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Several buyside firms are considering increasing their exposure to property and casualty insurers--the same companies whose bond prices plummeted in the wake of the Sept.11 attacks. Graham Allen, head of the roughly $50 billion taxable fixed-income portfolio at Wells Capital Management, says the firm wants to take advantage of spread-widening and the p&c companies' presumed ability to raise premiums going forward.

In stark contrast to their peers in other investment banking areas, structured finance bankers in London are going to see strong bonuses this year, perhaps even a little stronger than last year's, according to London-based executive recruiters. This good news is largely thanks to a booming asset-backed market, targeted to top €115 billion this year. On the sales and trading side, however, bonuses will be less, but not cut as drastically as in other areas, such as all facets of equities business, according to Robin Keck, executive recruiter for debt capital markets at Michael Page International. Mark Sullivan, executive recruiter for DCM at Jonathan Wren, agreed that debt pros will be the envy of others. "Universally, bonuses will be pretty poor this year, but fixed-income specialists might be the exception."

Moody's Investors Service's employees may move back to their offices on Church Street by the end of the month, says Michael Kanef, managing director of structured finance. Closed after the Sept.11 attacks, Moody's offices have not reopened since the tragedy because the building was declared part of Ground Zero by New York City. Moody's officials are expecting city officials to approve the reopening by the end of October, but are still awaiting confirmation, says Kanef, reached at his New Jersey office.

The move to create an online clearinghouse for loans has been shelved because of a lack of interest among loan market players, according to Operations Management, a Loan Market Week sister publication. The platform was being formulated through a joint venture between The Depository Trust Company and Reuters, but the partnership could not get a solid commitment from banks, said Jeff Reichert, head of business development for Corvalent, the Reuters unit that was developing the platform. "The clearing and settlement side was not a priority for these firms. They were more interested in trading the loans electronically," Reichert said.

Bear Stearns International is planning to grow its London-based interest-rate product group by nearly 50% in the coming months, according to BW sister publication Derivatives Week. This is part of the firm's ambition to become a larger player in the European market, says George Polychronopoulos, senior managing director. Polychronopoulos, who will lead the effort, joined last month from Deutsche Bank, where he was most recently head of marketing to Scandinavia and Greece: previously he had been head of Scandinavian and Greek interest-rate products. At Bear Stearns, his position is parallel to that of Jérôme Camblain, who runs the sales side.

Charter Communications' bank debt traded up last week to 97 3/8 from a previous level of 95 3/4. Dealers reported about $10 million changed hands. Buyers and sellers could not be determined. The credit recently notched down on Adelphia Communications' new deal flooding the market with more cable paper. Dealers remain optimistic on cable names, but say where anything lands remains a mystery in current market conditions. "Just because $2.5 million of Charter traded at 96 doesn't mean the market was down; it just means one person wanted to sell," a dealer said, explaining why market fluctuations occur. "If I were to buy $10 million of Charter, it would push [levels] back up." Charter is a cable company based in St. Louis, Mo.

An estimated $50 million of Crown Cork & Seal has traded over the last two weeks in the 84-85 context. Last Wednesday the company released a third-quarter loss, citing pricing pressure and the impact of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies. The packaging products company reported a net loss of $13 million compared to a profit of $44 million a year ago in the same period. Deutsche Bank is said to be active in the name, but officials there would not confirm. Calls to Timothy Donahue, cfo, and the company's investor relations department were not returned.

Crown Media Holdings was able to close a $285 million acquisition credit despite a tough market because the company's target, Hallmark's video library, is well regarded by lenders. Bill Aliber, cfo, says the company began discussions with Hallmark last November and just recently closed the deal as available credit in the bank debt market tightened. "Hallmark helped us move up the food chain," said Aliber, explaining it was a lengthy negotiations process even with the Hallmark name. "The bank market became difficult, so it took a while," Aliber said--referring to the number of credit defaults over the last year and the resulting overall hesitation of lenders in the market. "What happened was the market got more challenging as the process went on," he said.

European swap and credits spreads, usually highly correlated, have significantly de-linked lately, making triple-A to single-A corporate credits unusually cheap. A combination of the impact of the Sept. 11 attacks and Europe's slowing economy has pushed out credit spreads. And, swap spreads have tightened on the back of European governments increasingly becoming receivers of swaps, propelling the decorrelation, according to Ciaran O'Hagan, credit analyst at Lehman Brothers in London. "The [corporate debt] market is a bargain right now," said Keith Patton, portfolio manager at Deutsche Asset Management, in London. "You just have to pick the right one," he added.

Apollo Management ventured in the market last week with the acquisition of IMC Global's salt business for $640 million withJ.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank set to lead a bank loan for Apollo. Credit Suisse First Boston will be providing a bridge to a bond offering and is expected to be on the bank credit. An equity investment of up to $160 million is said to be part of the deal.

Bank of Montreal and Bank of Nova Scotia's $685 million loan for Premdor is seen as a potential market bellwether, as it does not carry the baggage of other credits in the market right now and has good collateral coverage. Commitment levels could not be ascertained, but pricing has not flexed, said one banker, which is a good sign. A BMO official said pricing on the pro rata deck, comprising a $100 million revolver and a $100 million term loan is LIBOR plus 3%. On the $385 million "B," pricing is LIBOR plus 31/ 2%. There is also a $100 million asset-sale portion of the facility, he added. The credit backs the acquisition of Masonite from International Paper.

Brian Hessel, managing director and high-yield portfolio co-manager at J. & W. Seligman in New York, has resigned, according to a senior executive at the firm. Hessel could not be reached for comment. Paul Guidone, Seligman's ceo, was in Germany, and messages left for him were referred to Hank Green, a public relations executive at Adler & Associates, which represents the firm, who declined comment. Hessel's exit marks the second high-profile departure from the junk team at Seligman, which has some $2.5 billion in high-yield assets.Dan Charleston, who had been the top high-yield portfolio manager, was let go over the summer after the firm suffered heavy losses in its portfolio, according to the senior Seligman executive. As of last week, the high-yield fund was down some 17% year-to-date, according to Morningstar.com. Charleston could not be reached for comment.