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Octagon Credit Investors, the leveraged loan and high-yield manager subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Partners, is ramping up assets for a new $300 million collateralized loan obligation called Octagon V. Octagon waited until the end of the year before attempting to price. "The credit environment became more compelling," said an official familiar with the deal. The vehicle is structured to have up to 90% loans and 10% bonds and is approximately two-thirds done, he said. J.P. Morgan priced the notes. Officials at Octagon and a spokesman for J.P. Morgan could not be reached by press time.

It calls itself the American Dream business. Fannie Mae is the largest source of financing for home mortgages in the US, and since its creation as a government agency in 1938 has helped finance the homes of millions of Americans; today 19 million American families live in homes financed in part by the company. Last year it purchased or guaranteed US$615 billion of home mortgages; it has US$838 billion in assets and guarantees, another US$990 million in mortgage-backed securities, and is arguably the largest issuer of debt worldwide after the US Treasury. So a behemoth like this shouldn't care about Asia, should it? Well, apparently it does. At the end of October a team including its chairman and CEO, Franklin Raines, and treasurer Linda Knight, chose Hong Kong as the venue to announce Fannie Mae's benchmark calendar for 2003. Fannie Mae's Benchmark Securities – we wouldn't normally capitalize it, but they've taken out a trademark on the name so it seems to warrant a certain gravitas – offers large issues of callable and non-callable debt offerings designed to give investors strong and predictable liquidity, regularity and credit quality. New issue maturities between two and 10 years have a minimum size of US$4 billion, often followed by reopenings. In 2001, Fannie Mae issued US$84.75 billion of non-callable benchmark notes and bonds. The reason Raines picked Hong Kong, amid a frantic four-day investor relations tour that also took in Singapore, Beijing and Tokyo, is to acknowledge the role Asian investors play in these securities. (This was the company's 18th annual visit to the region, a trip that would hit up to 200 potential buyers.) Asian investors account for 14% of investors in benchmark notes and bonds.

Debt avalanche for Korea

After seven years of protracted negotiations, the terms of the Phu My 2.2 gas project in Vietnam are complete. The deal, which set political, financial and legal precedents, was tough going for all concerned. Fiona Haddock reports.

Analysts and investors gripe about New World Development, seeing it as untransparent, debt-laden and confusing. A recent restructuring of the group, apparently accompanied by a new spirit of openness, addresses some, but not all, of these concerns. How far does it go? By Chris Wright.

Risk – financial and physical – has shot into the consciousness of companies around the globe. Fiona Haddock gauges the response of some of Asia's top corporates, from India's Infosys to China's CNOOC, to a whole new portfolio of unknowns.

At Asiamoney's inaugural equity forum held at Hong Kong's Ritz Carlton Hotel in October, we brought together six representatives covering diverse sectors of the industry to discuss the issues of the day.

It started out in tin. Then, after years of dormancy, it became the vehicle for one of Malaysia's most powerful gaming companies – in a country 60% populated by Muslims. Then it moved into power. And the rumour in Malaysia is that it will enter financial services next. Meet Tanjong. The man in charge of this increasingly diverse but fascinating company is CEO Tan Poh Ching. His background mirrors the cosmopolitan nature of the company: not in gaming or power (or finance), but with oil company Shell, for whom he worked for 18 years following a mechanical engineering degree acquired at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland. He joined Pan Malaysian Pools, a company subsequently bought by Tanjong, as COO, then CEO, before stepping up to the top job at Tanjong itself.

When Samuel DiPiazza took over as CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers on January 1 he could have had little idea what he was letting himself in for. Eleven months on, with his entire industry under exceptional scrutiny, he is dead-pan: “I'm anxious to get through December,” he confides. It says a lot about the volatility of DiPiazza's first year, for example, that we can no longer speak of a ‘big five'. But the CEO remains vocal; outspoken even. He has recently co-authored a book that sets out to change the nature of corporate reporting. And when drawn onto broader questions about the behaviour of his profession, he is candid, calling the US arrogant and insensitive, the fall of Arthur Andersen an uncalled for tragedy, and the behaviour of SEC lawyers unhelpful.

The allure of the renminbi

David Li leads a busy and conspicuous life. The Bank of East Asia CEO, member of the Hong Kong legislature and regular tabloid target, faces pressure not only from an intrusive press but from an economic environment that is pushing his, and other smaller banks in Hong Kong, to merge or be bought. But he has placed himself at the forefront of a debate he believes will be good not just for his bank but all of Hong Kong: the SAR's role as an offshore renminbi centre. Can he keep his bank independent? By Pauline Loong.

It's carnage out there