The Bratislava oil refinery Slovnaft Inc. signed a contract for a syndicated loan worth 75 million DM to fund the purchase of new technology for its more efficient processing of crude oil. The seven-year loan has the longest maturity to date of any syndicated loan provided to Slovak companies. The loan was arranged by ING Barings-London and ING Bank-Bratislava and co-arranged by Bank Austria, Commerzbank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and Sanwa Bank. Leading managers of the loan are ČSOB, Creditanstalt, Dresdner Bank Luxembourg and National Westminister Bank. The loan's agent is ING Barings.