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General Electric Capital Corp Rating: Aaa/AAA

THE US corporate bond market began 1999 where it left off in 1998, with a positive tone in credit markets and strong demand from investors enabling a wide variety of issuers to raise debt. Helped by the positive reception to global dollar offerings from Fannie Mae ($4bn), Ford ($2.3bn, upped from $1.5bn) and GMAC ($2bn), the pace of activity in the new issue market started to quicken as the week drew on.

VIVENDI has mandated SG to arrange a Eu500m five year revolving credit. SG has launched the deal to a limited group of co-arrangers which have been asked to commit Eu60m for an underwriting fee of 7bp. The loan carries a margin of 25bp over Libor for the first two years and 27.5bp for years three to five. A commitment fee of 2.5bp is also payable on the two tranches

GOLDMAN SACHS and JP Morgan have been mandated to run the books on the Swedish government's divestment of its 7% stake in Pharmacia & Upjohn, the pharmaceuticals group formed through the merger of local and US groups in 1995. The deal was launched this week to raise as much as $2bn and will be one of the largest of the year's stock offerings from the Swedish market. The transaction shows a canny sense of timing by the government in cashing in on the popularity of the pharmaceutical sector. This has largely been sparked by the increase in shareholder value expected to materialise through the current wave of mergers -- such as that between Zeneca and Astra -- sweeping the industry.

INDIAN SUBCONTINENT --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CENTRAL and eastern European sovereigns are looking to capitalise on the euphoria following the successful introduction of the euro this week, with plans to launch debut issues in the new single European currency. Among those countries in the region believed to be mulling a euro denominated deal is Hungary, with the Baa2/BBB rated sovereign expected to mandate a probable Eu500m 10 year bond possibly as early as next week.

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Argentina Standard Bank London has underwritten and funded a $25m secured six month bridge facility for the Argentine Post Office, Correo Argentino SA.

LATIN American sovereign issuers are taking advantage of the powerful rally in credit markets to plan an early return to international bond markets this year. The positive tone that has spread throughout fixed income markets since the Federal Reserve's three-fold interest rate cut in the fourth quarter has fed through into emerging market debt, undoing some of the damage inflicted on the sector by Russia's default.

Abu Dhabi The co-arranging and sub-underwriting phase of the $600m project financing for CMS Energy's Tawellah A2 independent water and power project is attracting strong support from the market and is heading for oversubscription with several banks still outstanding.