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MERRILL LYNCH and its consortium partners beat off stiff competition to win the first phase of the bidding to advise the Brazilian government on the sale of Telebras, set to be the biggest privatisation yet seen in Latin America. Telebrasil, the consortium including Merrill, NM Rothschild & Sons, CSFB, ABN AMRO and Brazilian bank Banco Graphus, received a score of 10 out of 10 for its technical proposal, just a hair's breadth away from runner-up Telebrasil 2000 (in-cluding Lehman and Kleinwort Benson) with a grade of 9.4819 and Brasilcom (Salomon Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter) with 8.6528.

Saudi Arabia Sanwa Bank is arranging a $47.5m credit facility for Samba Leasing.

ISSUERS CONTINUED to tap the convertible market this week, raising hopes among participants for another record year. Demand for equity linked debt instruments has strengthened as investors seek to combine downside protection from volatile market conditions with the opportunity to participate in an earnings recovery which should benefit most European and US stockmarkets.

CREDIT AGRICOLE Indosuez and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter have been nominated as advisers to the French government on its privatisation sale of the national airline, Air France, one of the first high profile equity mandates of 1998.

CREDIT AGRICOLE Indosuez and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter have been nominated as advisers to the French government on its privatisation sale of the national airline, Air France, one of the first high profile equity mandates of 1998. The banks' victory has ended weeks of speculation as dozens of international firms jostled to present their expertise in the sector to the Trésor.

* The southwestern Polish town of Legnica, home to leading copper producer KGHM, has announced plans for a municipal bond programme. The town, which will use the proceeds of the planned issuance to modernise communication systems, is looking to issue up to Z21m ($6m) of two, three and four year debt. * Fitch IBCA this week upped its long term foreign currency rating for the Republic of Kazakhstan to BB from BB-. The London-based ratings agency cited the central Asian state's improving economic fundamentals as the basis for its decision, noting positive GDP growth on the back of increasing oil, gas and minerals output, falling inflation and a stabilising exchange rate for the Kazakh currency, the tenge.

* Bayerische Hypothekenbank Rating: Aa2/A+

FRUSTRATED in its efforts to tap the public Eurobond market, the Slovak Republic this week returned to the private placement market, launching a $200m six month zero coupon issue via Nomura International. The transaction was priced to yield 6.625% at the issue/fixed re-offer price of 99.77647, equating to a pick-up of 100bp over six month dollar Libor.

NOMURA THIS week launched the first international sale of stock from Estonia, a GDR offering for Union Bank of Estonia (Uhispank) that could raise up to $50m of new capital for the bank. Nomura will sell 11.1m shares through the deal and the GDRs will be listed in Luxembourg. UBS and ABN AMRO Rothschild are co-lead managers while Robert Fleming and BT/NatWest are co-managers.

United States The refinancing package for the Fibre Optic Link Around the Globe project (Flag) arranged by Barclays, is to be signed today (Friday).

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi has formed a new division comprising loan syndications, structured finance (project finance, aircraft finance and lease driven finance) and corporate finance (corporate advisory, M&A and acquisition finance). The division will be called the European Investment Banking Division and will headed up by A Ishigaki, Ishigaki reports to M Yamada, resident managing director for Europe.

THE POLISH government is poised to announce which consortium of investment banks will run the sale of stock in Telekomunikacja Polska (TPSA) -- arguably the most prestigious mandate to emerge from eastern Europe so far this year. The equity capital markets were this week buzzing with excitement in anticipation of the deal after a short list of candidates cleared an arduous and bureaucratic first stage.