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J.P. Morgan Securities is offering each employee released by the company a book titled As You Leave: Your guide to leaving J.P. Morgan Chase. One former senior bond executive declined to directly address whether he found the pamphlet helpful, although he did speculate as to several potentially creative uses for it, such as wiping up spills, keeping drinks off the coffee table or house-training a pet.

High-yield analysts on the buy- and sell-side are focusing their attention on bonds of companies such as Grey Wolf, Grant Prideco, Parker Drilling Company, and Lone Star Technologies, which sell equipment to oil and gas drillers. While there has been weakness throughout the energy sector due to falling oil and gas prices, analysts say equipment providers have seen their bonds hit the hardest.

The Loan Syndications and Trading Association's annual conference, set for Oct. 10, is to go ahead following a vote of confidence from a majority of members. A number of participants from as far afield as Los Angeles and London contacted the LSTA to say people want to talk and see each other, said Allison Taylor, executive director of the LSTA. Over 90% of the attendants are based in New York so will not need to travel, according to an e-mail being circulated to LSTA members.

Michael McAdams, a well-known member of the loan investment community and founding member of ING Capital Advisors, left the firm two weeks ago to begin management of his own loan fund, Four Corners Capital Management, a financial partnership with Macquarie Holdings. "Macquarie will be able to enter the U.S. corporate credit markets and we will get a piece of their global network to expand outside the U.S.", said McAdams about the decision to team up with the Australian bank.

UBS Warburg and Bank of America have filled the roster for top-tier banks on their $6 billion term loan for Devon Energy, backing the purchase of Calgary-based independent senior oil and natural gas producer Anderson Exploration. A UBS banker said that in addition to the co-leads, First Union, J.P Morgan, Royal Bank of Canada, ABN AMRO, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse First Boston, Citibank and Bank of Montreal took $600 million pieces. Originally, the banks were offered $750 million pieces, but because of oversubscription, the allocations were scaled back, said the banker. Retail syndication is expected to begin in mid-October, noted the source.

Winstar Communications' bank debt hit the single digits last week in a $5 million trade, notching down from the mid-teens a week before. The debt settled in at six, a level so rare that even distressed players were marveling. Dealers fault problems with the debt's structure and say the company needs money to carry out operations. This is a sharp drop from levels last spring when Winstar was trading in the 32 range on news it would default on its bank covenants (LMW, 4/22). Winstar is a competitive local exchange carrier based in New York City. Calls to Richard Uhl, cfo, were referred to spokeswoman Laura Kline, who did not return them by press time.

Amtran, parent company of American Trans Air, is evaluating financing options, including another credit facility to back a privatization plan. Citicorp and Salomon Smith Barney terminated their commitment letter relating to a proposed $175 million secured credit facility last Friday night, citing the material adverse change clause as a get-out, explained Kim Wick, manager of investor relations. Wick said, however, the privatization is on hold for the moment and has not yet been scrapped. Financing and the shareholder vote are the only hurdles left, she added.

Merrill Lynch is considering whether to change the rules for its Euro High-Yield Index, capping the weighting of any single issuer at between 5-10%. Behzad Mansouri, v.p. portfolio strategy group, says the question is being investigated because of the potential downgrade to junk status of Dutch telecom operator KPN. Mansouri notes that this is important because a KPN rally would cause high-yield investors benchmarked off the index to significantly underperform the index. He says that with outstanding paper worth roughly $5.96 billion last week, KPN paper would account for 33% of the index. Such a percentage would dwarf the current leader, Marconi, which was still being added to the index but was expected to comprise close to 5%. "There has been a good deal of investor concern about this question," he says."Many of them are limited as to how much they can invest in a single issue."

Dealers estimate that $150 million of Xerox paper has changed hands over the past two weeks in the mid-80s range on news of the company's third-party financing agreement with GE Capital. Deutsche Bank is rumored to be active in the name, although officials there would not confirm their position. Deutsche Bank has put a $500 million credit for Xerox on hold as the financing agreement with GE Capital brings in $1 billion (LMW, 9/20). The company has also done asset sales and new product offerings to improve its standing.

Melbourne, Australia-based BHP Billiton took advantage of a higher rating from Standard & Poor's to unify its credit lines and push payment rates way down on its $2.5 billion multicurrency revolving credit facility. The improved rating followed the merger of Australian company BHP and London-based Billiton. The merger closed on June 30, to create a multi-national mining company with a single A rating, whereas BHP had a BBB rating, explained Francis McAllister, director of investor relations for BHP in the U.S.

David Ostro, assistant treasurer at Parker Hannifin Corporation, was working the phone in his Cleveland, Ohio, office on the morning of Sept. 11 trying to wrap up his company's first syndicated bank credit. Because of the time-sensitivity of certain documents, the company needed the deal completed that day and was closing in on that goal when the first hijacked plane struck the World Trade Center. "Half the banks were already signed on when the attack happened, before the whole world changed," Ostro said.

Vancouver-based Intrawest, a developer and operator of ski and golf resorts, has received a $300 million, three-year credit facility that should fulfil its needs, despite dim prospects for the leisure industry. Stephen Forgacs, manager of investor relations, said, "Intrawest is fairly unique in the resort industry, since 80-85% of business arrives by car." The downturn in the economy has so far not hit Intrawest, he believes, with figures for pre-sale real estate already hitting 80% of analyst's expectations for the fiscal year.