Pre-migration untagged articles

Market participants are virtually unanimous in predicting a year of smaller issuance volumes with fewer players.

Few shots were fired in the phoney war that characterised the first two business days of 2008 in the MTN market but that should change if the public markets re-open as expected next week.

Asset backed commercial paper, the problem sector of 2007, showed clear signs of reform at the start of the new year, providing some much needed cheer to dealers and the wider capital markets.

Morgan Stanley announced an additional $5.7bn writedown of US subprime exposure on December 19 that prompted the US firm to issue $5bn of mandatory convertible equity units to China Investment Corporation (CIC).

MTN programme dealership table - 2007

Natixis and Natixis Asset Management are marketing new credit derivative product companies (CDPCs).

A consortium of financial institutions is setting up a new exchange for trading US Treasury futures that will compete with the CME Group, the combined entity of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, which enjoys a near monopoly of the futures market with a share of around 85%.

THE BULGING covered bond pipeline of debuts, postponed transactions and regular issuance is not expected to re-open until at least early next week, with market participants awaiting next Monday’s restart of market-making and the wholesale return of investors, as well as clearer clues to sentiment in the wider financial markets in the coming days.

THE UK government’s extension of guarantees relating to Northern Rock obligations on December 18 was seen as positive news for covered bondholders.

The board of OMX, operator of seven stock exchanges in the Nordic and Baltic regions, has unanimously recommended to shareholders a bid from Börse Dubai to buy OMX shares for Skr265 each.

>> Loose Changes Of The Year

Distressed players expect to see increased opportunities in 2008 with domestically-oriented companies, housing-related businesses and companies with accounts receivable securitization programs and other non-typical financial structures.