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Home retailer, Lechters, Inc., amended its $130 million credit facility with Fleet Retail Finance, receiving $85 million in commitments from the bank for a new facility in response to the company's downsizing this year. Dan Anderton, cfo, said the company closed 166 underperforming stores this year, prompting the company to meet with its bankers to reduce its bank facilities.

The Federal Reserve's top lawyer has signaled that the central bank means to use the "complementary activities" authority it has under Gramm-Leach-Bliley in a way that will have major positive effects on the financial industry. Fed General Counsel Virgil Mattingly said in a Feb. 15 talk to bank lawyers that he wanted to stress that the Reserve Board would be so flexible in approving activities under this provision of law that it would enable securities and insurance firms to acquire banks and banks themselves to remain competitive in the race against non-bank institutions.

Moody's Investors Service raised its ratings on the outstanding debt of Dynamic Details, Inc., an electronic design and development services company. The rating agency raised the rating from B1 to Ba3 on the company's $223.7 million senior secured credit facilities comprising a $59.6 million tranche "A," an $89.1 million tranche "B," and a $75 million revolving credit facility. Moody's cites the company's low debt to cash flow leverage of 2.5 times for 2000 and the company's increased scale of operations to nearly $498 million in revenues in 2000 as conditions affecting the agency's upgrade. The company's credit facility was amended in October 2000 to provide for $30 million of uncommitted borrowing lines. Dynamic's fixed charges coverage and leverage covenants have been made more restrictive. The company is currently in the process of arranging for another $50 million in uncommitted borrowing lines.

Houston-based Newfield Exploration recently wrapped a three-year, $300 million credit backing its $333 million acquisition of Lariat Petroleum in late January and added a $125 million tranche to bump up the credit to a total $425 million the next week.Susan Riggs, treasurer, said the company originally launched the $300 million credit to close the deal, but then decided to add another tranche for general corporate purposes. "We only used $265 million of the facility for the acquisition and funded the rest with stock," explained Riggs. The credit was led by J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America. Riggs said 15 other banks comprised the syndicate.

A portion of Sun Healthcare Group's bank debt traded twice in the high 20s range last week, down slightly from the low 30s. The amount could not be determined, but one dealer reported two separate trades. "There's a big seller out there," said a trader, explaining the lower levels. Still, he said health care continues to be an industry that's improving. "It's very strong," he said. "There's definitely interest in health care that's buoyed it," he said. The identity of the seller could not be determined by press time.

A $275 million telecom credit for Utilicom Networks may test the market's appetite for emerging telecom credit. The company, a broad band cable provider, has tapped

Bank of New York is leading a $83 million construction loan for a multifamily high rise in Manhattan that will be the first environmentally sustainable apartment building in the United States, according to Real Estate Finance & Investment, an LMW sister publication. The bank is looking for about five banks to round out the syndicate on the loan for Albanese Development Corp., said George Aridas, senior v.p. at Albanese. The three-year loan includes a one-year extension option and is priced at LIBOR plus 212. Albanese tapped BNY to lead the loan because of its capabilities to syndicate and its competitive fees, he said. Bank of New York officials declined to comment.

Bank of America is set to launch this week syndication of a $470 million credit backing the leveraged buyout of Minneapolis-based Michael Foods, Inc., and has signed Bear Stearns on as syndication agent. The deal, sponsored by Vestar Capital Partners and Goldner Hawn Johnson & Morrison, will fund the transaction valued at roughly $800 million. Calls to the sponsors were not returned by press time.

A $750 million bond deal helped pushed up a piece of Young Broadcasting's bank facility to the mid-101 range. Strong support for the bond deal bolstered the credit in the bank loan market, dealers said. "[The bonds] opened at par 5/8 and no one's been able to buy them since," one dealer said. "They're a top-tier credit, and there's not a lot of supply. It's a strong rating -- it got a BB." The dealer, however, predicts that the upcoming year will be tough for a lot of sectors, with radio pulling through. "Money was overspent on politics and the Olympics is gone, so TV will be a tougher sector. Guys with exposure to radio will stack better."

Moody's Investors Service assigned a Ba2 rating to the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company's (A&P) new $280 million senior secured bank facility because of the highly competitive supermarket industry. "[For the consumer] there are lots of options other than the chain store," said Elaine Francolino, senior credit officer at Moody's. "If you just look at Manhattan, the area is not growing demographically. There's the same base of people and a lot of marketers trying to get their business." Headquartered in Montvale, N.J., A&P operates about 750 supermarkets in 15 states, the District of Columbia and Ontario.

Credit Suisse First Boston is eliminating assignment fees for clients, the latest bank to do so in an effort to improve liquidity. No retail buyer will be charged a fee on a deal for which CSFB was the agent, and banks that have also eliminated assignment fees will not be charged. Don Pollard, global co-head of the syndicated loan group, said the bank hopes this will be an incentive for other banks to do the same. "This is a change the market was calling for," he said. "As one of the top four underwriters, we're eliminating fees to promote liquidity."

BNP Paribas Peregrine on Tuesday completed what competitor bankers saw as an opportunistic $161m placement of 492.65m shares in Beinjing Datang Power Generation Co on behalf of vendor New World Infrastructure. The shares priced at HK$2.55, slightly above the HK$2.52 level at which New World bought the shares in March 1997.