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The primary market was more active this week across the full credit quality spectrum with $5.8 billion in investment-grade issuance and $1.5 billion in high-yield deals priced and hitting the marketplace. High-yield volumes received a boost from a deal done this week for Wynn Resorts as part of the financing arrangements for the planned La Reve Casino in Las Vegas. Also issuing was Dex Media East, the proceeds of which are going towards the purchase of the Eastern Directories (yellow pages) business divested earlier this year by Qwest. The triple-B sector also saw a range of deals and there was a notable pick-up in 30-year volume with close to $1.5 billion of long-end deals being launched during the week. Volatility in the Treasury market and the rise in 30-year yields above 5% may have encouraged issuers to lock-in levels while rates where still comparatively low and a dearth of recent 30-year corporate issuance had allowed for some degree of pent-up demand.

Credit Suisse First Boston is said to be endeavouring to sell off all of the collateralized debt obligation positions held by its London trading desk, say London-based CDO bankers and traders. These officials say CSFB is widely rumored to have large positions, especially in high-yield CDOs. "They had been taking on a lot more risk internally and now some people aren't too happy," says one rival banker. "In Europe, CSFB has been focused on the high-yield business, and now the business as a whole has shifted toward synthetics," he adds. Bob Walsh, a CDO official at CSFB in London, could not be reached for comment.

Deutsche Bank has been tapped to lead a $265 million credit line for Grant Prideco backing the $345 million acquisition of Reed-Hycalog from oil field service-company, Schlumberger. Deutsche Bank is fully underwriting the line, stated Louis Raspino, v.p. and cfo of Grant Prideco. He added that the company is planning a public or private bond offering of about $150 million to fund the deal. If a bond offering does not occur, there is a committed provision for a supplemental bridge loan, he explained. The credit will be an asset-based deal, a banker added.

Fernando Guerrero, the new head of collateralized debt obligations at ABN AMRO, says he wants to add four to eight CDO staffers distributed between the New York and London offices during the first half of next year. Guerrero recently joined from TD Securities, an active CDO underwriter, where he was head of the structured products group for three years.

ABN AMRO's Dutch retail banking arm launched its Match residential mortgage-backed securitization, the first in what will be a series of fixed-rate pass-through RMBS deals and could mark the rebirth of this type of structure in Europe, which hasn't seen this sort of structure in three years. The deal was priced last week, and the triple-A rated $324.5 million fixed-rate tranche came in at 60 basis points over mid-swaps. A fixed-rate pass-through deal had not been executed in Europe since 1999, but market sources say ABN plans to continue issuing these deals, which analysts and bankers say is a step forward for the European market.

Bell Actimedia, the Canadian print directory publisher, is a highly dependable business with a marquee name and a dominant market share, but leverage is high and there is low coverage of interest expense relative to the rating category, according to John Page, senior analyst with Moody's Investors Service. The debt package is being put together for the C$3 billion leveraged buyout of Actimedia from Bell Canada by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and the Teacher's Merchant Bank--the private equity arm of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. The C$1.64 billion in credit facilities has been rated Ba3 and a C$600 million senior subordinated loan has been rated B3.

Agricultural co-operative Agway has received approval from the bankruptcy court for a $125 million debtor-in-possession facility after filing for Chapter 11 on Oct. 1. The DIP facility is part of Agway's plan to keep the company's operations running effectively, confirmed Karen Ohliger, treasurer. She noted that pre-petition lender GE Commercial Finance leads the DIP line with three other lending banks, Rabobank, CoBank and GMAC Commercial Credit.

Ambac Assurance Corp. has added David Salz as a v.p. in its collateralized debt obligation structuring group, says Michael Schoezer, managing director and head of structured finance and credit derivatives. He joins from ABN AMRO, where he was a transactor in the structured capital markets division, reporting to Tom Aylward. He started three weeks ago. At Ambac, Salz will be a transactor for CDOs and related transactions, with a special focus on cash-flow structures, says Schoezer. He will report to Scott Gordon, managing director. Patrick Phalon, a spokesperson at ABN AMRO, says Salz's position will be filled eventually.

Recent trades totaling some $300 million in vendor financing debt of Leap Wireless Cricket provide the first substantial valuation of wireless spectrum assets in close to two years, says Frank Colombo, head of research at Seaport Group, a New York distressed boutique. The debt sold at approximately 17, valuing Leap's share of the spectrum at $333.4 million--about 20% of the price fetched by similar assets at an auction by the Federal Communications Commission last January, says Colombo. Leap Wireless owns spectrum rights in several mid-sized cities.

The proposed Basel capital adequacy accord will likely close a loophole that allows structurers and investors to arbitrage rating agencies in order to get a desired rating for collateralized debt obligations. Rating agencies assign different ratings for the same obligations because their methodologies and projected default curves are different. Investors and structurers are aware of this and frequently ask Moody's Investors Service to rate the lower tranches of a deal and Standard & Poor's or Fitch Ratings to rate the higher tranches.

The Bank of New York will launch general syndication of a $165 million credit facility for Patriot Media and Communications on Thursday. The credit backs the $245 million acquisition of RCN's New Jersey cable systems business by Steve Simmons and Spectrum Equity Investors. General Electric Capital Corp., National City Bank and SG Bank have already committed $40 million as agents, according to a banker. A couple of investors said the deal could present a challenge. "A leveraged cable buyout is tough. There are other cable names trading at a significant discount in the secondary market," said one buysider.