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HSBC (books, agent) and Greenwich NatWest (books) have won the mandate to arrange and underwrite a £850m facility for Dixons, the UK electrical goods retailer. The loan will back the borrower's £444m agreed bid for the Scandinavian retailer Elkjop. The debt should offer a term loan and a revolver, most likely with five year and 364 days tenors. The proceeds will also be used for general corporate purposes. It will be fully underwritten by the arrangers and syndicated next year.

TEXTRON FINANCIAL, financing arm of aircraft and utility vehicles maker Textron Inc, this week launched a blowout $1bn global bond, becoming the latest in a stream of US corporates that have launched successful global debuts this year. The deal, four times oversubscribed and led by JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch, was split into a $400m three year floating rate tranche and a $600m five year fixed rate portion, both of which were priced at the tight end of spread talk.

The dollar finally won its battle against the euro yesterday (Thursday), breaking parity against the European single currency for the first time since the new unit was introduced at the start of the year. Although not even a year old, niggling doubts over Europe's economic outlook have made the euro look tired compared to the US currency. Y2K and liquidity concerns have only served to boost the dollar, already rising on the back of the US economy's impressive performance. The run up to the year end and Y2K could see the dollar continue its rally in a reversal of the optimistic euro rise of late last year. Whether the US unit will maintain its position post-Y2K as investors unwind their defensive positions is unclear, but with the psychological barrier broken, a new stage in the euro's life will begin.

The dollar debt markets were considerably more lively this week than many traders previously thought likely, raising the possibility that December will be reasonably active. Far from being the languid slide into Y2K that was predicted only weeks ago, December kicked off with a busy week. Over $5bn of investment grade debt will have been priced in dollars this week. Investors are cash-rich and the dire prophesies of doom for the turn of the year are now viewed as almost certainly unfounded. Many New York syndicate bankers therefore see every reason why borrowers should bring debt now rather than later.

Hungary A five year term loan to Bank Austria Creditanstalt Rt for an undisclosed amount has closed fully subscribed. Signing is set for next week. The club deal is being arranged by DG Bank and Bankgesellschaft Berlin.

Argentina * Province of Buenos Aires

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter responded to strong demand for a secondary placement of Equant stock by increasing the sale from 26m to 40m shares, and in the process raising more than Eu3.64bn. The increase in the size of the deal took the market by surprise and impressed observers given the perceived slowdown in primary equity business as year end and Y2K approaches.

* Banco Mello (Cayman) Ltd Guarantor: Banco Mello SA (Paris)

* AIG SunAmerica Institutional Funding II

FRANCE TELECOM will mandate a group of banks to arrange a jumbo credit facility as soon as the Vodafone-Mannesmann acquisition saga is resolved. Euroweek understands that the French telecoms monopoly is keeping its loan financing options open as it has yet to formally decide the best strategy for improving its position in Europe's fixed line and mobile telecoms industry.

Internet plays once again captured the imagination of investors with freenet's Eu106.575m IPO closing 50 times subscribed and 365 Corp's £75.10m IPO performing well on its debut yesterday (Thursday). Credit Suisse First Boston was bookrunner for the 3.675m share IPO for freenet.de., the German internet leader. The shares priced at the top of the Eu25 to Eu29 range and will begin trading on the Neuer Markt today (Friday).

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter have won the mandate for a $300m Nasdaq listing for Malaysian cable and satellite TV operator Astro.