Search results for

India National Thermal Power Corp's US dollar equivalent of DM53.984m loan has closed. Arrangers for the loan are Bank of America NT & SA (Singapore) pledging $7.5m, Crédit Agricole Indosuez taking $7m and Fuji Bank (Singapore) contributing $5m.

ING São Paulo made a spectacular debut in the Italian market this week with a blowout Lit200bn three year offering, despite widening Latin spreads in the dollar market. The deal, led by Credito Italiano and ING Barings, soared in the secondary market to 100.75 from a reoffer of 99.95, bringing in its 297bp launch spread over lira swaps to 253bp.

* World Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

Argentina Arranger SBC Warburg Dillon Read has completed the $250m three year loan style FRN at 200bp over Libor for Banco de Galicia y Buenos Aires SA. BancAmerica Robertson Stephens is co-arranger and documentation agent. Dresdner Bank Luxembourg SA, Lehman Brothers Inc and Deutsche Bank AG are co-syndication agents. Bank of New York joined as lead manager.

MORGAN Stanley Dean Witter, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and Lehman Brothers will next week launch the sale of stock in SGS Thomson, a deal that together with a convertible bond issue will raise $2bn. The lead managers will complete the sale of straight equity quickly with bookbuilding to be finished by the end of the first week of June for pricing around June 4. Some 19m common shares will be sold but if the 15% greenshoe option is exercised the transaction will push around 14% of the company's equity on to the markets.

Attention has focused on the boom in superliquid issuance in the dollar market this year, but liquidity has been a buzzword in the European currency markets since the beginning of 1997. Many of the leading European triple-A credits have responded early to the advent of the euro by trying to create lines of bonds which they hope will have government bond-style liquidity when the euro comes into being.

US MARKETS regained confidence this week after a shaky start, generating enough momentum in the market to push a number of large deals through. The size of both primary and secondary US equity issues has been increasing this year and there were some large chunks of stock placed successfully this week with investors still hungry for the right name. But bankers caution that the backlog of new issues may now be starting to overhang the market.

MEXICAN oil concern Pemex plans to issue a £150m, 15 year deal next week, despite volatile emerging market conditions. Lead managers UBS and SBC Warburg Dillon Read took Pemex on roadshows this week, planning to price in the week ahead in line with Pemex dollar bond spreads.

Abhay Rangnekar has been appointed as director, head of project and structured finance at ANZ Investment Bank in India. Based in Mumbai, he will be responsible for ANZ's Indian project finance business and reports to Stephen Crew, head of global project finance and Mehli Mistri, managing director at ANZ Grindlays Bank, India.

THE CROATIAN government has completed the $238m sale of stock in national pharmaceuticals group, Pliva. This second offering of shares targeted retail as well as institutional investors. Although the domestic response to the deal was somewhat subdued, participants claim the sale has contributed toward creating a share-owning public in Croatia.

* European Bank for Reconstruction & Development Rating: Aaa/AAA