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Janet Wolff has resigned from Bank of New York to go to Dresdner Bank, where she will begin work on April 1 as a v.p. of sales and trading. She will report to Craig Meisner, managing director and the firm's head of loan syndications for North America, and Bill Fish, global head of loan syndications. Meisner confirmed the move. Repeated calls to officials and spokepeople at Bank of New York were not returned by press time and Wolff could not be reached.

Fleming Companies bank debt has recovered slightly since the company hosted a bank call a week last Friday. A piece of the term loan traded in the 92 context up from the 85-90 range, where it fell two weeks ago. Market players said the call helped to calm lenders by assuring them that Fleming's liquidity situation is not as dire as some expected and that management was still pursuing steps to delever via asset sales. Moreover, rumors suggest that there is still an asset-based lender, possibly General Electric Capital Corp., on the periphery that will step up with some new money. Calls to GECC were not returned by press time.

Brown Jordan International's $165 million senior secured term loan and $60 million senior secured revolver have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service from B3 to B1, with the ratings on review for further possible downgrade. A recently missed interest payment as well as continued concerns regarding sustainable cash flow and borrowing availability resulted in the lowered ratings. Standard & Poor's meanwhile has lowered the rating on the company's senior secured bank loan to CC from B. "These actions reflect Brown Jordan's default on its subordinated debt interest payment due Feb. 15, 2003, on notes that mature 2007," said S&P credit analyst Martin Kounitz. Brown Jordan is currently in discussions with its bank group to amend its senior credit facility.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has reinforced its reputation as an Asian market innovator, by mandating HSBC and ICICI Securities to joint lead manage the first Indian rupee domestic issue from an offshore borrower. The Kingdom of Thailand has also announced that supranationals will be allowed to raise a combined total of Bt10bn in bonds, which must have a minimum maturity of 10 years.

AUSTRALASIA Australia

Colonial Finance launched a A$300m three and four year issue via its owner, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) on Tuesday. The fund manager's issue was split into three tranches, and was increased from A$280m. "The issue secured a good response for the four year bonds and Colonial Finance's usual middle management investor base strongly supported the three year issue," said a Sydney-based banker at CBA. "Colonial Finance is a household name in Australia and it gets a lot of funding through on wholesale funds such as municipal accounts. They turned up in force for this deal."

Korea Korea East-West Power (KEWP) has mandated Credit Suisse First Boston and Daiwa SMBC to joint lead manage a ¥20bn five year Samurai bond debut. The transaction should be launched towards the end of April, but the timing depends on market conditions and a speedy resolution of the Iraqi conflict.

Australia The valuation ranges for the Promina Group IPO emerged this week, as a media blitz was also launched to encourage retail investors.

Rating: Aaa/AAA Amount: $270m

Australia Commonwealth Bank of Australia last Friday brought the fourth global Australian mortgage backed deal of the year. JP Morgan was sole bookrunner on the $1bn senior tranche of Medallion Trust Series 2003-1G, CBA's fifth global transaction.

The Taiyo Mutual Life Insurance demutualisation IPO is on track after global co-ordinator Daiwa SMBC and joint lead manager JP Morgan set the price for the offer at ¥75,000 a share, following a global roadshow that began several weeks ago. The offer was not an easy sell, but the two leads have managed to set what appears to the market to be a reasonable price. The international book was more than 2-1/2 times covered, indicating that foreign funds are still willing to support well priced issues, despite the setbacks of most new listings in the second half of 2002.

Capping off what has been a miserable week for Dresdner, the bank revealed a Eu935m loss for 2002 yesterday (Thursday), just one day after Bernd Fahrholz resigned from his post as chairman.