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Bonds were "trying to edge higher" last week, according to the head of one high-yield desk. Charter Communications continued to move north on news that Paul Allen's long-rumored debt repurchase had taken the form of a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. American Tower's bonds rose five points after a positive earnings call, but at least one telecom analyst believes the move was unwarranted. Here was other action.

Hillenbrand Industries has tapped Banc of America Securities and Salomon Smith Barney as joint lead arrangers for its debut $500 million credit facility in preparation for acquisitions in the health care space. The Batesville, Ind., company, which operates in both the funeral and health care sectors, has indicated to the market it is hungry for acquisitions and has put in place the facilities so it can move quickly on potential targets, explained Mark Lanning, v.p. and treasurer. Hillenbrand is looking for acquisitions to increase revenue growth a further $100 million to $150 million, said Lanning. The targets will be in health care, where there are opportunities, rather than the funeral business, he added.

A $250 million "B" term loan for Hollinger International Publishing has come up against investors unprepared to accept skinny pricing and in a position to do something about it. TD Securities, Barclays Capital and Wachovia Bank flexed pricing upwards 50 basis points to LIBOR plus 31/ 2%, a clear indication that the supply-demand imbalance that has favored issuers for most of this year has swung the other way. "Banks have been very aggressive, and this should at least have come out at LIBOR plus 31/ 4%," said one investor, relieved that spreads are finally widening. Bankers at Wachovia declined to comment, and officials at Barclays and TD did not return calls.

John Griff, president and ceo of HSBC Securities USA, and Ferdie Masucci, head of capital markets, trading and research at the firm, have been let go, as reported on BondWeek.com last Thursday. Masucci declined to comment when reached at his home. Griff did not return calls placed to his home. Their dismissal follows the departure of some 12 senior salespeople, the majority of the debt capital markets group, at least two senior analysts and a senior trader (BW, 5/6, 6/9, 6/12, 7/28).

Crédit Agricole Indosuez is negotiating with investors in one of its collateralized loan obligations to ensure management of the vehicle stays with the French bank and is not transferred to competitor RBC Leveraged Capital. The CLO at issue is Indosuez Capital Funding VI, which contains a trigger that allows investors to switch the manager if key management leaves. But Crédit Agricole is disputing the grounds for the proposed switch and asserts that the vehicle has been reaffirmed and approved.

Greg Dube has left his position as head of global high-yield at Alliance Capital. The move was "by mutual agreement," says John Meyers, Alliance spokesman, who declined further comment. Dube took over the firm's estimated $10-11 billion in junk assets in Jan. 2001. He declined to comment. It was not known who would replace him at press time last Friday morning. The largest high-yield fund for which performance statistics were available on Morningstar.com, the $254 million Alliance High-Yield B, has lost 12.18% year-to-date, five percentage points worse than comparable funds in its category. The move comes amid other high level shifts at Alliance. Wayne Lyski, cio of fixed-income, will step down at year-end (BW, 8/5).

Pricing on the triple-A notes for American Express Asset Management Group's latest collateralized loan obligation came in slightly higher than market levels due, in part, to comments made by Chairman Kenneth Chenault last year. Following a $370 million loss on the American Express CDO portfolio, Chenault made headlines by saying the group "did not fully comprehend the risk underlying these structured investments during a period of persistently high default rates." Even though the losses were primarily in bond vehicles managed by the team in Minneapolis, not with the CLO deals managed by Lynn Hopton and Yvonne Stevens, analysts believe the comments made a difference. Repeated calls to the two managers and the AmEx press office were not returned.

Though an independent fixed-income analyst believes Tyco International's bonds are likely to appreciate, a high-grade portfolio manager says he is still a long way away from wading back into the credit. Terry Dwyer, analyst at KDP Investment Advisors, believes that the charges outlined in last Wednesday's Wall Street Journal against former ceo Dennis Kozlowski are not enough on their own to prevent the credit from recovering. "The allegations are strong, there's no denying that, but Tyco is a big giant to knock off its feet. It's bigger than any one man can do. So far I have not seen any evidence that the probe relates to anyone other than former executives," he says.

A top-ranked sell-side analyst is even more convinced that investors should sell Revlon's bonds after the company's recent earnings call, but an independent analyst argues that the bonds are undervalued. "The main thing I saw [after looking at the latest earnings report] is significant cash burn," says George Chalhoub, analyst at Deutsche Bank, and a first-teamer on the Institutional Investor 2001 All-America Fixed-Income Research Team. Though Chalhoub believes Revlon's new management team is capable, he doubts that Jack Stahl, the new ceo, has enough time and cash to turn the company around. He argues that without a cash infusion into the company, Revlon could run out of money as soon as the first quarter of next year. "These guys are producing products left and right but the top line is still anemic," he says.

Banc One Capital Markets is looking for a mortgage-backed securities strategist for its structured debt research team. Alex Roever, managing director and head of the Chicago-based research group overseeing asset-backed finance, MBS and collateralized debt obligations, says he is seeking a seasoned agency and MBS strategist, at the v.p. level. He declined to comment on why they are looking to hire at this point in time. The strategist would report to Roever. He says the position is a newly created one and is expecting to fill the new slot within a month or two.

Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch have landed the lead roles on an $800 million bank debt financing backing Penn National Gaming's acquisition of Hollywood Casino. The choice of Merrill and Bear is seen as a major coup for the banks as they edged out Lehman Brothers, which acted as the adviser to Penn. "Merrill and Bear laid a better mousetrap than Lehman," one banker said, noting that the duo has prior investment banking relationships with Penn. Bankers at all three firms declined to comment.

Market players were disappointed by the low reported bid from Hutchison Whampoa and Singapore Technologies Telemedia and a competing offer from BANK ONE's private equity group for Global Crossing this week. "On Global, it's a lot of pain to take," said one dealer. The bank debt is unchanged in the 15-17 context, and traders noted that there have not been any trades since the news came out.