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ABN Amro has hired a commercial mortgage-backed securities trader to be based in New York, according to a firm insider. Stephen Adang, who joins from Amherst Securities, will be responsible for trading U.S. CMBS and some European paper. Adang, who held a similar position at Amherst, will report to John Mullen, global head of securitization at ABN in London. The hire is part of ABN's push to increase its CMBS business (BW, 4/3). An ABN Amro spokesman did not respond to inquiries by press time last Thursday.

A E5 billion asset-backed deal that temporarily allowed ABN AMRO to leapfrog over J.P. Morgan Securities and Morgan Stanley into the number three spot on the European securitization league tables has been disallowed. That the deal, Quicksilver, had been included in the league table in the first place has some London securitization bankers piqued. They claim none of the notes have appeared in the market and were not sold outside of ABN or its affiliates, one of the league table's criterion. A spokesman for Thomson Financial, the league table's compiler, declined to comment.

Agricore United has refinanced its existing bank debt with a C$500 million (US$319 million) secured credit facility and has added a separate US$70 million secured facility through John Hancock Life Insurance. The John Hancock facility provided the Winnipeg, Canada, supplier of crop nutrition and protection products with additional term debt to reconcile its out-of-sync asset-to-loan levels, said David Carefoot, managing director of corporate finance. Agricore also needed the additional 13-year loan because the larger facility does not provide enough capacity to refinance the company's mix of long- and short-term debt, he explained.

Two American Electric Power (AEP) subsidiaries delayed the launch of a $350m equivalent Australian dollar bond issue this week. The transaction, which was to have been launched by SG Australia's ACE Funding vehicle, was to be backed by dollar bonds from Appalachian Power and Kentucky Power.

The Standard Chartered share placement draws to a close today (Friday), with listing in Hong Kong set for next Thursday. Hong Kong bankers this week said there was only moderate interest in the offer, which could raise up to $400m in an offer of up to a maximum 5% of Standard Chartered's enlarged share capital, depending on demand. However, they said there was sufficient investor appetite for the deal to proceed. Cazenove and Goldman Sachs are arranging the share sale. ABN Amro Bank, BNP Paribas, BOCI International, Merrill Lynch and UBS Warburg are also involved.

Deutsche Bank this week launched what it described as Malaysia's first true sale CMBS for property developer Sunway City Bhd (SunCity). ABS Real Estate Bhd issued M$450m of senior bonds in the sale and leaseback transaction. Amanah Short Deposits were joint lead managers. "It went well," said Kuah Hun Liang, managing director and head of global markets for Malaysia at bookrunner Deutsche Bank in Kuala Lumpur. "There was more interest in the triple-A and double-A tranches, but they were all oversubscribed."

Continued instability in the international bond markets will probably force the pricing sensitive Kingdom of Thailand to delay its $800m-$1bn 10 year benchmark deal for a second time. Bankers said the sovereign wants to maximise its appeal to investors and is wary of launching its first dollar deal for five years while the secondary market continues to be volatile and investors overcautious.

Lead manager Merrill Lynch this week set out to pre-market the $250m-$350m China Oilfield Services Hong Kong IPO. The company is a sibling of the Chinese oil giant CNOOC, which listed last year at HK$6 per share.

Hong Kong Standard & Poor's reduced the outlook on Hong Kong's local currency AA- rating to negative from stable this week. The agency also revised the outlook on the AA- local currency rating of Hong Kong Mortgage Corp, HSBC, Airport Authority of Hong Kong and Kowloon Canton Railway Corp and Mass Transit Railway Corp's to negative, and dropped the outlook on HKAA, KCRC and MTRC's foreign currency A- ratings to negative.

Insurance Australia Group (IAG), Australia's largest general insurer, last week completed an institutional placement of A$500m as part of a planned A$1.04bn capital raising linked to the purchase of Australian businesses valued at A$1.86bn from the UK's Aviva. Last Friday (October 18) IAG said it was buying Aviva's general insurance units in Australia and New Zealand for A$1.86bn ($1.02bn) as part of a plan to double premium income in the next five years.

In its bid to create a new type of subordinated debt transaction, Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) is poised to mandate either Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley to lead manage what could be Korea's first international hybrid tier one subordinated issue. KEB issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the potential $200m transaction three weeks ago and it has since narrowed the choice down to the two US investment banks.

Continued instability in the international bond markets will probably force the pricing sensitive Kingdom of Thailand to delay its $800m-$1bn 10 year benchmark deal for a second time. Bankers said the sovereign wants to maximise its appeal to investors and is wary of launching its first dollar deal for five years while the secondary market continues to be volatile and investors overcautious.