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Australia Commonwealth Bank of Australia will launch an A$800m amortising loan for Star City next Tuesday. The facility is split between an A$100m working capital bilateral portion and an A$700m syndicated refinancing. The six year deal will refinance an existing construction facility which was for the development of the Sydney Harbour casino.

JOINT arrangers Merrill Lynch and SBC Warburg Dillon Read are looking to bring in co-lead arrangers and co-arrangers into their £500m credit facilities which are financing the formation of HMV Media Group Plc. Co-lead arrangers are being offered takes of £60m and co-arrangers £40m. Once co-lead arrangers and co-arrangers have been appointed -- the arrangers are hoping to firm up the two groups by the middle of next week -- general syndication will be launched.

India Co-ordinating arranger BA Asia has completed a $500m facility for Indian Oil Corp. Proceeds will refinance the $600m deal arranged by BA Asia in September 1997. Arrangers are Bank of America pledging $157.5m, Midland Bank contributing $100m, Oriental Bank of Commerce absorbing $77.5m, Bank of India committing $50m and HDFC Bank taking $30m. Co-arranger Gulf International Bank BSC signed up with $25m.

Argentina Arranger SBC Warburg Dillon Read has been joined by BancAmerica Robertson Stephens as co-arranger before general syndication of its $250m three year loan style FRN for Banco de Galicia. Banco de Galicia -- $250m

Bahrain The co-arranger syndication of the $200m five year term loan for Arab Banking Corporation arranged by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Chase, JP Morgan, NatWest and Paribas is heading for a heavy oversubscription. Syndication was launched to co-arrangers on March 3, with eight banks already committed realising a $195m commitment. More banks should come in before the end of this week.

THOMSON Corporation, the Canadian publishing group, this week confirmed it will float its holiday business on the London Stock Exchange and that SBC Warburg Dillon Read will be the lead manager. The deal will reach the markets in early May, but has been rumoured for months since the group announced last year that it was going to reorganise.

* CIR International SA Guarantor: CIR -- Cie Industriali Riunite SpA Tranche 1: Lit130bn

ABN Amro, Bank of Nova Scotia and Export Development Corp-oration of Canada have launched syndication of a £96m project financing that will fund the construction of the Medium Support Helicopter Aircrew Training Facility, a helicopter simulator for aircrew. The project is part of the UK's Public Private Partnership, formerly known as the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The sponsor group of the project comprises CAE Group, Vega Plc, Serco Group and Charterhouse.

THE SECURITISATION line-up at the new Warburg Dillon Read has been finalised, and as predicted in Euroweek last week, in Europe at least the former SBC has come out on top. Peter Shorthouse, head of SBC Warburg Dillon Read's European securitisation unit, retains that role in the new bank. The major losers are David Bonsall and Mark Lewis, respectively global and European head of securitisation at UBS. Both are understood to have left the bank this week.

STUDENT loans were securitised in the UK for the first time this week, as Greenwich NatWest brought a highly complex £1.03bn deal parcelling a unique portfolio of assets. NatWest had earlier won the mandate to privatise the first tranche of state loans to students in a year long competition organised by NM Rothschild & Sons.

* Merrill Lynch brought MBNA to the Deutschmark market this week with a DM1bn 10 year fixed rate deal. MBNA America European Structured Offerings No 4 was priced at 99.60 with a coupon of 5.125% to yield 34bp over the 5.25% January 2008 Bund. "There has been increased demand for Deutschmark spread product, especially at 10 years, and we took advantage," said a syndicate official at Merrill Lynch in London. "The deal went extremely well at 34bp, and the bond is now trading at 33.5bp/32.5bp. Demand came from a very wide range of investors right across Europe, particularly investment advisers, mutual funds and insurance companies."

SAKURA Bank this week brought the first securitisation of Japanese corporate loans since Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi's Japan Loan Securitisations deal last September, with a ¥45bn CLO sole managed by Sakura Finance International. Fuji Bank, by contrast, has cancelled a planned $2bn Japanese asset CLO through Goldman Sachs, due to be launched this week.