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Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing recently announced changes to the stock exchanges listing rules. The principal changes include the broadening of the rules to cover structured products, which include derivative warrants and equity linked instruments (ELIs) and the streamlining of the rules applicable to such structured products. The new rules became effective on July 1.

Schroder Salomon Smith Barney has hired Alaister Moull, associate director and credit-default swaps trader at UBS Warburg, as v.p. in a similar role. Moull will start in mid-August and report to Iftikhar Ali, head of credit-default swaps trading at Salomon. Ali said the hire is part of Salomon's efforts to strengthen its single-name trading desk. The firm had been looking for one to two credit traders to meet demand for increasing deal flow (DW, 12/24). Ali said he would hire opportunistically--if he saw a qualified person--but has no immediate plans. Moull declined comment.

Stilwell Financial may convert its next USD250 million bond later this year, however it has decided it will probably not enter a swap to convert its most recent fixed-rate bond. Daniel Connealy, cfo in Kansas City, said it is keen to use interest-rate swaps to convert its debt to floating, but has decided that with over 50% of its exposure in floating rate it will hold off in case the rating agencies think it has too much exposure to rate hikes. The parent of mutual fund company Janus raised USD200 million of seven-year money late last month, at 7.75%.

Chelsea Building Society has entered an interest-rate swap to convert its recent fixed-rate GBP100 million (USD152 million) offering into floating-rate debt. Deborah Wiffin, treasurer, said the society typically uses interest-rate swaps to convert any fixed-rate borrowings into floating-rate because its retail portfolio consists of variable-rate mortgages. In the swap, the company is receiving 6.25%--the coupon on the fixed-rate bond--and paying a spread over LIBOR, which Wiffin would not disclose.

J.P. Morgan Fleming Asset Management is considering adding crossover names, former investment-grade credits that have been downgraded to junk, to its E125 million European high-yield bond fund. Mark Flack, London-based fund manager, says the fund has not been active in crossover names, but he is beginning to do his homework to determine which ones to buy. One reason for the move is that recently downgraded credits such as Alcatel and Tyco now comprise a sizeable portion of the Merrill Lynch European high-yield index, the fund's benchmark. Tyco is about 8% of the Merrill benchmark, and once Alcatel is assimilated it will comprise 15-16%.

Do the women of WorldCom know something the market has been trying to figure out for the last few weeks? Will the company finally file for Chapter 11? Or does accounting fraud go hand-in-hand with baring it all? Who knows, except perhaps Playboy magazine. According to Gary Cole, photography director for Playboy, as soon as the August edition with the "Women of Enron" feature hit the newsstands, the magazine started getting calls from female employees at WorldCom.

Peter Demirali, portfolio manager at New Jersey-based Cumberland Advisors, says that he will increase the firm's corporate exposure by 20%, or $40 million, once the equity market improves. He will swap out of $20 million in taxable municipal bonds and agencies. The move will be triggered when the Dow Jones Industrial Average returns to the 9000 level. He says, it should hit that level early in the fourth quarter, once the accounting environment reaches a healthier state and due to regulatory changes and cleaner earnings looking forward. He states that the economy continues to be strong and that the poor performance of the equity market is entirely attributable to accounting scandals. When the trigger is hit, Demirali expects corporate spreads to stabilize first, before beginning to tighten as the equity market further improves.

This chart, provided by Citibank/Salomon Smith Barney Inc., tracks bid-ask prices for par credit facilities that trade in the secondary market. It also tracks facility amounts, ratings, pricing and maturities.

AMR Investment Services will increase its allocation to Yankee banks by approximately $200 million, using money from U.S. brokerage issues that will be maturing shortly. Bonnie Mitra, portfolio manager of a $3.5 billion short duration portfolio, says that while he would ordinarily consider reinvesting in the sector as AMR's brokerage bond mature, the recent turmoil in the equity market means less fee revenue for the brokerage credits. He adds that the related downturn in the M&A and IPO markets are also hurting the brokers' near-term growth prospects.

Salomon Smith Barney has snared the lead role on an upcoming $800 million bank and bond package for Greif Brothers, replacing Merrill Lynch. "We chose to go with the same bank to lead the bank loan and bonds as it plays well to the institutions, and we chose Salomon for the bonds as this is their specialty," said Rob Zimmerman, assistant treasurer for the Delaware, Ohio, industrial packaging company. "As a debut issuer in the bond markets, we wanted seamless execution and, based on league tables and interviews, we went with Salomon." Calls to a Salomon spokesman were not returned by press time.

Jonathan Hatcher has left the Scottsdale, Ariz., offices of Strong Capital Management, where he was a senior high-yield analyst covering the cable and media sectors, according to an analyst with knowledge of the move. He will join former colleagues at Delaware Investment Advisors in Philadelphia later this month as a v.p. and senior analyst covering financial, high-yield and high-grade credits. The position is believed to be new, though the firm did release at least one analyst earlier this year. Hatcher declined comment, and Ward Tatge, senior v.p. and director of fixed-income research, did not return calls.