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* BankAmerica Corp Rating: Aa3/A+

US STOCKMARKETS plunged this week in what many observers believe is but a breathing space from the tearaway rises of recent weeks. Both the Dow Jones and Nasdaq indices were down, the latter hit by faltering technology stocks. The Dow, which had hit a record high of 8584.83 on Tuesday, lost over 60 points Wednesday as investors cashed in on gains made over five straight days of records.

France Co-arrangers London Forfaiting Asia and Credito Italiano are preparing to close syndication of the $15m two year term loan for Banque de Bosphore. Creditanstalt and Prager Handelsbanken have already joined as participants and a good number of other banks should commit over the next week.

THE WORLD Bank will join US agency Fannie Mae in the superliquid issuer bracket by launching a $3bn to $5bn five year global bond next week.

THE WORLD Bank will join US agency Fannie Mae in the superliquid issuer bracket by launching a $3bn to $5bn five year global bond next week.

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ARGENTINE oil company YPF broke a four month drought of blue chip Latin corporate bond issuance in the dollar market this week with a blow-out $350m five year Yankee bond priced more than 100bp inside the Republic of Argentina yield curve. The deal, led by Credit Suisse First Boston, was increased from $300m and launched at just 158bp over Treasuries at a time when Argentina 2003s were trading around 265bp and outstanding YPF 2004s were at 177bp. Although it widened out slightly to around 162bp on the back of a weak Treasury market, bankers considered the YPF bonds to be fairly priced.

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THE MUCH delayed $500m receivables backed financing for Yukos arranged by Crédit Lyonnais, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs is finally progressing with news that the arrangers have appointed a small group of co-arrangers. Between three and five banks will form the co-arranging group -- the deadline for commitment passed on February 27 with three banks signed up and two more likely to commit over the next week.

TRANSNET, South Africa's parastatal transport company, is set to sign a $1bn Euro-MTN programme which will make it the first South African issuer to set up such a facility. Deutsche Morgan Grenfell is arranging the programme. Transnet is a relatively new name in the international bond markets. Its debut Euromarket deal in July last year was a R150m three year transaction. Its second deal, a R2bn 30 year zero coupon bond launched this week, will be the first to be documented under the Euro-MTN facility

AUSTRALIA'S St George Bank will launch its debut international securitisation at the start of next week with the sale of up between $450m and $500m of mortgage backed securities. Lead manager Deutsche Morgan Grenfell would not comment on pricing or the progress of the deal, but participants who attended one of the series of roadshows held this week described the transaction as well received.

MERRILL LYNCH completed the securitisation of a new class of asset this week when it priced the Lit475bn offering backed by the revenues of the film library revenues of Italian media group Cecchi Gori. Structured film-based transactions have been launched in the past -- such as for Walt Disney -- but these were participation bonds linked to revenues from movies yet to be replaced.