Swiss food group Nestle AG has launched syndication of a 4.75 billion euro ($7 billion) loan refinancing, priced at 12.5 basis points over Euribor, banking sources said on Friday.

The deal has the lowest interest margin seen in the European loan market this year, which has seen a rapid decline in pricing on undrawn loans for highly-rated companies.

Pricing for highly-rated companies has fallen from an average of 157 basis points (bps) above Euribor in the second quarter, according to Thomson Reuters LPC data, as bank liquidity improved.

They (Nestle) must be offering a huge amount of ancillary businesses for banks to come into this deal at that level, another banker said.

The new one-year loan, which is being co-ordinated by Citigroup, will support Nestle's commercial paper programme and is not intended to be drawn.

(Reporting by Alasdair Reilly; Editing by David Holmes)

($1=.6782 Euro)