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Belgium Arrangers ABN Amro and Union Bank of Switzerland have signed the $100m five year revolving credit for Belgium chemical company Flexsys Holdings. General syndication was oversubscribed by an impressive 35%. The pricing, set at 27.5bp, was key to the success of the syndication. The arrangers targeted a select group of banks and offered commitment fees of 12.5bp.

THE $1bn seven year multicurrency revolving credit arranged by Deutsche for Incentive Treasury, Incentive North America and Incentive International Finance has closed. Final commitments were received by the arranger on Tuesday, almost a week later than originally planned. Deutsche Bank had been waiting for the last four banks to commit to the deal on February 13. But to the surprise of Deutsche one of the four banks refused.

India The $47m eight year fundraising for Maharashtra State Electricity Board has closed undersubscribed and was reduced from $50m. Arrangers include SBI International Merchant Banking Group pledging $25m and Société Générale and Bank of Baroda contributing $10m apiece.

THE ITALIAN region of Lazio this week made its international markets debut with a dual tranche Euro/144a offering for $300m. The issue, documented under the region's recently signed global medium term note programme, was the first globally distributed issue by an Italian region.

THE REPUBLIC of Argentina has revived plans to sell about $3bn worth of leftover holdings in privatised companies, including its 20.3% stake in YPF. After more than four years of waiting for appropriate market conditions, the republic is to sell long-held positions YPF and 15 other state companies, including its 5% stake in Aerolineas Argentinas, its 20% stake in Gas Natural Ban -- due for launch by leads Santander Investment next week -- holdings in other gas companies and the more recently announced privatisation of Banco Hipotecario Nacional, due in July.

AJAX is set to float on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the first Dutch football club to do so. The float marks a growing move to public status among European football clubs. Although the majority of clubs to have listed so far are from the UK, other countries are moving down that path as the sport rapidly becomes commercialised. Germany's Borussia Dortmund announced this week it intends to float on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, a move already foreshadowed by Bayern Munich.

Brazil Signing of the $100m L/C backup facility being arranged by Barclays Bank (Miami) for Banco BCN Barclays (Bahamas) Ltd was signed on February 6. This facility, which has a risk participation fee of 125bp, refinances the previous $100m facility signed on February 3 last year.

TWO of the big three US car companies came to market with jumbo loan securitisations on successive days this week. Merrill Lynch brought a $1.25bn fixed rate deal for Chrysler Corp on Wednesday. "The deal was at least twice oversubscribed and came at the tight end of price talk," said Ashley Kibblewhite of Merrill's London asset backed syndicate desk. "There is very little paper available in the secondary market and a lot of pent up demand for auto bonds. With a flat yield curve it makes sense to buy an amortising note and take the pickup over a bullet."

ABBEY National, one of the UK's largest and best known banks, this week launched its first securitisation in a move which signalled the arrival of mortgage backed securities in the mainstream of Britain's home lending industry. Launched via JP Morgan, the £247.5m deal also marked the Abbey's switch from the buy side to the sell side.

CSFB launched the first CLO backed by project finance loans yesterday (Thursday). The $617m deal through Project Funding Corp 1 will be priced this morning in New York. "The deal has gone extremely well," said a syndicate official at sole manager CSFB in New York. "The triple-A, single-A and triple-B tranches are all oversubscribed and the double-B has gone fairly well. A lot of CLO investors have come into the deal, as well as accounts which buy fixed rate project finance bonds.

FRENCH franc investors had their first chance to buy notes backed by a guaranteed investment contract this week, as Paribas brought the latest deal from SunAmerica's multi-currency MTN programme. SunAmerica Institutional Funding III Ltd issued Ffr1.5bn of notes repackaging a GIC written by SunAmerica National Life Insurance Co (Sanlic), the triple-A rated derivative product company owned by SunAmerica Inc.

* Bank America Robertson Stephens yesterday launched syndication of the first revolving term securitisation in the Mexican peso market. The Ps1bn deal for Elektrafin, the finance subsidiary of discount retail chain Grupo Elektra, is backed by consumer finance loans extended to Elektra's customers. The three year revolving deal is expected to price at 300bp over Cetes and close at the end of March.