ABB, the Swiss engineering group, has taken out a $2bn (€1.7bn) bank loan to refinance some of the debt it raised in October 2003 to shore up its balance sheet. Twelve banks are arranging the loan, and eight more are in the syndicate.

Banks arranging the deal are Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, HSBC, HVB Group, Nordea, SEB and Svenska Handelsbanken.