Search results for

NATIONAL Grid has offered a working mandate to a group of banks to arrange the debt facility that will, in part, finance Grid's $3.2bn agreed purchase of New England Electric System. Six banks have the working mandate -- ABN Amro, Barclays, Chase (joint bookrunner), Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson (joint bookrunner) and HSBC, two more than originally expected.

AFTER A BOUT of nerves at the beginning of this week, the US market recovered yesterday (Thursday) buoyed by a rally in technology stocks, with internet companies leading the way. The volume of issuance was undiminished by the market jitters, and this week was busy for both new and secondary offerings.

* As foreshadowed in EW587, Russia's Uneximbank has scooped the unwelcome prize of being the first Russian bank to default on its Euromarket debt. The bank, once a leading light of the Russian banking sector, last week failed to make the $12.4m coupon payment on its $250m 9.875% August 1, 2000 issue, which fell due on Monday (February 1), having already missed the January 27 interest payment date on a $50m three year floating rate note private placement from 1997. Both issues were lead managed by Merrill Lynch.

* Goldman Sachs has been appointed to advise Scottish Power, the UK utility, on its plans to list its telecommunications subsidiary, Scottish Telecom. The division includes Demon, one of the UK's largest internet providers. After a difficult start-up phase, Scottish Telecom has begun making money and its management is keen to see this reflected in the issue price of the group's shares. Early indications from analysts in London put the group's assets at between £1.1bn and £2bn.

PART ONE OF the long awaited financing for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link finally reached the market this week -- and lead managers HSBC and Warburg Dillon Read achieved a much better price for the £1.65bn of UK government guaranteed bonds than expected.

United States Barclays Capital has been mandated as sole arranging bank for the $575m project financing for Flag Atlantic.

THE REPUBLIC of Colombia confirmed yesterday (Thursday) that it plans to tap the international bond markets for $400m in the first quarter, lending credence to talk that it was about to launch a Eu400m seven year Eurobond. Paribas and Warburg Dillon Read are believed to have been mandated by Colombia to issue the Eu400m to Eu500m deal, a size which some bankers argue is too ambitious for the market in its

A CALENDAR of around $3bn of securitised Latin American bond issues will take off in the week ahead when Pemex plans to bring the second $1.5bn tranche of its oil receivables deal. The Mexican oil concern launched a $1.5bn four tranche issue late last year, and the second portion, led by JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, will be very similar in structure, with two triple-A wrapped tranches and two unwrapped triple-B portions.

Industrial Bank of Japan has hired Brian Woolley to head up its syndicated loans business in London. Woolley was previously at the London office of Bank of China, where he established an investment banking subsidiary. His experience in the syndicated loan market is wide and longstanding. He was managing director and head of London capital markets at Citicorp between 1988 and 1996.

THE LARGEST ever European syndicated loan will hit the market within the next few days when Vodafone officially mandates a group of nine banks to arrange the £9bn credit facility backing its $62bn merger with AirTouch of the US Several bankers told Euroweek on Thursday that they expect Vodafone to make a public announcement by the start of next week, earlier than some had been predicting.

5490