Free content

FMC Corp. is anticipating becoming a rising star--moving from high yield to investment grade--and has amended its $600 million credit facility to remove its institutional tranche and put in much improved terms to reflect the uptown move.

New York-based J. & W. Seligman is adding floating-rate corporate bonds and implementing a barbell strategy to take advantage of rising interest rates.

Leverage in European high-yield offerings is expected to rise to levels not seen since the heydays of the 1980s before the end of the year, and this is causing even normally bullish sell-siders to express concern the white-hot market may be in for a cold shower.

Party time... Heads were pounding on Wednesday morning after Credit Suisse First Boston threw its fall celebration at America last Tuesday.

Leap Wireless International affiliate Cricket Communications is planning to slash interest costs by installing a new $650 million senior secured credit facility to redeem $350 million of 13% senior secured notes.

A German collateralized debt obligation manager plans to launch two cash-flow CDOs by mid-2005.

Credit Suisse First Boston is leading an approximately $950 million refinancing for NRG Energy that will dramatically cut the spread on its term loan only one year after the debt was put in place for the company's bankruptcy exit.

This chart, provided by Citigroup Global Markets, tracks bid-ask prices for par credit facilities that trade in the secondary market.

UBS Global Asset Management is building a collateralized debt obligation team to buy and manage transactions and has hired Sunil Dattani, head of investments at Gulf International Bank in Bahrain.

-- Brandon Stranzl, general partner at Tiedemann BGS Partners in New York, on the challenges traditional distressed investors are having in sourcing collateral given the increasing activity by hedge funds in the market.

--William Freeman, ceo of Leap Wireless International, on selecting the banks to refinance its exit financing.