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* Eksportfinans A/S Rating: Aa1/AAA

* DePfa Bank Rating: Aa3

Swiss francs * Nippon Toyama Corp

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* Bank of Nova Scotia Rating: Aa3/AA-

* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

* Generale Bank Nederland NV Amount: Dfl 250m subordinated debt

BRAZILIAN bank Unibanco scored in lire this week while other Latin new issues snored in a dollar market worn out by $7.2bn worth of 30 year global bonds recently issued by Pemex, Venezuela and Argentina. Italian and other European investors snapped up Unibanco's offering of Lit175bn of six year Eurobonds with an attractive 10% coupon for the first two years and stepping down to 7% thereafter.

Corporates The Virgin Group, which is restructuring its various retailing businesses into the Virgin Entertainment Group by buying out joint venture partners, is to seek a £150m medium term loan to fund the purchases and provide working capital.

Citicorp Securities Inc has arranged a $1.25bn refinancing for Fox Kids Worldwide Inc. The loan is split into a seven year $602m reducing revolver, a $298m seven year reducing revolver and a nine year $350m term loan. Pricing is based on the company's leverage ratio. The Prime margin range for the revolvers is Prime flat to 125bp, the Libor margin range is 50bp to 225bp and the commitment fee range is 20bp to 50bp. The Prime margin range for the term loan is Prime flat to 175bp and the Libor margin range is 100bp to 275bp.

JP MORGAN and Merrill Lynch are strongly tipped as likely joint winners of the ratings advisory and lead management mandate for the planned Eurobond issue from the Republic of Bulgaria. The two US investment banks are believed to have beaten off competition from Goldman Sachs, ING Barings, SBC Warburg and UBS. Officials from all six banks were in Sofia this week for discussions with the Bulgarian finance ministry. An official confirmation of the mandate is expected by the end of the month.

NEW EURODOLLAR issues again struggled to get off the ground this week, leaving debt syndicate managers increasingly concerned about the state of the sector. Issuers such as KfW and SEK suffered, while others such as SNCF postponed their launch plans. Some bankers say in current market conditions it is almost impossible to launch successful transactions. Few can see an immediate end to the difficulties.