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J.P. Morgan Securities has named managing directors Andy Brindle and Bertrand Des Pallières global co-heads of structured credit, expanding their existing titles. Both officially replace Romita Shetty, who resigned from the post in December and is still at the firm evaluating whether she will accept another role or leave.

The recent rally in the bonds of Nextel Communications has prompted high-yield market participants to say that the wireless company is in a position to access the debt markets to refinance some of its high-coupon preferred securities.

Dan Ward has left Lehman Brothers, where he was an analyst covering the transportation sector, including airlines, rails and defense, according to a Lehman official. Ward also covered autos, which is often classed as "manufacturing" and followed by a different analyst. He could not be reached. The Lehman official says he left "to pursue other opportunities," but declined to be more specific.

RCN Corp. is believed to be going after an amendment that will allow the company to use cash to buy back its bonds, and that idea is not sitting well with term loan investors who would rather the cash be directed to them. "This is a very controversial amendment," noted one buysider. Jim Downing, an RCN investor relations spokesman, declined to comment on the amendment and the specifics could not be ascertained. Votes are due this Thursday and the company must receive 51% lender approval for the amendment.

Valuations on senior loan funds have moved up significantly in the last few months, as demand for the long-troubled funds increases. "People have been exposed to the story and are asking when [interest] rates rise, where can I take advantage," explained Jon Maier, a director in global equity research at UBS Warburg. UBS began coverage of some of the funds last year, when prime rate funds were trading at a large discount, reflecting both the market interpretation of the risks associated with the funds as well as the average price of their bank loan assets (LMW, 12/2).

The roadshow for the £1.2 billion securitization of fees payable to Metronet, the consortium responsible for maintenance of the London Underground, will kick off next week, says a Metronet spokesman. The deal had been slated to come to market last year, however, political opposition to the Public Private Partnership, caused it to be delayed. The deal is being lead-managed by Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS Warburg.

Microcell Telecommunications' bank debt climbed from the low 70s into the 76-80 range last week with a piece of the debt trading in the 77 context. Dealers said investors are anticipating a faster restructuring than anticipated after the company filed its plan of reorganization last month. The bank debt has rebounded significantly over the last three months. In November, the paper climbed out of the 20s into the 35-40 range as lenders predicted a restructuring that would be good for those holding onto the bank debt (LMW, 11/11).

Fitch Ratings is looking to hire analysts for its newly established Moscow office, which is set to open in about a month, says Paul Taylor, group managing director in London. The office will be headed by Natasha Page, managing director, and will eventually house 10 analysts. Taylor says the office will be staffed by a combination of new hires and internal transfers.

General Electric Capital Corp. signed on for a $50 million piece of Bresnan Communications' $400 million credit last Tuesday, the first commitment following launch. No other commitments could be confirmed by LMW's Thursday's press time. Margot Bright, Bresnan's v.p. of finance and a former director in TD Securities' syndications group, said GE would most likely commit $10 million to the $175 million pro rata and $40 million to the $225 million "B" piece, however that breakdown is not definite. The deal backs Comcast's transference to Bresnan of 317,000 basic cable subscribers in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah for $675.4 million. J.P. Morgan, TD, Wachovia Securities, Bank of New York and Société Générale have fully underwritten the deal, she added.

Global Crossing's bank debt was actively trading in the street last week with small pieces of all tranches trading flat in the 18-19 context. The latest movement comes as reports indicate that IDT Corp. will make a $255 million bid for the bankrupt company. Howard Jonas, IDT's Chairman said in a statement that an IDT purchase of Global Crossing would be good for the United States' economy and national security, whereas the proposed sale to Hutchison Telecommunications Limited and Singapore Technologies Telemedia would compromise security.

General Motors Acceptance Corp. has issued what is believed to be the first Dutch residential-mortgage backed securities deal in which the interest-rate risk is hedged. In this E400 million ($430.74 million) securitization the special purpose vehicle has entered an interest-rate swap with Citigroup, in which it pays the fixed rate it gets from the portfolio of mortgages and receives three-month EURIBOR, the rate it needs to pay on the notes. In previous transactions the issuer has had to hold the risk of interest rates falling and homeowners refinancing their mortgages, also known as prepayment risk.

Goldman Sachs has reconfigured its London-based collateralized debt obligation group. The firm has split its synthetic and cash CDO teams and brought the cash business into the same group with principal finance and securitization, says an industry official. Goldman appears to be the first firm to split the cash and synthetic CDO businesses apart. The synthetic CDO group is now a stand-alone entity.