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Citibank and J.P. Morgan's $1 billion credit facility for Burger King is garnering interest among buysiders as the mid-September launch date approaches. Some investors cited the experience of the Texas Pacific Group, Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, which are purchasing the fast-food behemoth from Diageo for $2.26 billion. "Diageo has been bleeding [Burger King] for cash and is now spinning it out to a massively enthusiastic sponsor group," one banker said. "It will come out of the blocks doing well."

Lyondell Chemical has completed a mix of new financings in an effort to maintain the right balance between the bank loan and fixed-income markets, explained Karen Twitchell, treasurer. To accomplish this, the Houston-based company has reduced the size of its revolver from $500 million to $350 million and paid down $200 million of its $621 million "E" term loan. In exchange, it issued $278 million in 10-year notes and $115.92 million in common stock.

Two big blocks of bank debt traded during the slow week leading up to Labor Day weekend. Last Tuesday, a $13.5 million piece of Hayes Lemmerz International's pro-rata paper was auctioned off. One dealer quoted the trade in the 86 3/4-87 context, while another said it went off north of 87. No further details could be ascertained by press time.

Standard & Poor's has issued a survey to 700 corporate pension plans asking how they invest their pension balances and to quantify their unfunded liabilities, according to BW sister publication Money Management Letter. The survey is part of a broader move by the ratings agency to factor in more heavily the unfunded liabilities of corporate pension plans when rating companies' debt, says Scott Sprinzen, managing director of corporate and government ratings.

Fitch Ratings has placed Staples' on watch with negative implications after the number two office supply retailer in the U.S. announced plans to acquire the top European supplier, Guilbert. The move reflects the potential for increased financial leverage, the risks connected with Staples' increased exposure to the European markets and the company's aggressive acquisition mode. The watch covers Staples' $600 million bank facility and its $200 million in senior notes, both of which are rated BBB+.

State Street Global Advisors is developing a high-yield index fund--the second such fund ever. Bruce Walbridge, high-yield portfolio manager at the Boston-based firm, says the idea for the fund was hatched in the spring. Since then, however, high-yield has been hit hard by market-wide concerns about corporate creditworthiness. As of August 23, high-yield mutual funds had seen 11 consecutive weeks of outflows, according to AMG Data Services. With many credits trading at spreads of 1,000 basis points over Treasuries and yields averaging 14%, Walbridge said investors are more open to the possibility of such a fund than they were in the spring, when spreads were at roughly 700 over. Walbridge says State Street is working with Lehman Brothers to develop a customized index on which to benchmark the fund. He says the index will be publicly released.

TD Securities and Citibank are preparing an approximately $425 million bank deal for Bresnan Communications, backing its acquisition of cable television systems in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado from AT&T Broadband. The purchase was announced in April and was to be for $735 million in cash, but disputes over the value of the cable properties have held up the sale, a banker said. A spokeswoman for Bresnan declined to comment.

Euro Zing I, a E260 million collateralized debt obligation using a dual currency asset and liability structure, was launched last week by the Dublin-based ZAIS Group. The deal, which is backed by sterling- and euro-denominated CDOs and various asset-backed securities, is thought to be the first to use a dual currency structure. Mirja Wenski, portfolio manager at ZAIS, says the firm used the dual currency structure to gain access to the sterling assets, which represent 35-40% of the European ABS market.

URS has shuffled funds from a bond issue to the bank portion of a financing package backing its $500 million acquisition of EG&G Technical Services. "The bond market was tough, and bank debt is much cheaper," said Kent Ainsworth, cfo. "URS had the opportunity to put $25 million from the bonds onto the senior secured, replacing 12% notes with 6% bank debt." The "A" term loan was increased from $100 million to $125 million, while the bond issue was decreased from $250 million to $225 million. The bonds eventually ended up at $200 million, as $25 million generated from cash flow enabled a further reduction, he noted. In addition to the "A" term loan, the bank debt includes a $200 million revolver, which is undrawn, and a $350 million "B" piece.

TD Securities and Bank of Nova Scotia are launching a $400 million bank deal for Temple Inland in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 10. The purpose of the financing is to take out the existing 364-day facilities and increase the line of credit, a banker said. The new facility is equally split between a three-year and a five-year revolver, both priced at LIBOR plus 11/ 2%, he noted, adding that there is a facility fee of 50 basis points on the unused portion. Participation fees have not been announced yet.

Barclays Capital is establishing an emerging markets desk in London, according to a senior official familiar with the plans. The new desk will be under the jurisdiction of Diego Gradowczyk, managing director and head of Barclays' New York-based emerging markets desk. Gradowczyk says it is too early to comment on the new London desk and declined to say how many or what kind of emerging markets fixed-income professionals he is seeking to hire.

Karen Kluvin has joined Bear Stearns'commercial mortgage-backed securities trading desk. Tim Koltermann, managing director in charge of subordinated CMBS trading and the person to whom Kluvin will report, says she will assist him in CMBS trading activities and to some extent, conduct some CMBS research. But, the bulk of her job will be managing the bank's repo book, he says. This function requires managing the risk associated with the position the bank takes when it lends a portfolio of CMBS bonds to its clients through the repo market.