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Levels for Xerox's bank debt fell off significantly last week following the disclosure that the company would have to restate its revenues beyond the originally announced restatement. "Everyone knew that there was going to be some kind of an adjustment, but not to this degree," said one dealer.

G&K Services has selected Wachovia Bank and BANK ONE from a group of four of its 22 existing lenders to lead its new $325 million credit facility. "[Wachovia and BANK ONE] presented good market intelligence and creative ideas to meet the credit needs," said Glenn Stolt, treasurer. "They also have maintained good ongoing working relationships with the company," he added, explaining why the two banks were chosen. Wachovia and BANK ONE serve as syndication agent and administration agent, respectively.

BNP Paribas edged out existing lead Deutsche Bank and other relationship lenders on a $180 million refinancing for Oriental Trading by pitching the simplest structure and most attractive bid to the sponsor, Brentwood Associates. After deciding to do a refinancing earlier this year, Brentwood went out to key relationship banks and asked for responses to different structures, said Anthony Choe of Brentwood, who is also a director of Oriental Trading. "BNP was flexible in its approach to different considerations," he added, noting that the most appropriate was a plain-vanilla structure.

Buysiders are looking for the $300 million "B" term loan for Berry Plastics to be upsized in the wake of a bond market that has been looking a great deal sketchier for single-B issuers over the last few weeks. One investor said Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan could look to downsize the planned $275 million bond offering and upsize the "B" loan, especially since syndication of the "B" was five times oversubscribed. The 10-year note offering, which is rated B3/B, has been announced, but the date for pricing could not be ascertained. Officials at Goldman could not be reached by press time on a holiday-shortened week.

Tyco International's February 2003 bank debt rallied early last week, climbing from the 87-89 range to 91 1/293 1/2 after the company was able to complete its initial public offering of the CIT Group. The market buzzed about a $30 million trade of Tyco's bank debt, but many dealers were skeptical whether the trade took place. By last Wednesday, levels for the paper had dipped back to 89-91.

Macquarie Bank's planned equity raising of A$500m, related to the float of broadcast transmission tower assets formerly owned by NTL Australia, was yesterday (Thursday) cut to A$310m. But the Macquarie Commun-ications Infrastructure Group IPO will proceed on the original timing with a target listing date in mid-August.

Besides its Euromarket mortgage securitisation launched this week, Australian Mortgage Securities Ltd priced a second deal in the domestic market, parcelling the net revenue it earns from all the mortgages it finances. The A$95m deal, AMS's first net interest margin securitisation, was priced on target at 90bp over the one month bank bills swap rate, with a rating of A+ from Standard & Poor's (S&P).

Australian Gas Light on Monday announced the purchase of Pulse Energy for A$880m and promptly sold A$380m of stock via UBS Warburg in an accelerated institutional bookbuild. The deal raised AGL's prominence as Australia's largest energy retailer and is the latest in a long run of acquisition-inspired equity sales from Australia.

SK Corp, South Korea's biggest oil refiner, has begun premarketing the sale of a stake of roughly $1.45bn in SK Telecom in a deal combining ADRs and exchangeable bonds. First expected last year, the transaction was delayed in January and has reemerged despite the Korean market having fallen more than 20% from recent highs.

Telstra Corp is launching an inaugural sterling issue to access liquidity beyond 10 years. The telecommunications company, which has already accessed the US dollar and Australian dollar bond markets this year, is also planning a Uridashi issue to raise its profile with Japanese investors. Telstra aims to access the sterling market for a £250m-£300m issue with a maturity of 10-12 years in late July. Barclays Capital and Credit Suisse First Boston are joint lead managers for the transaction, which will be marketed on a European roadshow around July 15-17 and is expected to be priced the day afterwards.

Investors eager for prime mortgage backed paper this week consumed the first of three internationally targeted deals from Australian issuers. Demand remains strong for the next two deals. Australian Mortgage Securities Ltd (AMS), the mortgage financing vehicle jointly owned by ABN Amro and mortgage originator Wizard Mortgage Corp, launched a single tranche of Eurobonds rated triple-A by all three agencies and worth $731m.

The IPO of CapitaMall Trust, the property trust repositioned by CapitaLand, appears to be drawing a positive response, according to bankers in Singapore. Lead manager, underwriter and bookrunner DBS Bank launched the float on Monday and is selling 213m units in a bookbuild that is due to close on July 11.