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SBC WARBURG Dillon Read took the UK stockmarket by surprise yesterday (Thursday) with one of the gutsiest block trades of recent months, a £763.8m purchase of stock in cellular phone company Orange. Last night the fate of the deal was hanging in the balance, with a stockmarket slide leaving the bank holding up to 50m of the 193m shares it had bought from British Aerospace,

ARRANGER Bankers Trust has signed the £400m debt facilities for Nomura's £700m purchase of William Hill from Brent Walker. However, the deal has failed to whip up great enthusiasm during syndication, resulting in a shortfall in retail.

Croatia HBOR, the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development, is in the market for a DM100m loan. Arranging banks have been approached and a decision on the winner should come in early April. The deadline for co-arrangers to submit their commitments to the DM100m or DM150m credit facility for Hrvatska Elektrprivreda (HEP) is today (Friday). Banks are offered takes of DM10m as co-arrangers.

ARRANGERS Chase, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers have launched co-arranger syndication of the $10.9bn debt facilities supporting Texas Utilities' bid for the Energy Group. The fully underwritten financing is split between a £3.625bn non-recourse facility and a $5bn corporate facility.

Barclays and Midland have won the mandate to arrange the £200m credit facility for Arriva Automotive Solutions Plc, formerly called Cowie Financial Holdings. Barclays is joint bookrunner and documentation agent and Midland is joint bookrunner and facility agent. The loan is a five year revolving credit that will finance the borrower's car leasing operations. It is priced at 30bp over Libor with a commitment fee of 15bp.

France Chase Manhattan, HSBC and Société Générale have launched syndication of the £500m credit facility for Lucas Varity. Syndication should be well supported. The deadline for commitments is in two weeks. Germany Commerzbank will launch syndication next week of its DM2bn facility for Metro AG. The loan refinances the DM2bn one year credit arranged by Deutsche Morgan Grenfell in December 1997. That loan supported Metro's acquisition of the cash-and-carry business of Makro.

Australia Macquarie Bank is finalising the structure of the A$110m, 12 year project financing for Airtrain Citylink Ltd, for the Brisbane Air Train Project and will launch the facility in the next two weeks, once project documentation is finalised. The arranger will invite a limited number of banks for syndication. Macquarie expects to close by the end of May with drawdown by June 30.

THE LANDMARK Eu6bn loan facility for GEC Plc has been closed and signed by the borrower and its eight arranging banks -- SBC Warburg Dillon Read, Barclays, Banca Commerciale Italiana, Banque Nationale de Paris, Chase Manhattan, JP Morgan, Midland and WestLB. Signing took place on Wednesday at GEC's headquarters in London. With the signing comes the long-awaited list of co-arrangers and senior lead managers that were brought into the loan at the beginning of March.

India SBI International Merchant Banking Group has completed five fundraisings. * A $30m amortising loan for Raymond Ltd was signed on March 17 in Bombay. State Bank of India took the whole amount and may sell down at a later date.

Bahrain Bahrain International Bank is in the market for a $75m facility. Bahrain International was last in the market in December 1997 with a $75m five year revolving credit arranged by ANZ, Emirates Bank International and Arab Banking Corporation. That loan took almost two months to sign after launch due to difficulties in the financial markets. Bahrain International will be hoping for similar pricing this time. However, some market observers have suggested that it will be lucky to achieve pricing under 87.5bp. The commitment fee will also be higher this time -- the 1997 loan had a fee of 25bp.

Canada Bank of Montreal and Goldman Sachs Credit Partners LP have completed a $1.8bn facility for Canadian National Railway Co and Grand Trunk Co. The facility is split into a five year $600m revolver and a $480m term loan for Canadian National Railway Co, and a one year $320m term loan and a $400m five year revolver for Grand Trunk Co. Pricing for the loan is based on the company's debt ratings.

Denmark JP Morgan (co-ordinator) and Den Danske Bank (facility agent) will close general syndication of the $350m seven year multicurrency revolving credit for Tele Danmark early next week. Appetite has been strong from the borrower's core relationship banks and an oversubscription is likely. The final syndicate will be about 10 strong with Danish banks dominating the group.