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Market players pointed fingers in different directions in response to the location of Merrill Lynch's syndication group, which was displaced after the attack on the World Trade Center. Various answers put the group in New Jersey, operating out of a fellow banker's apartment, or working from home individually. Early last week, some market sources insisted the group was working from the apartment of Jack Yang, the head of leveraged finance products for Merrill. A Merrill Lynch official said staffers who live near Yang were there for a couple of days while others worked from home. The group has plans to move to the firm's contingency site in Jersey City by the end of the week. "There are 200 people in New Jersey and that number will double and triple in time," he said. He added that the loan group is very much intact and open for business. He noted the trading group is also stationed in New Jersey while the capital markets and originations groups are located at various law offices throughout the city with which the firm has relationships.

A $10 million piece of Owens Corning's bank debt traded in the 70-71 range, notching down about a point from previous levels. One dealer speculated levels were even softer, closer to the 69 context. Traders said distressed trading was even more sparse than par activity, but that buyers were looking into credits which were defensive and could show a return. They put Owens Corning in that category because there was increasing demand for the paper even before the Sept. 11 attack. A dealer explained that the bid moved higher than the offer for Owens Corning last week, sparking the trade. "It traded because there was a lot of demand pre [the attack]," a dealer explained. Owens Corning is a fiberglass manufacturer based in Toledo, Ohio.

Unusually wide spreads in the secondary market locked up trading for much of last week, but by Thursday paper was trading as the market began to find levels. Dealers noted that the typical gap between bids and offers is about two points, but that had ballooned to four or five points on many names last week, the first full week back from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. "Sellers don't want to feel they will get picked off or that they are panic sellers," one dealer said. "They say, 'the market shouldn't have moved back that much, so I'm not going to offer now.'" The result is bids that can back up as much as six points and offers that move down a point, which results in stagnant market.

Crédit Lyonnais this week closed its long waited Asian collateralised bond obligation parcelling Asian and emerging market bonds managed by OUB Asset Management of Singapore. The leads originally intended to price the deal the previous week but it was delayed by several days because of events in the US. The order book remained largely unaffected, however, and the transaction was able to proceed this week with the same investor base.

Interstar Securities (Australia) Pty Ltd yesterday (Thursday) launched the largest RMBS ever offered in the Australian domestic market. Despite recent events in the US and some uncertainty in the financial markets lead manager Macquarie Bank does not expect the notes to price wider than recent MBS issues.

Australia Deutsche Bank and UBS Warburg completed a small domestic placement for Investa Property Group on Tuesday. Investa sold 21.67m new units at A$1.87, a negligible discount to Monday's close of A$1.91 per share. The deal raised A$40.5m before fees.

Nomura Research Institute yesterday (Thursday) cancelled plans to sell as much as $1.4bn worth of shares in a planned Tokyo Stock Exchange IPO. Last week, bankers working on the deal told EuroWeek that they were forging ahead with the offer, but were consulting the issuer and investors on whether the deal should proceed in the aftermath of the US attacks.

With the effects of the terrorist attack still at the forefront of people's minds, the Republic of the Philippines has started to look with renewed interest at the yen denominated bond market. The Department of Finance (DoF) has asked a number of Japanese and international houses to present yen denominated funding proposals in either the Samurai or yen structured bond markets over the next seven days.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) this week announced the withdrawal of its cash tender offer for its two outstanding bond issues and a new $250m, 10 year 144A bond issue. "Due to dislocations in the financial markets resulting from recent terrorist incidents in the US, [PLDT] is withdrawing its cash tender offer to purchase any and all of its outstanding 8.5% notes due 2003 and 10.625% notes due 2004," said the telecoms company.

Macquarie Securitisation Ltd launched its $1.2bn global mortgage backed securitisation from its PUMA programme in Australia yesterday (Thursday) - its first overseas launch from the programme for two years. Lead managed by Deutsche Bank, the transaction was originally set for pricing last week but was delayed following the terrorist attacks in the US. It is now among the first securitisations to be launched in the aftermath.

Standard Chartered officially delayed its planned Hong Kong IPO and equity offering yesterday (Thursday). The UK-based bank was due to list in October and wanted to sell around £500m of new shares, up to 5% of its existing share capital. In a statement, the bank said it "remains fully committed to Hong Kong and to proceeding with the listing when market conditions are suitable". Since the US terror attacks, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index has fallen around 10%.