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3985

Brazil * Banco ABN Amro SA

THE CITY of Prague has invited banks to submit bids for a Eu200m loan with the mandate to be awarded by the end of March. The city is the highest rated municipality in eastern Europe, standing at A- from Standard and Poor's. The deal is an important development for the region because there has been little activity so far this year.

* Santander International Ltd Guarantor: Banco de Santander SA de Crédito

* Anglo Irish Capital Funding Ltd Guarantor: Anglo Irish Bank Corp plc

BARCLAYS, (joint bookrunner and agent), Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, HSBC and JP Morgan (joint bookrunner), have launched syndication of the much anticipated £1bn multicurrency revolving credit for Railtrack Plc. The loan carries a margin of 32.5bp over Libor, a commitment fee of 15bp and a utilisation fee of 5bp that is applicable if 50% or more is drawn down.

DESPITE two weeks of successful premarketing, lead managers Warburg Dillon Read and BCH may be forced to postpone the sale of General Optica until after Easter. The Spanish stock exchange authority, the CNMV, is suffering from a combination of administrative backlog and a staffing shortage. Deal launches have been held up and international investors expecting a deluge of mid-cap and large cap deals from Madrid are likely to be disappointed.

3988

Goldman Sachs' management committee this week unanimously endorsed the firm's plan to float in New York in the second quarter this year in an offering that could raise between $3bn to $5.5bn. This is the second time in less than 12 months that the investment bank, one of Wall Street's most prestigious, has been brought to the brink of abandoning its partnership status.

Market commentary: Compiled by Jim Webber, TD Securities, London

THE HELLENIC Republic, tapping into the Euroloan market's huge appetite for its credit story, this week awarded the mandates to lead arrange a new $500m facility at its familiar five year term. The mandates went to Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (bookrunner), Barclays Capital (information memorandum), Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale (facility agent), Bank of Montreal (documentation agent), Commerzbank (bookrunner) and Paribas (bookrunner).

Dresdner Kleinwort Benson has completed the sale of stock in Mannheim electricity group MVV Energie, the first flotation of a municipal utility to be hosted by the Frankfurt market. Investors appreciated the scarcity value of the shares and put in strong orders, resulting in a book of demand three times covered. "This deal appealed to investors that are not interested in the deluge of inflated Neuer Markt stocks that is flooding the Frankfurt market," said one salesman. "This share offers a defensive sector with some growth opportunities from the industry's deregulation."