Search results for

TD Securities and Credit Suisse First Boston launched a $400 million credit facility for Tucson Electric Power, a subsidiary of Unisource Energy, last Friday. The credit consists of a six-year, $200 million "B" term loan and a five-year, $200 million pro-rata piece split into a $60 million revolver and a $140 million "A" term loan. Pricing on the institutional piece is set at LIBOR plus 31/ 2%, but the spread on the pro-rata portion was not set as LMW went to press. One banker said the spread is likely to be LIBOR plus 3% with a facility fee of 50 basis points. Bankers at CSFB and TD did not return calls by press time.

The Committee on Uniform Security Identification Procedures (CUSIP) system was addressed in detail at the conference, with the pilot launch of CUSIPs assigned to new bank deals scheduled to commence in the coming weeks. Eight agent banks will begin assigning the unique nine alpha-numeric characters to their bank deals in order to identify the overall credit agreement and the tranches comprising each agreement.

Merrill Lynch's move last week to cut three veterans from its loan group has many players questioning the investment bank's commitment to the loan market. "There is no more loan business there; it's as simple as that," one rival banker said of the investment bank's decision to let go of Harold Siegel, Amy Miller andNeil Brisson. "These people are good, and it makes no sense to cut them and not everybody." Other rivals, however, see the move as a vital cost-cutting measure and believe Merrill is in it for the long run, albeit with a slimmed-down crew during the currently lean M&A period. A Merrill spokesman confirmed that Wednesday was the last day for Siegel, Miller and Brisson (LMW Web site, 10/23). He would not comment on Merrill's commitment to the syndicated loan market.

cStatic pools remain the domain of the credit derivatives desk headed by Boaz Weinstein. Zeitlin's new group creates a CDO platform that centralizes all managed deals, whether synthetic or cash flow, for all asset classes. As of last Thursday, staffers were still awaiting an internal memo on the matter. Ted Meyer, a spokesman at Deutsche Bank, referred calls to Zeitlin who did respond.

Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse First Boston will launch the bank meeting for Rexnord Holdings this Thursday. The $435 million bank deal backs The Carlyle Group's acquisition of Rexnord from Invensys for $913 million. The bank debt is split between a six-year, $75 million revolver and a seven-year, $360 million term loan, a banker said. Pricing has not yet been set on the deal, and officials at the banks did not return calls.

Last week, the Loan Syndications and Trading Associationheld its seventh annual conference at the Hilton New York Hotel. Highlights included discussions on the link between default and recovery rates, distressed settlement and the risk associated with private information. The staff of LMW was on hand and filed the following stories.

Andrew Weber has joined Deutsche Bank's collateralized debt obligation structuring group from J.P. Morgan Securities. He will report to Anand Parekh, who heads the group out of New York. Weber was unavailable for comment. Ted Meyer, a spokesman at Deutsche Bank, declined to elaborate.

A group of AT&T bondholders is up in arms over the terms of an $11.76 billion debt exchange set to close this Friday. Some investors are complaining that they're being short-changed, but most investors are resigned to go along with the deal anyway, say buy- and sell-side officials. A banker close to AT&T says the company will not negotiate the terms of the deal. He advises bondholders to accept the offer on the table, arguing that the bonds currently trade at a higher price than if there was no exchange.

Ball Corp. last week postponed the bank meeting for a $1.6 billion financing package backing its $880 million acquisition of Schmalbach-Lubeca, and instead will try to get the deal rolling this Wednesday. Raymond Seabrook, cfo, said the company has been juggling structures on the new deal and shuttling back and forth from meeting with Schmalbach management in Germany.

The $30 million piece of Conseco's bank debt that had been shopped two weeks ago finally traded around the 57 level last Tuesday as the company announced that it would put its finance division up for sale. The buyer and seller of the large piece could not be determined.

Banc of America Securities has hired Brian Edmonds to head up its Treasury trading desk. Edmonds, who will also be responsible for trading the benchmark 10-year sector and will be based in New York, says he will have about 10 Treasury traders reporting to him. He reports to government securities boss Kurt Harrison. Prior to joining B of A, he had been a co-head of Treasury trading at Credit Suisse First Boston, where he ran the desk for several years with Pat Haskell. Before CSFB, he worked at Lehman Brothers with Harrison. He left CSFB about six months ago, according to CSFB spokesman John Gallagher.

Private-equity firms TA Associates and Friedman, Fleischer & Lowe have tapped GE Capital for a $170 million credit facility to back their $350 million acquisition of Tempur World, a maker of foam mattresses and pillows. The purchase occurs against the backdrop of a busy leveraged buyout scene, as well as a tough high-yield financing market, according to Andy McLane, a senior managing director at TA Associates. "Most of our larger buyouts are structured with equity, sub debt and senior debt," McLane said. "But [the high-yield] market is not open right now," he added, explaining why the bank loan market primarily was tapped to fund the acquisition.