Pre-migration untagged articles

Landsbanki and Glitnir banki found investor demand for their debt this week but CDS prices for the Icelandic banks gapped out again. Glitnir and Kaupthing Bank, moved into uncharted territory north of 1000bp as the central bank raised interest rates amid huge exchange rate volatility.

Banca IMI this week proved that deep pockets of demand still exist in Europe for structured notes, but the mainstream market disappointed as a combination of the approaching quarter end for many investors, the Easter bank holidays and stronger primary public markets put the brakes on private placement business.

JP MORGAN this week increased its offer for Bear Stearns from $2 a share to $10. The new offer values the stricken Wall Street bank at $1.3bn and is an attempt to block any rival from making a counterbid as well as placating Bear Stearns’ 15,000 employees.

Issuers and investors struggled to agree terms for vanilla trades this week, with little new issuance emerging. However, Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank and Electrabel bucked the trend with large clips.

Wild rumours about the fate of Lehman Brothers circulated yesterday (Thursday) in New York, but dollar swap spreads remained largely unmoved.

Diamond gets £21m pay package despite slowdown

Dealers of private EMTNs: Non-syndicated deals for less than $250m excluding financial repackaged SPVs, self-led deals and issues with a term of less than 365 days.

Deutsche Bank has priced a Eu650m CLO of leveraged loans for New Amsterdam Capital. The deal is partly a restructuring of a market value fund.

Like Carla Bruni-Sarkozy donning unexpectedly conservative attire to meet the UK’s royal family this week, Société Générale has put its shocking recent past behind it to choose public sector obligations foncières for its first visit to the covered bond market.

Sigma Finance Corp, the $39bn titan of the structured investment vehicle market, won some more breathing space this week from Standard and Poor’s, which extended its review period for Sigma’s AAA and A-1+ ratings.

The Swiss franc bond market this week came back from its Easter holiday to get on a flight to quality, as several agencies and a sovereign issuer, making the most of favourable currency swap levels, tapped the market.