The South African Reserve Bank is pleased to announce the successful conclusion of a capital raising exercise in the international financial markets. The Bank entered into a three-year syndicated loan transaction with a group of 39 international financial institutions, the signing ceremony for which took place in Cape Town today, 19 July 2004. The proceeds of this loan, which matures in 2007, will be used to repay a syndicated loan entered into three years ago, which loan had the National Treasury and the Reserve Bank as co-borrowers. This year’s loan in the amount of US$1 billion will, however, be taken out in the sole name of the South African Reserve Bank. Having assembled a group of 23 leading international banks to act as Mandated Lead Arrangers, initially committing USD60 million each, the transaction was launched for general syndication on 14 June 2004. Participation levels in general syndication were USD30 million for Co-Arrangers and USD15 million for Lead Managers. The Reserve Bank managed to put together a highly successful and heavily oversubscribed transaction, resulting in USD 1,8 billion being committed when compared to the financing requirement of USD1 billion. The Reserve Bank did not take up the excess funds offered, and final participation levels were consequently scaled back for all lenders. This substantial oversubscription bears testimony to the success of the transaction and, more importantly, reflects the sound and improving credit story of the South African economy, as reflected in the country’s credit ratings. The strength of the Reserve Bank’s international banking relationships has once again allowed a smooth execution of the transaction, which enjoyed strong support from the market. This remarkable level of support was secured against a background of a market increasingly characterised by lending banks generally applying more stringent criteria for granting loans. Thus the good standing of the South African Reserve Bank in the international financial markets is illustrated by the quality of banks which have participated, the geographic spread of the source of funds and in the pricing achieved.Conditions in the syndicated loan market favoured well-rated borrowers with strong banking relationships, resulting in the Reserve Bank being able to achieve significantly improved terms and conditions for the loan.  The syndicated loan may be drawn down in US dollar and/or euro at a margin of 47,5 basis points per annum above Libor/Euribor. This may be compared to the margin of 67,5 basis points per annum, which was negotiated for the comparable 2003 syndicated loan entered into by the Reserve Bank. The significant progress achieved in recent years in reducing borrowing costs for the Reserve Bank is also reflected by the fact that at the inception of the loan being refinanced in 2001, the margin over Libor was 85 basis points per annum. Another attractive feature of the loan is a provision, which would allow the Reserve Bank to automatically benefit from a lower pricing in the case of an improvement in South Africa’s credit rating. The overall attractiveness of South Africa as a borrower was also recently demonstrated by a successful placing of a US$1 billion – 10-year bond by the National Treasury in May 2004. As a result of the substantial oversubscription, the final allocations for the Lenders were as follows:  Mandated Lead ArrangerUSD30,5mCo-ArrangerUSD22,0mLead Manager       USD11,3m                 The list of Lenders is as follows: Mandated Lead Arrangers Citibank, N.A. - Joint BookrunnerCommerzbank Securities - Joint BookrunnerING Bank N.V. - Joint BookrunnerSumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Limited - Joint BookrunnerBNP Paribas - Documentation BankStandard Bank London Limited - Signing and PublicityThe Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, LtdBarclays CapitalBayerische LandesbankCalyon Corporate and Investment BankChina Construction BankDeutsche Bank AGDresdner Kleinwort WassersteinHSBC Bank plcHSH Nordbank AGHVB GroupJ.P. Morgan plcMizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd.Natexis Banques PopulairesSG Corporat