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Nova CDO 2001, a collateralized debt obligation managed by Phoenix Investment Partners, with Antares Capital Corp. as the bank loan advisor, is suffering from deterioration in the credit quality of the underlying collateral and is out of compliance on all four of its overcollateralization (OC) tests, according to Mark Froeba, v.p., senior credit officer within the stuctured finance group at Moody's Investors Service. The deal, which closed in May of 2001, is predominantly a bond vehicle with a loan component.

Five banks pitched Dole Food Company's $1.15 billion acquisition financing package to senior managing agents last Thursday with price talk in the LIBOR plus 3-33/4% range. A $600 million "B" piece is being offered to buysiders, joining the parade of hefty institutional pieces that have flooded the loan market this year. Officials familiar with the deal quoted the "B" spread in the 33/4% over LIBOR range. A pro rata $300 million revolver and $250 million "A" piece will also price between LIBOR plus 3-31/2%, according to a banker. One investor noted that the deal is collateralized by real estate (LMW, 1/6). Deutsche Bank, Scotia Capital, Bank of America, Société Générale and FleetBoston Financial are shopping the deal.

Barclays Capital has hired Adam Barrett, who formerly headed financial institutions fixed-income sales at Goldman Sachs in London. A Barclays spokeswoman says he will be managing director and European head of wholesale solutions and client coverage, including transitions management. A spokeswoman at Goldman says Barrett left the firm late last year. Barrett could not be reached for comment.

Lead manager Citigroup/SSB priced two series of mortgage backed notes from Citigroup's Compass master trust programme last Friday. The programme was a precursor to the UK's MBS master trusts, and has now reached 13 series. The $260m offering was split into two equal portions, of three and four year maturities. Each series comprised a A$125m senior tranche, rated triple-A by Moody's and Standard and Poor's, and a A$5m A2/A rated junior piece.

Australia Australia regained its AAA foreign currency rating from Standard & Poor's - after a gap of 17 years- when the agency upgraded the country from AA+ this week.

A string of new mandates has emerged from India in recent weeks as confidence in the country returns. The renewed appetite has tightened pricing. Two new mandates from India were awarded in the last week (see main text). The first went to Barclays and HSBC to arrange the new $100m five year bullet facility for India Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC). And ICICI awarded a mandate to Crédit Lyonnais to arrange a $100m 364 day term loan.

Japan Retail Fund's global follow-on share offering was priced on Tuesday, following strong demand from local and international investors. The 95,402 unit deal raised gross proceeds of ¥49.52bn which should rise to ¥52.2bn when the 5,102 unit over-allotment option is exercised. There was also a private placement of 4,500 units to related companies. The allocation remained as originally planned, with 50% of the deal placed with retail investors in Japan, 20% sold to local institutions and 30% to overseas funds.

AUSTRALIA Interstar's $800m global RMBS is due to be priced today (Friday). Led by Barclays Capital, Interstar Millennium Series 2003-1G will be the second global Australian RMBS this year. In January Deutsche Bank launched a $1bn global for Macquarie Securitisation.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group on Monday announced plans to raise up to ¥345bn ($2.9bn) from the sale of mandatory convertible preference shares to overseas investors in an issue managed by Goldman Sachs. The deal, which is structured only for foreign investors, sent out signals to the market that the bank might be in far worse shape than had been expected.

The next Hong Kong listing for a Chinese firm is on the road. Shanghai Forte Land set out this week to sell 456m shares as part of its planned Hong Kong listing. HSBC is lead manager for the issue, which is due to be priced on March 1. Shanghai Forte is a privately held property company that operates mainly in the Shanghai metropolitan area. It has enjoyed strong growth in land and property prices in recent years, fuelled by China's economic expansion.

Snowy Hydro priced the largest ever unwrapped 10 year transaction for a triple-B corporate in the Australian bond market yesterday (Thursday), selling a A$104m BBB+ bond as part of its A$500m five tranche debut issue. In order to maximise demand, Snowy Hydro structured the deal to include fixed and floating paper, as well as wrapped and unwrapped 10 year bonds. Strong support from institutional investors for the triple-A wrapped tranches has raised hopes that such transactions can still be arranged, despite the collapse in traditional conduit interest late last year.

Nomura sold the first Euroyen convertible bond issue of 2003 this week. Including the ¥3bn greenshoe, which is likely to be exercised, the deal will raise ¥23bn, or roughly $193m, for machinery firm THK. The transaction demonstrated both the price leadership of the Euromarket over the domestic yen convertible market and also the huge pent-up demand for equity linked paper.