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Azerbaijan The EBRD and IFC are set to syndicate $200m of 'B' loans for the Azerbaijan International Operating Consortium (AIOC) which is developing oil and gas reserves around the Caspian Sea. Both the EBRD and the IFC are also providing $200m through their 'A' loan structures.

* Allgemeine Hypothekenbank AG Rating: A2/A

BOOKRUNNER Deutsche Bank will next week launch the first 'pan Euro' bond -- a transaction designed to remove the barriers between domestic and Eurobond issues. The deal will be for triple-A rated Electricité de France and will be a 10 or 12 year issue of up to Eu1bn. CDC Marchés will be joint lead and the deal should emerge at a spread in the low to mid-teens over OATs.

Belgium The eight banks arranging the Bfr135bn ($4bn) multicurrency revolving credit for Fortis have gone out to the general market. Senior lead managers are offered 17.5bp for a Bfr3.7bn commitment, lead managers are offered 15bp for a Bfr2.775bn commitment and managers 12.5bp for Bfr1.85bn commitments. A commitment fee of 50% of the margin is also available.

Ghana Citibank has quietly arranged a $40m pre-export financing for Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod). Cocobod will use the facility, which has a maturity of three months and a margin of 40bp over Libor, to finance the harvesting of Ghana's cocoa crop. Cocobod is one of the best African borrowers, and its annual pre-export financing -- of which this $40m transaction is just an addition -- is considered by most trade financiers to be the jewel of African trade finance business.

China Beijing Enterprises Holdings, the sole overseas investment arm of the Municipality of Beijing, is in the market for the first time with a $150m loan coordinated by Chase Manhattan Asia, Standard Chartered Bank and Sumitomo Bank. The arrangers are selling the deal as a three year facility, hoping that the borrower will not exercise its option to take the deal to full maturity.

THE BATTLE between London and the financial centres of continental Europe heated up this week with the launch of the first floater to be linked to Euribor, an Eu500m FRN for Allgemeine Hypothekenbank. The five year deal pays a quarterly coupon of three month Ecu Libor flat for the first two coupons, after which it will switch to Euribor flat. Euribor is sponsored by the European Banking Federation while Libor is calculated by the British Bankers Association.

Australia Banca di Roma, Bayerische Landesbank, Bayerische Vereinsbank, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank have joined the A$175m two year loan for Concrete Construction arranged by Salomon Smith Barney. Proceeds will finance the construction of the Forum development, a residential tower and railway station in St Leonards, Sydney, Australia.

* General Electric Capital Corp Rating: Aaa/AAA

CONFUSION over the precise definition of Eurobonds issued in the future euro zone could be cleared up if proposals by the Centre for European Policy Studies are adopted. Traditional definitions of Eurobonds as bonds issued outside the country in whose currency they are denominated in have become blurred, says CEPS in its report entitled Capital Markets and Economic Monetary Union. This is because, theoretically all Emu area Eurobonds denominated in euros should be treated as domestic bonds. The redefinition of these bonds would eliminate some of the fuzziness over recent proposals to levy a 20% tax on Eurobonds. Currently Eurobond holders in Europe pay no tax because their identity is shielded through a Luxembourg registration.