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Argentina Arrangers Bank of America and Barclays Bank (Miami) have completed syndication of the 364 day $300m L/C facility for Banco Rio de la Plata SA.

TURKIYE Vakiflar Bankasi has mandated Citibank, Commerzbank, HypoVereinsbank and WestLB to arrange a $40m one year term loan. The facility is a refinancing of the borrower's $50m one year term loan that was signed in February 1998 and arranged by Citibank, Commerzbank, ABC International Bank, Bayerische Vereinsbank, Natexis Banque and National Bank of Egypt.

VODAFONE received this week what it wanted: lending commitments from the 11 banks it had been in discussions with following its decision to merge with AirTouch of the US. The final 11 are Bank of America, Barclays, Citibank and Goldman Sachs as bookrunning arrangers, and Banque Nationale de Paris, Deutsche, HSBC, ING, Greenwich NatWest, National Australia Bank and WestLB.

France SG will bring in four more joint arranging banks into the debt financing backing Imetal's £680m acquisition of English China Clays next week.

Agence Française de Développement, a publicly owned body which provides loans to encourage economic development in French territories, is to sign a Eu2bn Euro-MTN programme. "AFD is one of the most prestigious Euro-MTN programmes to be established this year," said Daniel Cogoi, head of MTNs at arranger Paribas. "I expect the programme to be very successful. AFD, based on their strong credit rating and agency status, is sure to find good demand.

BANQUE Nationale de Paris and Crédit Commercial de France have closed general syndication of the Ffr2.231bn credit backing the acquisition of Nord-Est by La Continentale d'Entreprises. Retail was well supported, mostly by French banks, and an oversubscription was raised. Joining at this level were Banque Sanpaolo, BHF-Bank, Caisse Centrale des Banques Populaires, Crédit Agricole Indosuez, Crédit Lyonnais and Générale de Banque.

CHASE (bookrunner), HSBC (documentation agent) and Banque Nationale de Paris (facility agent) have closed the co-arranging phase of the Eu1.5bn credit for Alstom, after appetite proved extremely strong. Banks were asked to commit Eu100m for a fee of 15bp. At this level are ABN Amro, Banco Central Hispano, Barclays, CDC, Citibank, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole Indosuez, CCF, Crédit Lyonnais, Dresdner Bank, Lloyds, Natexis Banque-BFCE, Paribas, UECIC and WestLB.

Croatia Creditanstalt is arranging a $100m project finance deal for Croatian telecoms company VIP-net. The project should be supported by the export credit agencies of Austria and Sweden because VIP-net has delivery contracts with Siemens and Ericsson.

Bookrunners IBJ International and Banca IMI and joint lead Monte dei Paschi this week launched SPQR Funding, the first Italian collateralised debt obligation. The Eu257m transaction is backed by illiquid Italian bank bonds acquired by IMI, loans to Italian banks written by IBJ London and loans to Italian local authorities from IBJ Milan.

Barclays Capital this week launched the first securitisation of shared appreciation mortgages (SAMs) in the UK for over a year, with a £97.84m triple-A rated zero coupon bond. The 55 year deal, Millshaw SAMS No 1 Ltd, is backed by 3,253 first charge mortgages that Barclays originated between May and July 1998, specifically for this transaction. The loans have a maximum loan to value ratio (LTV) of 25%. Borrowers pay no interest, but when they sell their house, pay off the mortgage or die, they must surrender a share in the appreciation of the value of the property, calculated as three times the LTV.

Credit Suisse First Boston will price La Défense II plc today (Friday). The Eu174.151m deal is the second securitisation to finance sales of buildings by Vivendi to SITQ, the international investment arm of Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec. The transaction has been delayed by a week because of documentation difficulties relating to the swap.

Nine Spanish savings and cooperative banks this week launched one of the country's largest mortgage backed securities, with the Eu1.0517bn TDA 7 offering, lead managed by Crédit Agricole Indosuez, EBN Banco and Société Générale. For the last few years tax breaks have wooed Spain's middle class savers out of bank deposits and into mutual funds, leaving the banks short of liquidity. The funding squeeze has prompted an ever wider range of banks to securitise their mortgages - particularly since the Bank of Spain began accepting MBS as collateral for repo borrowings last summer.