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Macquarie Research Equities last week turned its quantitative firepower on Saturday's Rugby World Cup clash in Sydney and predicted that Australia will defeat arch rivals England. In the research report, Why the Wallabies will win?, Macquarie's propeller heads weighed the likely impact of factors such as momentum, consensus recommendations and the weather. The authors of the report in Sydney could not be reached for comment. A spokeswoman was unable to comment by press time.

Since well before the Mexican devaluation of 1994, investors and firms have had the ability to create or offset convex peso currency exposures using options. When it comes to interest rates, however, only recently have options become readily available, in the form of caps, floors and swaptions. Users now have the tools at hand to create or hedge contingent interest rate assets or liabilities denominated in Mexican pesos.

Five-year credit protection on U.S. power distributor FirstEnergy popped last week after a U.S./Canadian task force blamed the corporate for the Aug. 14 blackout. Last Wednesday protection on the name widened 10 basis points to 100bps, before settling back in around 95ps, according to a trader. Movement came as bond holders sought protection on the corporate, with dealers also showing interest in selling swaps on the name, he said.

UBS Securities is stepping back into the covered bond business and has hired two top professionals from Deutsche Bank to spearhead the effort, according to DW sister publication BondWeek. The firm closed its covered bond desk around two years ago, according to one market participant. Dirk Burmeister and Haiko Heuer, who will start in Frankfurt early next year, report to Stephen Bell, global head of trading. Bell was traveling and did not respond to an e-mail. Burmeister, who worked as a senior trader, and Heuer, who was a structured products specialist at the German bank, will work in similar roles at UBS. Samantha Smith, a UBS spokeswoman, did not comment by press time.

MeesPierson, the private banking arm of Fortis Bank, has sold a single-tranche collateralized debt obligation to its high-net-worth clients. Koen Zoutenbier, product development in Amsterdam, said it has sold EUR150 million (USD179 million) of the note to both advisory clients and discretionary accounts. It sells the CDO in chunks of EUR1,000.

Chinatrust Commercial Bank, one of Taiwan's largest banks with around TWD849 billion (USD25 billion) in assets, is planning to issue the first Taiwan dollar-denominated synthetic collateralized debt obligation and is discussing co-structuring the deal with international banks. "We're putting more resources into this product," said Gloria Hsu, v.p. in the product development group in Taipei, noting that the bank is looking to structure three CDOs next year referenced to onshore credits in the domestic currency. "It will probably be a first," said C.G. Lai, head of fixed income at BNP Paribas in Taipei. The French bank is not currently signed up to structure the deal, but Lai said it will likely speak with Chinatrust about these types of instruments.

Jonathan Davies, global head of credit derivatives at PricewaterhouseCoopers in London, has joined Reoch Consulting, an independent credit derivatives consultant founded by Robert Reoch, former credit derivatives head at JPMorgan, Bank of America and Nomura. Davies confirmed the move.

Andrew Bieler, managing director and head of program trading for the U.S. at Goldman Sachs in New York, has resigned. Reasons for the resignation could not be ascertained and Bieler could not be reached.

"We're putting more resources into this product." --Gloria Hsu, v.p. in the product development group at Chinatrust Commercial Bank in Taipei, commenting on the bank's effort to launch the first Taiwanese dollar-denominated CDO. For complete story, click here.

UBS is transferring Jerry Wong, credit derivatives structurer in London, to its Hong Kong hub. "This is in response to the massive inquiries we're receiving from the Greater China region," saidLee Knight, managing director in the fixed income division in Tokyo, to whom Wong now reports. Knight added that the firm plans to hire an additional structurer for the desk.

A group of banks have provided financing to back the $2.6 billion acquisition of Time Warner’s Warner Music Group by an investor group led by Thomas H. Lee Partners, Edgar Bronfman Jr.’s Lexa Partners, Bain Capital and Providence Equity Partners.

BondWeek is the leading news publication for fixed-income professionals, covering new deals, structures, asset-backed securities, industry and market activity.