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CIBC World Markets is building up its European high yield desk in London. Alasdair MacLean, previously of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, was hired at the beginning of this month as a senior research analyst covering manufacturing and utilities. He will join Philip Volpicelli, who covers industrials and consumer products. Prior to the hire, Volpicelli had coverage duties for all sectors save for telecom, where the desk has three dedicated analysts. Vincent Moge, who left ING Barings six months ago, has also joined CIBC as a salesman, and will report to desk co-heads Frank Ferrantelli and Denis Loubignac. "Most places don't have more than four or five salespeople, so our manpower is similar to that of other desks," said MacLean. Additional hires will be dependent on how rapidly the market expands, he added.

Woodbury, NY-based Comforce, Inc. signed a $110 million, three-year credit facility led by IBJ Whitehall earlier this month, replacing the $75 million, five-year credit the company signed in 1997 led by Heller Financial. Harry Maccarrone, cfo, said the company sought to increase its $75 million credit to finance general corporate expenses, to buy back existing bonds and have flexibility on the acquisition front. Maccarrone said the company switched banks to avoid impending higher pricing by Heller. "The old loan had comparable pricing but they were looking to increase it," he said. The single-tranched new credit is priced at LIBOR plus 250 basis points with a commitment fee of 50 basis points, he said.

Alliance Atlantis Communications closed a $500 million credit facility this month to fund broadcasting acquisitions in the coming fiscal year. Paul Laberge, senior v.p. of corporate development and general counsel, explained that the company's planned acquisitions include Women's Channel Network as well buying interest in the Family Channel and SportsNet. "Broadcasting has been our biggest area of growth over the last five years, better than production distribution," he said. Alliance, based in Toronto, Ontario, is a major Canadian production company and movie distributor, with operations in television, film, broadcasting and the Internet.

FleetBoston Financial and Dresdner Bank Real Estate are in the market with a $255 million construction loan for the development project backed by three companies, according to Real Estate Finance & Investment. Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, Westbank Projects and Starwood Hotels have tapped the three banks for a fully underwritten deal for a 1.4 million-square-foot mixed-use development in Bellevue, Wash., bankers said. Lead banks Fleet and Dresdner are seeking eight to 10 banks to round out the syndicate. The banks held a meeting at the construction site last week. Bankers at Dresdner, Fleet, WestBank and Starwood officials did not return calls, while Lend Lease officials declined to comment.

Within the collateralized debt obligation community a philosophical difference has emerged between CDO managers and bond buysiders. CDO managers are taking issue with the notion of CDOs as vehicles for vacuuming up undesirable credits, viewing them instead as leveraged funds. Buysiders, on the other hand, see the structured products as liquidity providers, particularly for lower rated credits.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded Kellogg Company's senior unsecured debt to Baa2 from Aa2 in anticipation of the company's acquisition of Keebler for $3.8 billion in cash, plus the assumption of $555 million in existing Keebler debt. Kellogg is expected to obtain permanent long-term financing for a large portion of the acquisition financing within six months following the transaction. Keebler's bank credit facility will be cancelled following the acquisition, and the rating will be withdrawn. The acquisition will nearly triple Kellogg's debt. Despite the significant increase in debt, Moody's expects Kellogg to continue to direct a large portion of its internal cash flow to cash dividends as opposed to debt reduction. The rating also reflects Kellogg's exposure to the highly competitive, slow growth ready-to-eat cereal business. Supporting the rating is the relatively faster-growing cookie and cracker business to Kellogg's portfolio. Keeblers holds the number two U.S. market share in cookies and crackers. Calls to Thomas Webb, cfo for Kellogg, were referred to a spokesman, who did not return them by press time. Kellogg is headquartered in Battle Creek, Mich.

Houston-based Newfield Exploration is in the market with a $300 million, three-year credit facility to help fund the $333 million purchase price of Lariat Petroleum. The balance of the deal will be financed with stock. J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America are lead arrangers on the credit. Susan Riggs, treasurer, said she expects the facility to close oversubscribed in the next couple of weeks. "There are currently nine banks in the syndicate, but we expect more," she said.

Credit Suisse First Boston has been tapped to lead a $2 billion construction and acquisition credit revolver for Minneapolis-based NRG Energy, according to a banker familiar with the deal. The proceeds of the revolver will be used primarily to acquire assets from LS Power, Sierra Pacific, Conectiv and Wisconsin Energy (PFR, 1/22).

A $5 million piece of VoiceStream Wireless bank debt traded last week as dealers waved off the recent announcement of Deutsche Telekom's fourth quarter earnings losses and any harm that might do to its bid for Voicestream. Dealers reported a trade of the "A" tranche at 99 3/8, which is up slightly for the name. Calls to Voicestream, based in Bellevue, Wash., were not returned by press time.

Wellsford Real Properties recently used a new $32 million credit to refinance debt on a maturing $27 million construction loan. The Manhattan development and lending firm also needed capital to finance the third phase of redeveloping its Silver Mesa apartments into an upscale, luxury condominium community in Denver, said James Burns, cfo. Moreover, the company only had $700,000 remaining on its old loan and the terms of the financing did not allow for condominium construction. Wellsford eschewed the use of its credit facility because it wanted to remain nimble in case of future investment opportunities, noted Mark Cantulupi, chief accounting officer. "To the extent that we can, we look to keep the powder dry on our revolver," he said.

Judith Putterman, a veteran corporate bond trader, has joined Fuji Securities in New York to start a corporate bond trading desk. Putterman, who started last week, most recently worked at Coastal Securities, and prior to that, Oppenheimer & Co. At Fuji, she will specialize in covering and providing liquidity to institutional accounts, and will focus primarily on investment-grade credits in the secondary market. Bernie Jensen, who will be Putterman's supervisor, said the hire was made to complement Fuji in its core areas of government and agency bond trading. Jensen would not comment when asked if this was the first of a series of hires in this area.