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ABN AMRO, Barclays, Chase Manhattan, Deutsche Bank London and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson have launched the $3bn jumbo senior debt package for National Grid Group plc and National Grid Company plc to co-arrangers and underwriters. The financing backs the acquisition of New England Electric System and Eastern Utilities Associates, the refinancing of New England Electric System's debt and will be used for general corporate purposes of National Grid Group and National Grid Company

GOLDMAN Sachs pulled off a highly successful sale of Orange stock this week, raising $500m for the vendor, Hutchison Whampoa, and earning praise from the market. The diversified Hong Kong industrial and holding group asked the US firm to take hard underwriting on the sale of a 4.1% stake in Orange's equity capital.

FEDERAL Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan proved his powers of persuasion once again this week when hawkish comments during his Humphrey-Hawkins testimony sparked a sell-off in government bond markets. From Tuesday, when Greenspan hinted that the next move in US interest rates may be upwards, yields on US Treasuries began rising and the long bond sliced through the 5.5% level to reach its highest yield since last August. After initially resisting the negative move, European markets followed the US lower and the yield on the 10 year Bund rose to 4%.

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ISRAEL Electric Corporation launched its largest ever international bond this week -- a $500m 10 year Yankee/144A issue via Salomon Smith Barney. Despite a challenging new issue environment yesterday (Thursday), with both the US equity and Treasury markets trading sharply off, Salomon increased the issue to $500m from an original $400m target.

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KfW launches Eu25bn note programme to assist in drive to become Bund surrogate KREDITANSTALT für Wiederaufbau this week put in place the final piece of its funding jigsaw which, the German state development agency hopes, will make it seen as the Bund surrogate, when it launched a Eu25bn Note programme for non-benchmark issuance in the single currency.

THE LOAN market in Eastern Europe may be starting to pick up but concerns persist about the strength of banks in the Czech Republic. Komercni Banka and Ceska Sporitelna recently requested proposals for loans but received few offers. The common explanation is that Russian exposure and queries over asset quality have dented confidence, and bankers are waiting to see audited end-of-year figures for 1998, which are due out at the end of March. Some Czech banks have portfolios with over 25% bad loans, and a general restructuring programme is underway.

EARLY indications suggest that syndication of the £2.6bn facilities backing Scottish Power's £4.2bn all-share bid for PacifiCorp has proved to be an enormous success. The financing, sole arranged by Royal Bank of Scotland, is split into two parts. The first is a £2bn package that is a revamping of Scottish Power's 1996 £2.6bn revolving credit that carries a margin of 45bp and a commitment fee of 17.5bp on any part of the facility that is undrawn.

Argentina Citibank NA, BankBoston NA and Deutsche Bank AG have completed syndication of the $200m 18 month facility for Transportadora de Gas del Sur SA (TGS).

DEUTSCHE Bank this week executed the sale of stock in Medion, the consumer electronics assembler. The deal was many times oversubscribed which allowed the lead manager to price the stock at the top end of the indicated price range -- DM85. The sale comes on the back of a continuing boom in high growth stocks on Frankfurt's Neuer Markt, with each successive IPO inspiring further levels of demand from local retail investors and international small-cap funds.