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UBS Warburg, Goldman Sachs and CIT Group are set to lead International Steel Group's (ISG) $1 billion bank deal backing its $1.5 billion acquisition of Bethlehem Steel. The asset-based credit includes a $400 million "B" piece, a $300 million "A" loan and a $300 million revolver, according to a banker familiar with the deal. He said pricing on the "B" will fall in the range of LIBOR plus 31/4-33/ 4%, while the pro rata should price between LIBOR plus 23/4% and 31/4%. Final ratings, expected between B and BB, will determine the exact pricing, he added. The deal should launch at the end of March or early April, the banker noted. A UBS official declined to comment, while Goldman and CIT bankers did not return calls.

Lennar Corp. has remade its $390 million "B" piece by reducing the amount to $300 million, extending the maturity and locking in one of the lowest interest rates ever for an institutional tranche. The company was opportunistic in its bid to revamp the facility, looking for the right window in terms of market pricing, said Waynewright Malcolm, Lennar v.p. and treasurer.

Anne Greven joined Rabobank International last Monday as an executive director working with par loan sales. Greven reportedly left Morgan Stanley where she was a v.p. in the firm's par loan sales group a few weeks ago to pursue the new position.

Rabobank International has started the equity marketing for its first collateralized loan obligation, with E.A. Kratzman, formerly one of three co-founders and head of portfolio management for Institutional Debt Management, at the helm. Chiron CDO I, will be an approximately $300 million CLO with Credit Suisse First Boston acting as underwriter. The notes are expected to price by the end of the second quarter, said Kratzman, head of CLO management for Rabobank. "CSFB was picked for its historic close relationship with Rabobank and its presence in the leveraged loan market," he added.

AUSTRALASIA Australia

Hutchison Communications ignored the difficult conditions in the Asian debt market to place an A$800m five year floating rate note (FRN) issue on Wednesday. HSBC sole led the transaction, which was cushioned from the volatility by a guarantee from parent company Hutchison Whampoa.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) this week launched two collateralised debt obligations secured on loans to small and medium sized enterprises, both via Mizuho Securities. TMG has used securitisation since 1999 to fund small and medium sized enterprises in Tokyo. Crystal Springs CBO is the bank's first collateralised bond obligation, pooling around ¥15bn of privately placed bonds from 189 small, non-listed companies. Subordinated tranches are retained by the banks that extended or underwrote the bonds.

Mizuho Financial cancelled its ¥150bn mandatory convertible preference share issue on Wednesday, the day the deal was due to be priced. The bank instead increased its ¥850bn three tranche domestic capital raising to ¥1.08tr, following stronger than expected demand. The result is a blow to lead manager Merrill Lynch, which had been on the road with Mizuho management for almost three weeks since the deal was launched on February 25. However, the market appeared pleased with Mizuho's decision, immediately marking up the bank's ordinary shares.

Promina Group, the re-named Australian and New Zealand arm of the UK's Royal&SunAlliance Insurance Group, has begun pre-marketing what could be Australia's largest initial public offering since 1998. Goldman Sachs and Macquarie Bank are joint global co-ordinators of the issue, which could result in Royal&Sun selling all of Promina's shares to the public market.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia will price its $1bn global today (Friday). The senior notes have an average life of three years and are rated triple-A by Moody's and Standard & Poor's. Price guidance for Medallion Trust Series 2003-1G is 19bp over Libor. A junior tranche of A$25m, with an average life of 5.04 years, will be issued domestically. Legal maturity for all tranches is in December 2033.

Spreads in the Asian bond markets ballooned this week following news of an accounting scandal at Korean conglomerate SK Group, raising concerns that the pipeline of deals could close for weeks to come. On Tuesday, 10 executives of SK Group were indicted for fraud over allegations that SK Global, the chaebol's trading subsidiary, overstated its profits by $1.2bn.

With three deals priced in as many months and another due shortly, the global market is proving increasingly valuable for Australian issuers who face unattractive pricing in the domestic market. St George Bank is the latest originator to launch an SEC registered transaction, and the first bank to do so in 2003. JP Morgan priced the $1.05bn senior tranche last Friday at 20bp over Libor, achieving the tightest pricing for a global Australian mortgage deal since Interstar's $1bn offering in July 2002, which Barclays Capital priced at 18bp over Libor.