slightly too seriously for our liking, but who can blame the patrons, who now have to fork out at least £1m per year just to put their team on the field and receive next to nothing in return?

Asia

THE SYNDICATE for the Eu5bn IPO of Deutsche Post was appointed this week, and the issue will be offered to retail investors in seven countries in Europe. However, there is some confusion as to how the work will be divided up. While one banker on the syndicate described it as having an "old style regional structure with ring-fenced managers", another senior figure on the syndicate said "there is no final decision on the structure, but the banks will probably not be ring-fenced".

THE SYNDICATE for the Eu5bn IPO of Deutsche Post was appointed this week, and the issue will be offered to retail investors in seven countries in Europe. However, there is some confusion as to how the work will be divided up. While one banker on the syndicate described it as having an "old style regional structure with ring-fenced managers", another senior figure on the syndicate said "there is no final decision on the structure, but the banks will probably not be ring-fenced".

Russian oil company Sibneft has mandated banks for a $180m pre-export financing. The deal is one of the largest Russian deals to go to full syndication in the past two years. The mandated group fully underwrites the deal. Glencore (London) is underwriting $35m. Natexis Banques Populaires (agent) and SG each underwrite $30m. ABN Amro underwrites $25m. Standard Bank (bookrunner), Bank Austria Creditanstalt and Moscow Narodny Bank underwrite $20m each. General syndication begins in September.

Fund managers have until September 13 to approve National Power's proposal to make Innogy the obligor of its outstanding sterling bonds. National Power's plan to separate its UK and international businesses, through the formation of Innogy and International Power, will leave bond investors holding sub-investment grade debt if the proposal is not voted through.