Search results for

On Tuesday afternoon, the Agence France Trésor (AFT) announced that it had suspended its debt maturity reduction strategy in the swaps market. In a press release the AFT said "The general conditions of the euro fixed income markets (notably the outright level and the volatility) experienced since the beginning of the summer do not enable the Agence France Trésor to satisfactorily implement its average maturity reduction strategy through the swaps programme." The agency stressed that the suspension was temporary. The AFT has aimed to reduce the average maturity of its liabilities by receiving fixed rate at the long end of the euro swap market and paying at the short end. By receiving at the long end of the market, the AFT covers the interest payments it owes on long-term debt issuance and replaces those liabilities with shorter-term - and lower payments. The programme was announced last October, and since then it has become the biggest customer of the euro swaps market. It has received an estimated Eu60bn of notional principal in the last 11 months.

Rating: A2/A- Amount: $500m

Mandated arranger Standard Chartered has signed banks into the $350m credit for Sociedade National de Combustiveis de Angola (Sonangol). Two more banks will join the deal during the next rollover date on September 27.

Amount: A$750m Legal maturity: October 7, 2033

Wall Street’s biggest firms are advising issuing clients not to come to market or schedule any investor meetings next Wednesday. They expect that market participants will be hard pressed to focus on anything but their thoughts of the first anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks last year.

Wall Street’s biggest firms are advising issuing clients not to come to market or schedule any investor meetings next Wednesday. They expect that market participants will be hard pressed to focus on anything but their thoughts of the first anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks last year.

Ericsson announces the result of its Skr30bn ($3.3bn) rights issue today (Friday), with bankers predicting a positive outcome for the Swedish telecommunications company. The share price closed at Skr6.15 yesterday (Thursday), well above the subscription price of Skr3.80.

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA Amount: Sfr200m

Rating: BBB/BBB (S&P/Fitch) Amount: $40m