Derivs - People and Markets

Street talk of an expected USD2 billion write down by Goldman Sachs this quarter related to private equity and commercial real estate investments was not enough to move credit default swap spreads on the name much today.

A hearing to determine whether Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. can secure court approval to start selling in-the-money swaps to expedite payments to creditors has been adjourned.

Leon Hindle, managing director and global head of collateralized debt obligations and structured credit at Nomura, formerly Lehman Brothers Asia, left the firm last week.

Five-year credit default swaps on the Harrah’s Entertainment principal operating subsidiary jumped nine percentage points today to 68.8 points upfront, after the company announced it had delayed the early deadline for its voluntary bond exchange offer.

Former Broadpoint Captial distressed structured products traders Viru Raparthi and Maneesh Awasthi have joined brokerage Newedge, a joint venture between Société Générale’s Fimat and Calyon Financial, to build up a synthetic and cash structured credit platform there.

As investors flock to certificates of deposit that offer government-backed principal protection, retail structured product sales are lagging.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. plans to report on non-standard credit default swap transactions by expanding the capabilities of its Trade Information Warehouse.

Stuart Leonard, coo of the alternative strategies division of Macquarie Bank, and Tom Folinsbee, an associate director, left the bank’s Hong Kong office last week.

Barclays Capital is advising investors that have ridden the recent spike in volatility to sell out if they are long variance swaps and buy at-the-money vol instead, since analysts expect vol to come off its high in the New Year.

Proprietary trading desks are expected to be off the radar for banks for at least a year, market watchers say.

Valere Capital Partners is looking for a lead investor to seed its Credit Opportunities Fund with $100 million, according to sister title Alternative Investment News.

Nomura Holdings is reportedly looking into if and how it could renegotiate the generous retention packages it offered to employees of Lehman Brothers when it took over the bank’s Asian and European operations in September.