Search results for

Bradford & Bingley has issued a £

Lithuania Telecom (Lietuvos Telekomas) has pulled off the largest ever Lithuanian litas denominated bond from any issuer, including the government, with its Llt150m ($37.5m) three year Eurobond via CSFB and local bank Vilniaus Bankas.

Brazil is hoping to flush out banks that have long held Brady Pars and Discount bonds with a $1bn Brady bond exchange led by CSFB and Salomon Smith Barney. It has been structured to accommodate banks that have not participated in previous exchanges because of their reluctance to mark to market a loss on Pars and other instruments they inherited at par when Brazil's old defaulted loans were restructured into Brady bonds. "This is a very smart thing to do," said one cross-over fund manager who invests in Brazilian assets. "It shows how savvy the Brazilians have become. The market has a window right now and by offering a par for par exchange they have expanded the investor base that could participate."

EuroWeek can reveal that Hong Kong Mortgage Corp (HKMC) has appointed HSBC as sole adviser to gain a credit rating, with intentions to launch its debut international bond issue in the second half of the year.

Huntsman International took a one notch downgrade from Standard & Poor's (S&P) in its stride this week, issuing Eu200m of 10 year paper at a yield of 9.59% on Tuesday via Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney. The issue has the same maturity and coupon as Huntsman International's existing 10.125% 2009 issue and was priced at 102.50 against talk of 102.50-103.00.

The Republic of Romania hopes to issue a further bond, this time in the seven to 10 year range. It would be the republic's first offering since the election in December saw former president Ion Iliescu and his ex-Communist PDSA party return to power, but the proposal has met with a mixed reception from investors. A banker in London said the Romanians were receiving bids on both maturities, and that the mandate could come next week. The republic is considering sizes of Eu300m-Eu400m, which would make the bond its biggest single tranche issue to date.

Fixed income and equity investors are increasingly turning their eyes from the economies of south Asia and looking instead to the stronger economic stories of north Asian countries. Speaking at Euromoney's Asia Pacific Issuers&Investors Forum, a panel of investors reviewed the potential for investment in the Asian region, with a bleak prognosis for the southern Asian countries.

The International Primary Market Association (IPMA) has taken a bold step to cement its presence in the Asian region by announcing the creation of an Asian committee at Euromoney’s Asia Pacific Issuers and Investors Forum that is being held in Hong Kong today (Tuesday) and Wednesday.

John Moore, who until recently headed the agency desk at JP Morgan, has followed former colleague Kelley Millet to Bear Stearns to take up responsibility for frequent issuers.

Merrill Lynch and Commerzbank have brought out the much awaited inaugural Eu150m FRN for Kredyt Bank of Poland, despite difficult market conditions. The bond offers a coupon of Euribor plus 40bp, and was priced 99.916. Lead banks said pricing had been complicated by adverse secondary market movements in the sovereign curve, and in European high yield debt generally.