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Conservative investors, plentiful new issuance and the summer doldrums combined to slow par trading activity to a crawl last week. The only signs of life came early last week when small pieces of Nextel Communications and Adelphia Communications' Century Cable paper traded in the Street, traders noted.

The roughly $31 billion Oregon Public Employees' Retirement System, in an effort to build upon its investment in distressed debt, has awarded a $75 million mandate to Oaktree Capital Management. Jay Fewel, senior equities investment officer, said Oregon chose to invest with Oaktree because the pension plan has a long-standing relationship with the firm that stretches back to the early 1990s. The mandate, which was awarded early last month, will be invested through Oaktree's $1 billion OCM Opportunities Fund IV-B, he noted. Officials at Oaktree declined to comment.

Wayne Lyski will step down from his position as chairman and cio of fixed-income at Alliance Capital at the end of the year. As reported last week on Bondweek.com he will stay on as a special advisor to Bruce Calvert, ceo, until Jan. 31, 2004. "Part of the interest for me is in product creation and development. That will always be a feature of this business, but the pace of it has slowed and will continue slow because the business is more mature," says Lyski, explaining the the reason for his decision. He will be 61 when he retires. His duties will be taken over by the heads of the various business units, though the position of chairman and cio may eventually be re-established, he says. Kathleen Corbet, ceo of fixed-income, will become more active on the investment side of the business.

Goldman Sachs last week had gained $200 million in commitments for Verizon Wireless of the East's $350 million "B" loan, as investors weigh the rich spread against the addition of further telecom exposure. "Most investors are full of telecom or are hurting from losses," a banker familiar with the deal said. "This might be telecom, but it is also single-A paper and is highly attractive to CLOs."

Incapital LLC, a boutique investment bank that underwrites and distributes fixed-income products to individual investors, is assembling a syndication team in London, say officials familiar with the plans. The firm is in the market to hire a syndication head as well as several syndication bankers to build its London team. Brian Walker, managing director at Incapital in Chicago, referred calls to Tom Ricketts, ceo, who did not comment by press time.

Compass Minerals, an Overland Park, Kan., producer and marketer of salt and specialty potash, paid off $20 million of its $150 million "B" loan in June and is planning another $10 million payment this month. "At the financing roadshows, the stated goal was to pay down debt," saidRodney Underdown, cfo. In the first quarter of this year, Compass paid down almost $40 million off its $135 million revolver, he noted.

Levels for Crown Cork & Seal's bank debt were down early last week on news that the company had pulled its spin-off of Constar International, but the paper recovered somewhat on rumors that a refinancing is in the works. Some $10 million of Crown Cork paper traded in the high 80s on the news, and dealers claimed that a lot more than that traded hands.

Deutsche Bank has hired a new securitization generalist for its London-based European securitization research team. Carole Bernard joins from J.P. Morgan Securities where she had been a securitization structurer for two plus years, says Ganesh Rajendra, head of European securitization research and to whom Bernard will report. Bernard was brought on to respond to the growth of Deutsche Bank's European securitization business. The firm is currently ranked first in the European securitization league tables. A J.P. Morgan spokesman did not comment by press time.

Laura Marcano, the recently departed assistant counsel of The Bond Market Association, says that she left the group to pursue her long-time interest in public interest work. Marcano, who resigned last month (BW, 7/22), says she is seeking to apply her legal skills in one of several fields, including community environmental initiatives, economic development and education. She says education is particularly of interest, because she spent several years prior to law school as a teacher.

Jay Weintraub will retire at the end of the month from Merrill Lynch, where he is a managing director and U.S. bank analyst. Weintraub, 54, was formerly the co-head of investment grade research, but was relieved of his managerial responsibilities during a recent reshuffling of the credit research group (BW, 1/13). He has spent 11 years at Merrill. Previously he spent eight years at Salomon Smith Barney. "Coming up on 20 years is a long time on the sell-side. I felt like I wanted to do something else. What it will be I don't know yet," he says.

GenTek saw downward movement in its bank debt levels last week based on news that its senior lenders have decided to block the company from making the Aug. 1 interest payment on its subordinated notes. Gentek's paper began sinking in response and, at last check, had fallen into the mid-60s, traders said. The paper had an average bid of 71 the previous week.

Last week was mildly positive for high-yield through Thursday. Bigger liquid names saw a bit of a bounce, and a pair of new issues with hefty coupons came to market. Here was some notable action.