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The term loan "B" for Fleming Companies held its ground this week despite admissions from the company that it was the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission informal inquiry. While the company's bonds and stock stumbled on the news, bank debt traders brushed it off and said that the "B" paper did not change hands and was still quoted in the 97-98 range. "Everyone gets investigated these days," said one dealer.

Fremont Partners and lead agent bank UBS Warburg opted for a non-aggressive pricing structure to help syndicate the $160 million credit facility backing the $300 million acquisition of Nellson Nutraceutical, an Irwindale, Calif., nutrition bar and product maker. Oversubscription during syndication enabled UBS to flex pricing down and increase the size of the loan by $15 million.

A Greek private equity fund-of-funds will use securitization as a means of raising assets for investment. The fund, called Taneo, will securitize future revenues such as dividends from the various investments it makes, says Nicole Downer, head of corporate securitizations at Deutsche Bank in London. Deutsche Bank is co-lead managing the deal securitization, which will net the fund roughly E100 million.

Last week was solid once again in high-yield, with improvements in a number of distressed credits and sectors such as telecom and airlines. The new issue calendar continued to gain momentum, with a 10-year $300 million deal at 9.25% from Allied Waste. Here is other action.

The Seaport Group, a research and relationship driven brokerage boutique, is beefing up its efforts in dealing with off-the-run bank loans and large loan sales, trade claims and the equity of reorganized companies, said Marc Baum, chief operating officer. The firm has been increasing its staff to support these efforts, adding Terry Horn, senior v.p., to work with bank loans, John Sosnowski as v.p. of research and I-Wen Lim as a research associate.

Bradford & Bingley, one of the U.K.'s largest mortgage lenders, is readying a term securitization program, which it plans to launch in the fourth quarter next year. Peter Green, director of treasury and balance sheet management, says securitization will be the firm's primary source of funding going forward, because the strength of its collateral provides for efficient secured funding. Bradford & Bingley has completed one £1 billion securitization of residential mortgages to date.

Volkswagen Bank, the auto maker's European financing arm, plans to securitize its E10 billion German auto loan portfolio for the first time, says Andreas Schuberth, a member of the bank's securitization team in Braunschweig, Germany. Previously, securitizations bearing the Volkswagen moniker have been lease deals through Volkswagen Leasing. Volkswagen Bank aims to build its securitization capabilities and establish a presence in the market to diversify its funding options and gain capital relief, says Schuberth.

Westdeutsche Landesbank has hiredTom Murray,Credit Suisse First Boston's former point man for power project finance loan syndication, as a managing director to fire up its loan and private placement effort for power and energy. Murray, who left CSFB Nov. 8 as part of the firm's strategic cutback in the area, joins the German landesbank's New York team this Monday, said Howard Moseson, managing director at WestLB, who declined further comment.

White Mountains Insurance has restructured its credit facilities to make the bank debt more closely resemble bonds by tapping institutional investors and decreasing the exposure of commercial lenders. The original credit was set up in June 2001 to back the acquisition of One Beacon Insurance Group." We wanted to restructure the debt so it no longer looked like a leveraged financing acquisition vehicle but more like longer-term debt," saidReid Campbell, a v.p. in capital markets at One Beacon, now a wholly owned subsidiary of White Mountains. But, "The bond markets have been too skittish."

Salomon Smith Barney was rumored to have traded $20 million of WorldCom bank debt this week with the paper jumping from the low teens into the 22 1/2 to 23 1/2 range. One trader noted this was the first time in the last six months that he had seen WorldCom's bank debt change hands, whereas the bonds have been a lot more active. Salomon officials declined comment. This latest move follows WorldCom's release of promising numbers in its monthly operating report, including EBITDA of $416 million. At the end of September, the company also stated that cash on hand totaled $1.4 billion, up $200 million for the month.

One sell-side analyst says investors should buy the bonds of Texas Petrochemical, while another is holding out to see whether the company succeeds in renegotiating its bank agreement.

Recent gains in the bonds of Tesoro Petroleum have a sell-side analyst advising investors to take gains in the event of a short-term run up in the bonds, while another has a hold on the name. A New York-based buy-side analyst plans to steer clear of the entire refining sector, but says if he owned Tesoro's bonds he would sell them.