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Forest City Enterprises, a Cleveland-based real estate company, has expanded its credit facility by $100 million and added three new banks to its group. The maturity date on the $350 million facility, led by Key Bank and National City Bank, has been extended from 2003 to 2006, said Thomas Kmiecik, assistant treasurer. Explaining the timing of the increase, Kmiecik said Forest City has several projects under construction. He added that the move for the increase led the company to also extend the maturity. "When you go in with that type of change, you look at the maturity also," he said.

Congress Financial is said to be close to joining Bank of America's $200 million, three-year asset-based refinancing for Hyundai Motor America, the U.S. distributor of Hyundai automobiles and auto parts. GE Capital, CIT Group and Foothill Capital have already committed to the best-efforts credit, according to a banker familiar with the deal's syndication. The credit is secured by accounts receivable and inventory. Pricing is LIBOR plus 2% and is tied to a utilization-based grid, and there is an unused fee of 1/4% at closing. The credit refinances an $85 million secured revolver. Sales in 2001 reportedly were approximately $4 billion. Calls to officials at Congress Financial were not returned.

The new pension accounting rule FRS 17, set to become mandatory next year, could curtail some U.K. companies' ability to fund themselves in the debt capital markets, say analysts. The new rule, which requires companies to account for their pension fund liabilities on balance sheet, could make companies appear over leveraged--especially those with pension liabilities larger than the market value of the company. Companies with large pension liabilities need to show investors that they have a feasible plan to fund them, otherwise it could impact their cost of capital, warned one analyst. Many of these deficits look awful until the company explains how they will be funded, says Crispin Southgate, fixed-income strategist at Merrill Lynch in London. "Investor relations strategies are key," he says. But some companies may be in for trouble, if they do not have a game plan. "It will impact their cost of capital, especially if the deficits are big and horrible, and justifiably so," he says.

Crédit Agricole Indosuez (CAI) is looking to add two bankers to its London securitization team that covers Northern Europe. Peter Kappel, head of Northern European ABS, says the firm will hire one origination banker and one structurer. CAI only recently established a London-based ABS effort (BW, 2/4) and is now putting together its first deals, says Kappel. He plans to use CAI's balance sheet fairly aggressively to provide acquisition finance loans, which eventually will be replaced with securitization financing. In the future, CAI's London group will concentrate on heavily structured types of transactions, such as whole business deals, fixed capital and commercial mortgage-backed deals.

Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P., a master limited partnership (MLP), has obtained an increased $600 million, three-year revolver that offers both the MLP and its crude oil pipeline entity, Enbridge Energy, L.P., access to the funds. Under the structure of the company's old $350 million, five-year revolver, assets of the oil pipeline entity, an operating limited partnership (OLP), secured the deal and usage was restricted to the OLP itself. In comparison, the $600 million revolver is unsecured and can be tapped by both the MLP and the OLP for growth and working capital needs. For this reason the company found it advantageous to consolidate its financing at the MLP level, said Scott Wilson, v.p. of finance for Enbridge, Inc., parent company of the MLP.

High-yield energy analysts say recent widening in the bonds of Vintage Petroleum, largely due to the perception of heightened risk associated with its Argentine assets, has made it one of the more attractive plays in the energy sector. One sell-side analyst says he is considering upgrading his recommendation on the bonds to buy from hold, as he has watched them widen some 300 basis points over the last two months. The Vintage 7.875% notes of '11 (B1/BB-) were trading at close to a 10% yield at 480 basis points off the curve last Tuesday. He says that because the company has a strong management team with a good track record, he believes Moody's Investors Service will give it some breathing room before lowering ratings further. Moody's downgraded the company late last month with a negative outlook. He sees 75 basis points worth of short-term tightening in the name, and says it will trade at close to an 8% yield longer term once it resolves difficulties surrounding the integration of its recent purchase of Genesis Exploration.

Abbey National Asset Management, which manages £5 billion in fixed-income, is looking to add a corporate bond manager to its fund management team in Glasgow, Scotland, according to a spokeswoman. This is the first step toward expanding the team, which could eventually branch out into high-yield and international bonds. The new hire is being made because corporate bonds are a becoming more important with the new pension accounting rule FRS 17 on the horizon. Abbey intends to intensify its marketing efforts on the corporate bond side for both retail and institutional clients. The new hire will report to Alan Wilde, head of the bond desk.

Prices on the bank debt of battery maker Exide Technologies dropped roughly 10 points last week as the expiration of covenant waivers nears and the market looks more closely at bankruptcy as a possibility for the company. At press time last week the company's bank debt had dropped to 66 with $10 million reportedly being flipped in the street. The company has waivers on financial covenants until April 12 and in its most recent 10-Q disclosed circumstances that could lead to credit default.

Bear Stearns was marketing a $1.1 billion conduit deal last week, ushering in a heavy month of issuance that is expected to top $10 billion, according to BW sister publication Real Estate Finance & Investment. The offering, which was followed by an approximately $992 million conduit from the team of Credit Suisse First Boston, PNC Bank and Key Bank, was being eagerly received by investors, who have seen little new issuance this year. Chris Hoeffel, managing director at Bear Stearns, said he expected the securitization to be completed by Friday afternoon.

More than $20 million of Global Crossing's bank debt changed hands last week in the 20-23 range as credit holders weighed the value of new bids for the bankrupt telecom. A $10 million piece traded at 22 1/2 early in the week, but traders said $5 million pieces had been moving all week. Market players debate takeover bids for the name and the value of the company's assets in the case of liquidation. Two weeks ago FleetBoston Financial filed a proposal stating that liquidation was its preference. That's the general sense among lenders, who stand to do better in liquidation than any other creditors.

The $17 billion in loans for AT&T Comcast being shopped by J.P. Morgan and Citibank could test the depth of the market for huge deals for investment-grade borrowers. J.P. Morgan and Citi have just started shopping the deal to potential managing agents and five banks have already committed $10 billion. The company's strong relationships should carry the deal, bankers said. But other bankers noted they are watching with interest to see how the deal does in the wake of a somewhat difficult syndication for Weyerhaeuser Co.'s $4 billion commercial paper backstop.

Marc Seidner is Director of Domestic Taxable Fixed Income at Standish Mellon. In this capacity he oversee the management of about $24 billion of Core High-Grade and Core Plus portfolios.