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Citigroup and J.P. Morgan were scheduled to launch syndication of a $230 million credit for Werner Ladder last Friday as part of the ladder product company's recapitalization efforts. The deal breaks down into a six-year, $170 million "B" loan with price talk around LIBOR plus 31/4% and a five-year, $60 million revolver with pricing around LIBOR plus 3%, according to a banker. Proceeds from the Ba3-rated deal, existing cash and $20 million from an accounts receivable securitization facility will be used to refinance the $115.4 million outstanding on the Greenville, Pa.-based company's existing facility. In addition, Werner is selling $65 million in preferred stock to private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners. Proceeds will also help redeem $150 million of common stock from the existing Werner shareholders. Larry Friend, Werner's v.p., cfo and treasurer, did not return calls.

John Flannery, former president and ceo of GE Equity--the private equity arm of General Electric--is moving to the GE Corporate Financial Services division scheduled to start today, to be managing director and head of the bank loan group. A GE spokesman said Flannery will fill the position left vacant after Murry Stegelmann left the post to start up a distressed debt fund last month (LMW, 4/14). Flannery will report to Michael Gaudino, president and ceo of the corporate finance arm. Flannery joined GE in 1987 as an associate in the corporate finance group and became a senior v.p. in corporate restructuring in 1993. He helped form the GE Equity unit in 1994 and served as a managing director at GE Equity's Latin America office from 1997 to 1999. He was named president of GE Equity in February 2002. Flannery could not be reached for comment.

Credit Suisse First Boston has added Joe Friedman as a director to its loan sales team. Friedman joined the firm last week from J.P. Morgan, where he worked as a v.p. in loan sales and reported to Eric Rosen, managing director and head of secondary loan trading at J.P. Morgan. Friedman will focus on the firm's institutional loan sales. He could not be reached at his new location. Don Pollard, managing director and global head of CSFB's syndicated loan group, confirmed Friedman's arrival. A J.P. Morgan spokesperson confirmed Friedman's departure, but declined to comment further.

Affinity Group Holding has relatively high lease-adjusted leverage and faces potential business risks associated with the expansion of its Camping World store chain. The company is already operating on the edge of its rating's category and its new $175 million credit facility will bring the company's lease adjusted leverage up to 4.75 times, according to Moody's Investors Service. "Typically we like to see leverage come down over time," explained Dominic Ward, senior associate analyst at Moody's. The new credit, which has been assigned a Ba2 rating, will retire Affinity's existing credit and a portion of notes but the company is still increasing its debt by roughly $18 million.

The Australian bond market received a boost this week as ANZ Banking Group launched and then tripled the size of its A$500m five year transferable certificates of deposit (TCD) deal to A$1.5bn. Strong demand from onshore as well as offshore investor appetite ensured that the senior deal became by far the largest in the Australian bond market this year, and underlined the liquidity available.

The A$1.2bn placement of new AMP shares that UBS Warburg completed last Friday has been followed by reproaches against the company for foisting such a large deal on the market. AMP demutualised and listed in 1998 and since then there have been a series of controversial acquisitions, especially in the UK.

AUSTRALASIA Australia

The Australian market has surged back to life after Easter with two new issues, and Westpac is set to launch a rare offering of New Zealand mortgages from AMS. The first deal was Medfin's A$151.5m securitisation of auto and equipment loans, leases and hire purchase agreements via its MTN programme. National Australia Bank was lead manager on Medfin Series 2003-1 Trust, the first lease backed deal since UFJ Australia's A$300m Symphony Trust No 3 in December 2002.

The Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) provided ample proof that investor demand for Korean credits is as strong as ever when it received $780m in orders for a $400m tap of its 4.25% 2007 bond on Wednesday, bringing the total bond size to $1.1bn. The depth of interest prompted Kexim to increase the tap from $300m and meant that the issue could be priced through the bid spread of the outstanding 2007 bonds.

The sale of Royal&SunAlliance's Australian and New Zealand operations, called Promina, is proceeding better than bankers had hoped when the roadshows began in early April. The bookbuild will be completed today (Friday) following four days of order taking. The indications are that the final price could be in the middle of the range, which would be an excellent result.

The Singapore Post initial public offering closed this week with the institutional books more than nine times covered. If the greenshoe is exercised, as seems probable, the deal could raise S$787m ($452m). This augurs well for trading, which will begin on May 13.

Hong Kong Standard and Poor's (S&P) remains optimistic about the prospects for Hong Kong banks despite the tough economic environment and effects of the Sars virus on the region's economy.