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UBS Warburg is planning to place a greater emphasis on structured credit research as part of its European credit effort, following a change in leadership. Andy Evans, previously a credit analyst at the firm, started earlier this month as head of European credit strategy in London. Immediately before the move Evans was working in the business side of Warburg's e-commerce division. He is a direct replacement for Derek Brawn, who starts at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein as head of European credit strategy next month. Brawn confirmed the move, declining further comment. An official in DrKW's research department also declined comment.

Allied Investment Advisors, a Baltimore, Md. money manager, will allocate some 5-10%, or $7-14 million, to two- and three-year corporate floaters. Wilmer Smith, a portfolio manager who oversees a $140 mutual fund for the firm, says he is waiting for 10-year Treasury yields to retouch 4.5% before making the move, which he expects to happen once continued poor employment data causes a further decline in consumer confidence. He particularly likes Sallie Mae asset-backed student loans, which will reset at higher yields if, as he expects, the government increases T-bill issuance. Allied would sell two-, five-, and 10-year Treasuries to finance the move.

Groupama Asset Management is rotating 15% of its portfolio, or $15 million, from Treasuries into corporates as the firm anticipates an economic rebound and better corporate earnings. Dan Portanova, portfolio manager at the New York-based firm, says the move is duration neutral, as it is selling Treasuries with a comparable duration to the corporates it is buying. He adds that he predicts the yield curve will steepen over the next few months, given what he is calling the end of the government bond rally.

Friends Ivory & Sime has bought £100 million of new issuance in the past month, and will continue to add newly minted paper to its £7.5 billion credit portfolio. London-based Etienne Gorgeon, a portfolio manager, says he is looking at the upcoming £825 million Meadowhall issue, a commercial mortgage asset-backed deal originated by British Land. He is considering the deal because of its size, and because he like ABS deals as a diversification tool. Over the past month, Gorgeon has added Tyco International's 61Ž2% of '11, HBOS' undated 6.461%, CGNU's 6.125% of '36, British American Tobacco's 4.875% of '09 and Lafarge's 6.375% of '07. He picked up these bonds because new issuance is coming at attractive spreads and he is positive on these credits.

They're traders, not fighters! Dealers from Bank of America and Société Générale were in attendance at an amateur boxing match held at the New York Athletic Club on Monday night. The market players were there on a spectator basis only and were said to have had a good time--although the fighting spirit they bring to the desk came through when one called it a good "blood and booze" opportunity.

This chart, provided by Citibank/Salomon Smith Barney Inc., tracks bid-ask prices for par credit facilities that trade in the secondary market. It also tracks facility amounts, ratings, pricing and maturities.

The weather derivatives market was buzzing with reports last week that Enron plans to put its weather desk on the block. "People are saying the desk is one of the things Enron would definitely sell as part of a plan to unload assets. Any bank looking to break into the market would definitely be interested," said a weather trader. With Dynegy and Enron reportedly pushing to complete their USD10.5 billion merger by next summer, traders speculated that Enron's 50-strong weather business could be among the causalities of the union. Calls to spokesmen at Dynegy and Enron were not returned before press time. Mark Tawney, head of Enron's weather desk, also did not return calls.

Fitch plans to hire six or seven collateralized debt obligation professionals for its London-based CDO rating team because of the increase in the number of deals coming to the market. Mitchell Lench, senior director in London, said it has about 15 CDOs in the pipeline this month in comparison to five or six this time last year, approximately one-third of these are synthetic or balance sheet transactions.

Siam Commercial Bank, with over THB700 billion (USD15 billion) in assets, is planning to extend its investments in credit derivatives to include credit-default swaps next year. SCB is looking to sell credit-default swaps to take on exposure to businesses it does not have lending relationships with, such as non-Thai organizations. The move comes on the back of the bank wanting to diversify its portfolio because of the deteriorating credit quality of local corporates, said an official.

BAA, the owner and operator of seven U.K. airports, is considering entering an interest-rate swap on the back of a recent 30-year GBP700 million (USD1 billion) bond offering. The company priced the bonds earlier this month on the same day as the Bank of England and European Central Bank cut rates by 50 basis points. Wan Chow, treasury manager in London, said the bond offering was opportunistic and as a result the company has not yet decided whether it will convert the fixed-rate bond into a floating-rate liability. The airport owner pays a fixed 5.75% coupon on the bond.

BNP Paribas is planning to issue one of the first synthetic collateralized debt obligations referenced to portfolios of Japanese credit-default swaps this week and Deutsche Bank and J.P. Morgan are hot on the French bank's heels with similar deals lined up for the first quarter.