Pre-migration untagged articles

UniCredit intends to make deep cuts in its structured finance business and its Austrian operations as part of its plan to reduce its investment bank’s workforce by 700 people.

Bank of America is prepared to step into the role of administrative agent for Lehman Commercial Paper Inc.’s portion of Archstone’s debt.

A number of consultants are urging clients to consider increasing their allocations to distressed debt, credit opportunities and real assets.

The credit markets have been a tough place to be the last few weeks, with firm bankruptcies and mergers, the investment banking structure is now a mere memory and the worst week the credit markets have ever seen.

The LCDX Series 9 traded $5 billion in volume on its first day.

-- Giles Willits, Entertainment One cfo, on its new six bank syndicate.

After a weekend of frantic takeover negotiations spearheaded by the Treasury failed to produce any bidders for the UK’s largest buy-to-let lender, the government seized the bank and sold its 197 branches and £20bn of retail deposits to Banco Santander, which also owns Abbey.

Citigroup’s purchase of Wachovia includes the retail bank, wealth management businesses and corporate and investment bank, amounting to more than $700bn of assets and related liabilities. Wachovia will retain its securities brokerage unit, America’s third largest, Evergreen Asset Management, a mutual fund family, and its insurance and retirement businesses.

The volume of bank trades in the European commercial paper market remains a fraction of what it was before Lehman Brothers’ collapse, with only those regarded as the safest able to place paper. Even then, only overnight notes are an option.

The Pfandbrief sector was the exception in the covered bond market once again this week, only this time it was for all the wrong reasons.