Search results for

* Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Rating: Aa3/AA-

A NUMBER of potential IPO mandates involving Virgin Group companies are up for grabs in the UK, following the announcement by Richard Branson that he plans to float a number of Virgin businesses over the next two years. Although the mandates will not be awarded for some time, bankers tip Merrill Lynch as the frontrunner to land one or more of the proposed flotations.

8488

BANK Austria has closed general syndication of the $31m six month term loan extension for Vozrozhdeniye Bank. The loan was increased to $32m after a small -- but notable -- oversusbcription. The deal came amid perhaps the worst economic and political conditions lenders and borrowers have had to endure over the past five years.

WestLB has signed the Ecu472.75m and Bfr7.8bn purchase of receivables transaction for Forum Leopold. The loan is structured as a transaction to finance, over a 10 year period, the purchase price owed by the European parliament to Forum Leopold for the acquisition of a building in Brussels. The facility has been structured accordingly because the parliament is not allowed to borrow. It proved to be very successful-- it was closed early and was heavily oversubscribed.

8421

DESPITE challenging conditions in the fixed rate dollar market, two rare borrowers are preparing debut bonds. Zurich Insurance is holding presentations and meetings with investors with a view to inaugurating its recently signed $2bn Euro-MTN programme.

Mauritius Sumitomo will close syndication on Monday of the international debt financing for Compagnie Thermique de Belle Vue's 70MW power project. The deal will be oversubscribed. The financing is split between international and local tranches. The international tranches comprise a 12 year, Ecu46m commercial tranche priced at 200bp over Libor, a 14 year Coface backed tranche priced at 75bp and a Ecu17m uncovered commercial tranche priced at 125bp.

GLOBAL co-ordinators Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse First Boston have set the indicated price range of the sale of stock in Alstom, the Anglo-French engineering group, which is being floated this month in Europe's largest corporate IPO. At a range of between Ffr190 and Ffr220 the company is valued at a maximum level of Ffr46.2bn ($7.8bn). The flotation of the company will signal its independence from the former owners of the joint venture concern -- GEC of the UK and the state-controlled Alcatel Alsthom of France.

SENIOR syndication of the $575m project finance facility for Turkcell has been a complete success, with an impressive number of heavyweight banks joining at the two levels on offer. Arrangers BT Alex Brown, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan offered banks to come in as co-lead arrangers and co-arrangers. Co-lead arrangers are Bank of New York, Bank of Scotland, Bayerische Vereinsbank, BHF Bank, Citibank, ING, Merita Nordbanken and Swedbank.

China Roadshows were held in Hong Kong and Singapore this week for the syndication of the international tranches of Shandong Guangzhou Power Company's $2.2bn power project financing, with presentations to be held in London, Paris and Frankfurt next week. Arrangers Greenwich NatWest, IBJ Asia and SG Asia report strong interest in the deal despite rumours in the market that the project does not meet World Bank environmental guidelines for gas emissions. The arrangers deny this is the case and argue that the deal has been cleared of any infringement of World Bank guidelines.

Australia Banks joining the five year $175m transferable loan facility for Colonial State Bank arranged by Bankers Trust Australia include Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale, Commerzbank (Singapore), BW Bank Ireland plc, Banque Bruxelles Lambert (Singapore), Cariplo (Singapore), Banca Commerciale Italiana (Singapore), Erste Bank, Bank Austria (Singapore), Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (Singapore), Westpac Banking Corp, WestLB Asia Pacific, National Bank of Abu Dhabi (Singapore) and Banca di Roma (Singapore).