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Houston-based HCC Insurance Holdings has reduced its revolving credit facility and cut back on the number of banks in its group. Stephen Way, chairman and ceo of HCC, said after a $155 million equity offering, the company had very little debt. "With alternative forms of financing available, there is no point having more than necessary and paying the fees," he noted. Way said the company reduced its bank group due to the downsizing on the facility.

Heller Financial has wrapped syndication of its $150 million asset-based credit for Somerville, Mass.-based Beacon Roofing Supply. CIT Group, GMAC, Wachovia Bank and Fleet Capital were among the nine lenders on the deal, which was sponsored by investment firm Code, Hennessy & Simmons, according to a banker familiar with the deal. David Grace, cfo of the company, confirmed that syndication closed on June 8, but referred further calls to officials at Heller.

Impath Inc. closed a $50 million senior secured credit facility earlier this month, signing a much larger deal than its previous facility partly to entice more investor interest in the company. The deal consists of a five-year commitment for a $25 million revolving credit line and a $25 million, 364-day facility. It replaces the company's $15 million unsecured deal. "It's very important for investors to know we can tap a larger credit," said Dave Cammarata, cfo. "It's always been our intention to increase our line, but two years ago we wouldn't have met our financial covenants." New York-based Impath provides cancer information and analyses with a database of 730,000 cases. The company uses technologies to provide patient-specific cancer diagnostic and prognostic information. Cammarata explained that the company needed to grow its EBITDA to be eligible for a larger line. The company's EBITDA this year is $46 million, compared to $31 million the year before, and $19 million two years ago.

Citibank's $360 million credit for Paxson Communications Corp., a broadcast television station, has already received commitments of $430 million for the $285 million "B" tranche following a bank meeting two weeks ago. Talk of a flex down is premature, said a banker.

Bankers said a KRW270 billion balance sheet collateralized loan obligation closed last week for South Korean-based Hanvit Bank. The CLO will reportedly transfer the Korean won equivalent of USD200 million of leveraged Korean loans off of the banks balance sheet into a special purpose vehicle. The bank reportedly issued KRW 270 billion in notes to the Korean market to raise funding for the sale. Note tranches and spreads could not be determined by press time. Calls to Hanvit Bank were not returned by press time.

Bear Stearns has hired Morad Maloujhi, former head of European fixed income derivatives sales at NatWest in London, in the new position of senior managing director and head of fixed income derivatives marketing for Europe. Gerome Camblain, senior managing director, head of sales for fixed income and derivatives for Europe at Bear Stearns in London, said Maloujhi will be responsible for leveraging generalist marketers and building a group to target European financial institutions. Since leaving NatWest in 1999 Maloujhi has been working at an Internet venture. Maloujhi, who will report to Camblain, joins the firm on July 2.

HypoVereinsbank last Friday closed an innovative S$200m commercial real estate securitisation for Singapore's CapitaLand, one of Asia's largest property developers. The deal is the country's first securitisation of commercial mortgages, and the first ABS to be rated by an international agency.

Kia Motors and LG Caltex are demonstrating the renewed demand by Korean corporates to access the international bond markets in their preparations launch global bond issues. The two deals also highlights the continued strength of Credit Suisse First Boston in gaining Korean corporate mandates, with the bank in leading roles for both transactions.

Merrill Lynch accessed the Samurai bond market for ¥105bn this week, taking advantage of continuing strong demand and lack of domestic supply. And from South Korea, Korea Development Bank (KDB) and Daejeon Metropolitan City also announced plans to launch Samurai deals, with both issuers mandating Nomura Securities as lead manager. Merrill Lynch's Samurai deal was heavily orientated towards short term asset managers, with ¥60bn of the deal being raised in a floating rate note (FRN) format, and pricing with a coupon of 14bp over three month yen Libor. Another ¥20bn was launched in three year paper with a 0.38% coupon and a spread of 16bp over yen Libor, which interested regional investors. The remaining ¥25bn was issued in five year notes and was priced at a spread of 20bp over yen Libor, providing a coupon of 0.65%, and went mainly to fire marine insurers, bank trusts and pension companies.

The Republic of Philippines' finance department has mandated seven banks to organise its non-deal roadshow in the coming months. The timing for the roadshow has not been finalised, although government officials had previously wanted to begin in July. JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley will arrange the US leg, with Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse First Boston to handle the European part, HSBC and ING Barings the Asian portion and Nomura Securities the leg in Japan.

Australian non-bank mortgage lender RAMS Home Loans Pty Ltd this week launched its 14th domestic securitisation, at a time when many of its competitors are taking deals to the international markets. "We are well known to investors in the Euromarket and make a considerable effort to keep them informed as well as expand our awareness among US investors," said Kieran Brush, group chief financial officer for RAMS in Sydney. "However, we can achieve competitive funding through smaller, regular domestic issues for the moment."

The 240m share IPO for Roadshow Group, the multi-media advertising arm of Kowloon Motor Bus, has been well supported, according to bankers involved in the offering. The issue is due to be priced tomorrow (Saturday) and will probably emerge at or very close to the top end of the HK$1.69-HK$2.25 price range, given little or no price sensitivity in the book. At HK$2.25 per share, the offer size would be HK$540m, equivalent to almost $70m.