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THE RETAIL market got its first chance this year to buy into a Middle Eastern project finance asset this week when co-ordinating arrangers Apicorp, Credit Suisse First Boston and Paribas launched general syndication on Tuesday of the $475m Qatar Vinyl Company (QVC) project financing. For international banks three ticket levels are on offer. Senior lead managers committing $20m receive participation fees of 80bp, lead managers receive 70bp for takes of $15m and managers with $10m receive 60bp. A sell-down was also targeted at regional banks, led by Apicorp, for slightly smaller ticket sizes.

SCOTTISH POWER has launched the refinancing of its £2.6bn revolving credit to the general market. The facility was first arranged in 1996 by Royal Bank of Scotland, Union Bank of Switzerland and ING Barings, to support Scottish Power's bid for Southern Water and for general corporate purposes. To date the deal is undrawn. This time, the deal is sole arranged by Royal Bank of Scotland and has been reduced to £2bn.

Norway Den norske has launched syndication of the Nkr1.95bn seven year debt package for Joh Johannson. The loan consists of a Nkr1.5bn term loan and a Nkr450m revolver.

THE SIX banks arranging the circa $3.6bn debt facility backing National Grid's $3.2bn New England Electric System are to launch the deal to sub-underwriters today (Friday). Euroweek understands that ABN Amro, Barclays, Chase (joint bookrunner), Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson (joint bookrunner) and HSBC plan to go to between 25 and 30 banks to raise the required sub-underwriting.

THE JUMBO facility backing Vodafone's $62bn merger with AirTouch of the US is set to emerge by next Thursday, say insiders. The exact amount is still undecided, with bankers predicting the record facility will be anywhere between $13bn and $16bn. US tax issues are the main reason why the size has not been settled yet.

SG has wrapped up general syndication of the Ffr3bn acquisition facility for Beaufour-Ipsen. A geographically diverse group of banks showed exceptional appetite and an oversubscription was raised with banks' allocations severely scaled back. Co-arrangers are ABN Amro (Ffr240m), Banque Nationale de Paris (Ffr240m), Dresdner Bank Luxembourg (Ffr175m), Natexis Banque-BFCE (Ffr240m), Rabobank (Ffr240m) and Royal Bank of Scotland (Ffr175m). They were originally invited to commit Ffr400m.

The region of Sicily looks set to find a solution to the shortfall in its budget after receiving bids from at least six banks proposing ways to help the region raise Lit1.7tr by April. In November and December last year, Sicily tried but failed to borrow from Italian and international banks.

ALSTOM has finally given permission to Banque Nationale de Paris, Chase Manhattan and HSBC to launch its debut Eu1.5bn facility to co-arrangers. For over three weeks, the market has been waiting for the jumbo facility while the borrower agreed the term sheet.

China Sponsor Beijing Municipal Government has invited banks to bid for an advisory mandate for Beijing No 10 Water Treatment Plant's build-operate-transfer project to upgrade water services in Beijing.

India Arranger ANZ Investment Bank signed a $165m 10 year facility for Dabhol Power Project Co on February 12 in London.

Argentina BankAmerica will close syndication of the $200m 364 day L/C facility for Banco Rio de la Plata SA today (Friday).

Poland Bank Handlowy w Warszawie has awarded an official mandate to Barclays, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Deutsche, Dresdner and WestLB to arrange a Eu175m facility.