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GlaxoSmithKline this week provided the fix of high grade corporate credit US bond investors have been desperate for all year when it launched a blow-out $2.5bn three tranche global deal, its first ever issue in the dollar market.

The curse of the bought deal struck again on Tuesday when Goldman Sachs had to cut the price on a $1.2bn tranche of stock in Telenor, the Norwegian telephone company ? and was still left holding some of the shares.

ABN AMRO expects to close its first synthetic collateralized debt obligation in China in the coming days.

Crédit Agricole Indosuez and Crédit Lyonnais are preparing to launch a pair of asset-backed synthetic collateralized debt obligations, in the run-up to the integration of the firms next month.

UBS has hired Dariush Mirfendereski, head of inflation derivatives trading at Barclays Capital in London.

ABN AMRO is reassigning a handful of senior fixed-income professionals and plans to set up a North American proprietary trading desk as part of the changes.

CDC IXIS Capital Markets plans to launch a novel collateralized debt obligation referenced to asset-backed securities, which will need fewer assets in order to ramp up the deal. The CDO borrows delta hedging techniques from the derivatives market and was seen as a smart move by conference delegates because many CDOs of ABS are in danger of being shelved since demand for ABS from CDO managers is out-stripping supply (DW, 3/22).

BNP Paribas is restructuring its prime brokerage unit, a business that has gained little traction since its inception three years ago, according to rivals and clients.

Barclays Capital has lured Philippe El-Asmar, head of retail sales at SG Corporate & Investment Banking in New York, to set up a U.S.-based fund-linked instrument team.

CDC IXIS North America has hired Peter DeCrem, head of interest-rate derivatives trading at WestLB in New York, as a managing director.

Some 150 bankers, investors and CDO managers attended Euromoney's CDOs & Credit Derivatives summit at London's Crown Plaza hotel last week.

Igor Pavlov, a credit derivatives trader at Bear Stearns in New York, has left the firm.