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ARRANGERS ABN Amro, Barclays, Chase Manhattan (joint bookrunner), Deutsche Bank London, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson (joint bookrunner) and HSBC will launch general syndication of the $3bn senior debt facility for National Grid over the next few days. Retail follows an extremely successful co-arranging phase in which appetite appeared insatiable, with over $4bn committed to the deal.

India The $120m five year fundraising for National Thermal Power Corp has closed oversubscribed but was not increased.

SOUTH Africa's first domestic MTN programme has been established by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), the world's oldest development agency. The R3bn programme, arranged by Merrill Lynch International and Merrill Lynch South Africa, marks the IDC's return to the domestic bond market after an absence of 15 years.

SOCIÉTÉ Générale and Paribas were forced to find extra savings from their proposed two-way merger this week in an effort to fend off the unsolicited bid from French rival Banque Nationale de Paris for both firms.

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GERMAN development agency KfW this week launched a Eu2bn five year global bond, the latest step in its strategy of marketing its debt as a surrogate for Bunds. Since being given an explicit German government guarantee last April, the borrower has positioned itself as close to the sovereign as possible -- most successfully through its DM4bn January 2009 global. But this year's difficult swap environment delayed KfW's plans for a five year euro benchmark.

Brazil ABN AMRO Bank, BankBoston NA and Export Development Corporation of Canada have been mandated to arrange a $91m three year club deal for Brazilian cellular phone company, Telemig Celular.

THE DUTCH equity market is gearing up for a brisk second quarter, with a number of large deals scheduled to come to market. Like other European centres, the Amsterdam primary market has been relatively slow to regain confidence after the turbulence of last year. Several companies planning to float this year have so far been deterred by the market's high volatility.

THE REPUBLIC of Lithuania made its long awaited debut in euros this week with a Eu200m five year Euro/144A offering. Lead managed by Credit Suisse First Boston and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, the Ba1/BBB- rated transaction's launch had been frustrated for several weeks by unsettled market conditions.

MANNESMANN has selected Deutsche Bank to sole co-ordinate the Eu7.65bn term loan that will part finance its proposed acquisition of Olivetti's interests in Omnitel Pronto Italia and Infostrada. Deutsche's position as sole arranger has surprised many in the market -- bankers had expected that because of the large size of the deal, at least two banks would arrange it. Indeed, Commerzbank and Merrill Lynch have been linked with the deal since Mannesmann made it clear that it was planning to buy up Olivetti's telecom assets.

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