Search results for

The first big test of the year for appetite in the European structured telecoms sector is approaching with the award of the arranging mandate for the Eu4.2bn financing backing mobile telephony firm H3G Italia. Hutchison Whampoa's majority owned Italian subsidiary has mandated 11 banks to underwrite a Eu3.2bn loan package to fund its network build-out in Italy.

France Télécom kicked off general syndication of its Eu15bn refinancing on Tuesday, with a bank presentation held in the plush surroundings of the Pavillon Gabrielle, Paris. Around 200 bankers heard a confident presentation by the borrower's financial director Jean Louis Vinciguerra, who was at pains to emphasise the company's deleveraging schedules. Vinciguerra and his team assured the audience that the company would not increase its debt pile through acquisitions and that its main priority was to reduce leverage through disposals and equity-linked transactions. The finance director, when asked of the company's plans for NTL and Mobilcom, said that while the company would continue to review all its options, it would not embark on a big acquisition spree.

HBOS, the UK's largest mortgage lender, is poised to make a dramatic entry into the securitisation market with a £2.5bn-£3bn deal to be lead managed by Citigroup/SSSB and JP Morgan. The move will give the booming European mortgage backed securities (MBS) market its second ultra-large issuer, alongside Abbey National. HBOS's master trust structure is likely to appear in the second quarter. EuroWeek has also learnt that Abbey's next MBS will be led in the next few months by Barclays Capital and JP Morgan. Recent Abbey deals have varied between £2.2bn and £2.7bn in size.

Banca Centrale per il Leasing delle Banche Popolari - Italease has updated its euro1.1 billion ($971.74 million) Euro-MTN facility. Westdeutsche Landesbank has been added as a dealer. The arranger is UBS Warburg.

* Bank Austria AG Rating: Aa3/A+

KfW priced its $3bn five year benchmark yesterday (Thursday), the inaugural issue off its dollar funding programme. At least one other benchmark offering from the German agency, also for $3bn, will be priced this year. The lead managers were Citigroup/SSB, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. The 4.75% notes were priced to yield 4.748%, or 58bp over the 3.50% Treasury due in November 2006. The notes were set to yield 5bp outside the Fannie Mae 5% Benchmark Note due in January 2007, which on the morning of pricing was trading at Libor less 15bp. Consequently, the asset swap value of the KfW notes was around Libor less 10bp.

MassMutual Global Funding has upped the ceiling off its $2 billion global debt issuance programme to $3 billion. Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers have been dropped as both US and European dealers. Banc of America Securities, Bear Stearns, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith Barney have been added as US and European dealers.

Quite a few MTN-ers have got a lot to be proud of this week. Alex Haidas, who is co-head of the risk transformation group at JPMorgan along with Desiree Fixler, has become a father. His wife had a baby boy yesterday. But will Alex be able to transfer the risk of changing nappies? Chris Cox, head of Euro-MTN trading at SSB, is feeling pretty pleased with himself too. He's been appointed managing director, as officially announced in the FT yesterday. He joins an elite crowd of MTN MDs, so Leak wishes him all the best. And who remembers an old hand in the MTN market, head at HSBC before Fergus Kiely, Keith Phair? He obviously hasn't been very busy after leaving MTNs as he has had yet another letter published in the FT (January 16) all about nationalizing Britain's railways. Leak thinks this time he has finally gone right off the rails. Tension is mounting in several banks as bonuses are about to be announced. Many traders report little work being done in the pre-bonus build up. But you wouldn't need to even dent your bonus to pick up one of Gavin Eddy's suits. UBS Warburg's head trader has proved that he's a caring person by donating all his old suits to Oxfam. Leak is off there tomorrow to see if it can pick up a bargain.

GUS, the UK retail and business group, confirmed this week that it is planning to float its luxury goods unit Burberry by the end of June. GUS announced in November 2000 that its plan was to float up to 25% of the company within 18 months. "Officially, the line is still that the deal is subject to market conditions, but in reality it is pretty certain to go ahead," said an official close to the company.

Qatar Syndication of the $572.25m 18 year project financing for the Ras Laffan Power and Water Desalination project is already oversubscribed, despite a number of banks that are still to respond.

Moody’s this week gave its clearest indication yet how Landesbanks will be rated once they are stripped of their state support mechanisms, by assigning a A3 rating to a groundbreaking tier one issue that Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein (LB Kiel) will soon launch via Lehman Brothers — a rating higher than most analysts had been predicting.