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LEAD ARRANGERS Chase Manhattan and Credit Suisse First Boston have raised an incredible $5bn in the syndication of the $2.4bn acquisition facility backing New Holland NV's acquisition of Case of the US. Much of the success is due to the guarantee provided by Fiat. Banks have had little opportunity to lend to the Italian car manufacturer at margins over 20bp over the past five years. But, with the 364 facility paying 37.5bp over Libor out of the box, many lenders found it impossible to ignore the transaction.

? Global co-ordinator SG has launched the French government's sale of stock in Thomson Multimedia. The deal will raise around Eu400m and will involve the global offering of 21,105,486 ordinary shares. The sale will comprise mostly new shares sold by the government, with just under 2m new shares to be sold by the company.

Market commentary: Compiled by Glenn Blackley,

THE FLOTATION of Orange Partner Communications, the Israeli cellular business, has been launched to strong investor interest. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Warburg Dillon Read are running the deal and although salesmen in London are positive about the prospects for the transaction, some say that the £17bn purchase of Orange by Mannesmann has complicated the deal.

FRANCE Télécom is to sell its remaining stake in Panafon, its Greek telephone subsidiary. The group is co-owned by the French operator, Vodafone (with 55%) and Intracom (with 10%) and has a float of 15% established after last year's IPO. The group's $688.88m stockmarket debut was led by Warburg Dillon Read and involved the sale of stock at Dra5,100. Since then the shares have risen to Dra8,600.

CITIBANK HAS won the mandate to arrange a $120m five year term loan for Pan Asia Paper. The deal launched on Tuesday, October 19. The borrower was established in February this year and wants to build up an international group of relationship banks.

THE POLISH government has launched the sale of stock in Polski Koncern Naftowy (PKN), the national oil and gas group owned by the state-owned group, Nafta Polska. Nafta plans to sell up to 30% of PKN's equity capital in a deal which could raise as much as Eu825m. The divestment will be the largest central European deal of 1999. The two tranche deal will target investors in both the local and international markets. Joining Dresdner Kleinwort Benson on the international sale will be Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers and Salomon Smith Barney as co-lead managers, with Crédit Lyonnais, CAIB and ABN Amro Rothschild as co-managers. The deal will be priced on November 19. A small retail sale will be targeted at local investors. The domestic tranche will be run by BRE Securities.

? Nordic Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

? DePfa Rating: Aa3/AA

GLOBAL CO-ORDINATORS Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter have defied nervous market conditions to execute the $1bn sale of primary stock in UPC (United Pan-Europe Communications), the Dutch cable group. The deal was successful and was priced early this week at Eu59.75 or $64.68 in the US market.

? Westfälische Hypothekenbank AG Rating: Aa3/AA-