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THE Australian government has announced its intention to sell off a further stake in telecom company Telstra following the astounding success of the November 17 float, which had ABN Amro, Credit Suisse First Boston and JB Were as joint bookrunners. Prime minister John Howard said he will seek a mandate at the next election -- which must be held by March 1999 but is expected earlier -- to reduce the government's two thirds stake further. The move drew criticism from some investors, and analysts said it could depress the meteoric rise of the stock, which has gained almost 90% since its launch.

CABLE & WIRELESS Communications (CWC) has mandated a group of four banks to arrange a £2bn syndicated loan in the latest in an impressive list of UK corporates to tap the syndicated loan markets for jumbo facilities this year. Chase Manhattan, CIBC, Citibank and Banque Paribas were awarded the prized mandate late last week. Since then four underwriting co-arrangers have been brought in: ABN Amro, Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Nova Scotia and Société Générale.

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* The French government has announced that it will sell up to 47% of Air France, the 97% state-owned flagship carrier. While not going as far as full privatisations of other carriers in Italy, Spain and Portugal, the sale marks part of a move toward private ownership that will make the airline industry the 1998 equivalent of last year's telecoms bonanza in the equity new issue market.

* Barclays Bank plc Rating: Aa3/AA-

DONALDSON, Lufkin & Jenrette has swooped on São Paulo based investment bank Garantia and snapped up two of its best bankers as the Brazilian firm struggles with huge losses arising from the market meltdown last year. Within hours of Garantia reporting a 90% plunge in its net profit for 1997, DLJ announced that it had poached managing directors Jose Olympio and Eduardo Alcalay to jumpstart its Brazilian office.

Bulgaria London Forfaiting is to close syndication of the $10m facility for First Investment Bank today (Friday). There is a small oversubscription, but there will not be an increase. BNP/Dresdner, WestMerchant and Bank Kreiss are co-arrangers.

* Merrill Lynch & Co Rating: Aa3/AA-

Argentina * Republic of Argentina Rating: Ba3/BB/BB

France Crédit Agricole Indosuez and Natexis Banque have won the mandate to arrange a Ffr3.4bn loan for Sita SA. The facility, which is fully underwritten by the arrangers, is priced at 30bp over Libor but ratchets down to 22.5bp according to the borrower's debt to EBITDA ratio. Banque Nationale de Paris, CCF, Crédit Lyonnais, Crédit du Nord and Deutsche Bank have joined as co-arrangers.

* Argentaria Global Finance Ltd Guarantor: Argentaria Corporación Bancaria de España SA

GREECE'S forthcoming $500m+ global transaction, set back last Friday when Moody's changed the country's ratings outlook to negative, is back on track with launch expected today (Friday). Moody's decision was released in the middle of the roadshow and triggered the widening of Greece deals in the secondary market. Spreads have since come back, but the news nevertheless represented an inauspicious start to the premarketing.