Search results for

* Crédit Local de France Rating: Aa1/AA+

France Chase Investment Bank has discreetly completed and should sign its $190m rig financing for Beacon-Schlumberger next week.

* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

THE LONG anticipated $400m loan being sought by well regarded Czech mobile phone operator EuroTel Prahia is being launched into syndication. The facility, which was mandated to Chase Investment Bank and Citibank International plc -- shareholder SPT Telecom's traditional lead banks -- is structured as a five year revolving credit.

THE FRENCH government is moving at speed to complete a partial flotation of France Télécom, with plans to launch the sale into an already crowded autumn calendar of telecom privatisations. Late last night Euroweek learned that, as a sign of its commitment to a speedy sale, the Trésor has requested that analysts' meetings take place on Monday (September 8) and that the IPO be priced by October 16.

MORGAN STANLEY Dean Witter has launched a Lit350bn ($200m) capital increase for Banca Popolare di Brescia in the form a sale of new shares without pre-emptive rights. Existing shareholders have approved the move at the latest general meeting.

MARKET SOURCES in London point to ING Barings as the winner of the beauty parade to lead manage the offering of stock in Jordan's Arab Potash, one of a number of offerings planned from the region. The firm has been competing with Nomura and HSBC to lead the deal, which should reach the markets in the next two months.

DRESDNER Kleinwort Benson and SBC Warburg Dillon Read will shortly launch the German government's sale of stock in its national airline, Lufthansa, after the government this week launched a marketing campaign aimed at retail investors in the local market. The authorities will use the now established methods of offering greater allocations to reward early commitments from retail investors. These buyers will also

MITSUI TRUST this week took advantage of the swelling appetite for Japanese bank convertible issues with a ¥100bn offering via Goldman Sachs and Mitsui. Launched for MTI Capital on behalf of Mitsui Trust, the deal was one of the most popular yet to emerge. The offering is the latest in a line-up that so far this year has included issues from Toyo Trust, Asahi Bank and Sumitomo Trust.

SALOMON Brothers and SBC Warburg Dillon Read/Brunswick have won the mandate to lead manage the forthcoming offering of convertible bonds for Russia's giant electricity concern UES, after a contest which dramatically illustrates the fast-shifting nature of the Russian corporate finance battlefield. A group including DMG/ Goldman Sachs and Renaissance had looked certain to have the deal. However, the victorious firms emerged after a low key invitation to advise the company and the government was transformed into an intense bidding war between six international investment banks.

LEAD manager Commerzbank has launched the DM1.2bn capital increase on behalf of the German steel group Thyssen. The transaction involves the sale of 2.7m ordinary shares without pre-emption rights -- only the second time that a large German issuer has been able to access new equity capital without going first to existing shareholders.

As the most unwilling members of the Soviet Union the three Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - were consequently the most eager to reassert their independence following the break-up of the USSR.