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Infinity Property & Casualty Corp. has tapped the market for a $200 million term loan, taking the opportunity to secure low interest rates, explained Roger Smith, Infinity's senior v.p. and cfo. "Timing is everything," he said, noting that the loan market is "hot for paper." Initially, Birmingham, Ala.-based Infinity had planned to complete a $180 million note offering in February, but the company ultimately withdrew the deal due to unfavorable market conditions. Smith said Infinity decided to tap the loan market this time around due to the reasonable pricing--the term loan carries a spread of 21/2% over LIBOR--as well as the high probability of getting the deal completed.

Bank of America had to sweeten a $400 million "B" loan for Pegasus Media & Communications last week, with market players citing Pegasus' litigation issues with DIRECTV and satellite network rights as concerns. One investor said more accounts moved in to fill out the deal late last week. Officials from B of A declined to comment or confirm subscription levels. Joe Pooler, Pegasus' v.p. of finance and controller, also declined to comment.

Kaydon Corp. invited Bank of America to join the company's new $200 million credit facility after the bank had approached Kaydon with some non-credit related ideas, said Peter DeChants, v.p. of corporate development and treasurer. DeChants said a B of A relationship manager had been out to visit the company several times, establishing "a very effective calling program" with the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company. He did not specify the business ideas discussed with B of A. Kaydon is a designer and manufacturer of custom-engineered products for customers in the industrial, aerospace, medical and electronic equipment and aftermarket spaces.

Lord Capital Partners, an affiliate of Lord Securities, is raising capital for a novel alternative investment fund that will invest in notes issued by special purpose entities (SPEs). The fund, Lord Capital Partners, will invest $100-150 million in expected loss notes, a new type of security to be issued by commercial paper conduits based on the equity or first-loss piece of their capital structure, said a Lord Capital official. The issuance is expected because of new accounting definitions proscribed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Ben Abedine, cfo at Lord Securities, said only the firm was working on the fund. He referred calls to Craig Shallcross, a partner at the firm who manages the fund, who declined to comment.

The dealer-based mark-to-market system is becoming more exact and is providing a fairly accurate picture of the secondary loan market, according to a trade data study conducted by The Loan Syndications and Trading Association. Trade data is hard to come by due to the private nature of the loan market, but the growth of the market has made an efficient mark-to-market system a necessity. "The loan business now has many participants who mark to market. Since most auditors and trustees require accurate, reliable, independent marks, availability of this data is critical to the development of the asset class," said Jonathan Calder, head of loan sales and trading at Citigroup and LSTA board member.

GE Capital and Lehman Brothers launched syndication last week of a $270 million recapitalization credit for subsidiaries of mattress and pillow manufacturer Tempur World Holdings. The credit includes a $20 million, five-year revolver; a $30 million five-year "A" loan and a $135 million, six-year "B" piece. Lexington, Ky.-based Tempur is also doing a $150 million senior subordinated notes deal in conjunction with the recapitalization. Price talk on the "B" loan is in the LIBOR plus 31/2% range, according to a banker familiar with the deal. The facility also includes a five-year, $20 million revolver and a $65 million "B" loan for European borrowers. A GE official declined to comment and Lehman bankers did not return calls.

Pirate Capital, the hedge fund founded by ex-Goldman Sachs distressed debt honcho Thomas Hudson, has hired Steven Lefkowitz as an investment analyst from PricewaterhouseCoopers. "The two Jolly Roger funds are now almost at $35 million and at every $50 million [Pirate] will hire an analyst," said Andrew Stotland, director of sales and marketing for the Greenwich, Conn.-based firm. Lefkowitz will cover the distressed debt funds, reporting to Hudson, Stotland said. He joins a four-person team At PwC, Lefkowitz worked in both the business assurance group and the transaction support services team.

The debt funds group of RBC Capital Partners, led by Daniel Smith, is marketing the firm's latest collateralized loan obligation, the $377 million Foxe Basin CLO. Citigroup is the lead underwriter for the deal, which will comprise primarily syndicated loans. Details on the timing of the notes that will back the CLO or how much of the collateral has been acquired already were not available.

Superior TeleCom filed its plan of reorganization last week allowing for about $890 million of bank debt claims. Under the reorganization plan lenders, will receive a package that includes 100% of the new common stock, 100% of new $145 million senior notes and 100% of the new subsidiary preferred stock. Also, lenders will receive $58.1 million of the debtors' federal tax return, according to the plan of reorganization. The levels for the bank debt paper, however, did not budge from the deeply distressed 33-35 range, according to a dealer. No trades could be confirmed. A hearing in bankruptcy court is scheduled for September 2 to consider approval of the disclosure statement. A spokesman for the company declined to comment.

Worldspan has completed a debut "B" loan in conjunction with a larger debt package, backing the company's acquisition by a consortium of private equity sponsors under the name Travel Transaction Processing Corp. The debt package includes a $125 million "B" loan, a $50 million revolver and $280 million of notes. Worldspan had originally come to market looking for a $100 million "B" piece, but increased the tranche after finding strong reception among loan market investors, explained Dale Messick, Worldspan senior v.p. and cfo. "We were very fortunate. We had a good story to tell," he said.

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