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UBS Warburg is preparing to launch syndication of a $450 million credit backing Transmontaigne's acquisition of the Florida petroleum operations from El Paso Corp. The new facility consists of a three-year, $250 million revolver and a three-year, $200 million term loan, which increases the company's existing credit line by $150 million. FleetBoston Financial led the previous facility. A banker familiar with the new deal said that it is still too early to determine pricing, but that the deal would be syndicated in the next few weeks. A UBS official declined to comment.

DDJ Capital, a Wellesley, Mass.-based distressed debt investor, is believed to have bought up the majority the SLI's bank debt at about 15. The firm is estimated to have bought about $200 million worth of paper, with the trades rumored to have been brokered by FleetBoston Financial, the lead bank on the credit. SLI is currently wading through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process and has $365 million in pre-petition bank debt. Judy Mencher, co-founder and principal of DDJ, referred calls to a spokeswoman, who cited firm policy of not commenting on their investments or strategies. Calls to Fleet officials and Robert Mancini, SLI cfo, were not returned.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has been mandated to lead a credit backing equity sponsor American Securities Capital Partners and company management in the buyout of Oreck Corporation. A banker familiar with the deal said the full details of the credit have not been determined. But he noted the deal is estimated to comprise approximately $140 million of funded financing with a revolver. RBS is out to possible co-leads on the deal, he added, noting that a retail launch will soon follow. The vacuum cleaner company deal is expected to be leveraged just over three times debt-to-EBITDA, all senior. New Orleans-based Oreck sells cleaning equipment and machines throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia. A RBS official declined to comment. David Horring, managing director at American Securities, did not return calls. An Oreck official could not be reached by press time.

UBS Warburg's $100 million "B" piece for Serologicals' acquisition of Chemicon International is hitting the market tomorrow with a LIBOR plus 4 1/4% coupon. The five-year, fully underwritten deal also includes a $25 million revolver priced at LIBOR plus 3 3/4%, according to a banker familiar with the facility. This is the life sciences company's first "B" loan. Bud Ingalls, Serologicals' cfo, said in a previous interview that Serologicals was advised that an institutional piece would receive the best reception in the present market (LMW, 2/24). UBS was also the financial advisor for the $95 million acquisition. A UBS official declined to comment.

Banc of America Securities is readying a second synthetic securitization of residential mortgages after debuting its first such product last December, said BofA officials. The firm's first deal, dubbed RESI (Real Estate Synthetic Investments), is thought to be the first of its kind in the U.S. Jennifer DiClerico, spokeswoman in New York, did not return calls.

Jérome Camblain, senior managing director and European head of fixed income distribution and derivatives at Bear Stearns in London, will retire from the firm in late spring to spend more time with his family. Peter Albano, senior managing director and global head of emerging markets in New York, is moving to London to take Camblain's responsibilities.

Export Development Canada, a Canadian government-backed trade financier, has entered into foreign exchange swaps in order to convert non-U.S. dollar debt issues into greenbacks, as well as converting note sales from fixed-rate offerings into synthetic LIBOR-based floating rate liabilities. An official at EDC in Ottawa said the financing body swaps all non-U.S. dollar issues into the currency. Debt is issued in various currencies in order to ensure diversification in its debt portfolio, as well as to reach a broader array of investors. Capital raised from the debt issues is used to support Canadian exporters and investors internationally. Meanwhile, EDC typically converts fixed rate issues into LIBOR-based debt in order to match revenues with interest rate risk, said an official familiar with the firm.

Cheyne Capital Management, a convertible bond and collateralized debt obligation fund manager with USD8 billion under management, has hired George Spentos, credit derivatives trader at Nomura International in London, as a portfolio manager in London. Spentos will report to John Weiss and David Peacock, portfolio managers at Cheyne in London. Weiss and Peacock joined Cheyne in March last year from Goldman Sachs with plans to launch a series of managed CDOs (DW, 3/25). Peacock confirmed the hire and said the firm is actively recruiting portfolio managers but declined further comment. Spentos has not yet started at Cheyne and could not be reached.

The correlation between credit-default swaps and out-of-the-money equity puts has started to decouple over the past three months and derivatives houses, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, have begun pitching trades to investors to take advantage of this market change. Several convertible arbitrage hedge funds, such as one of KBC Alternative Investment Management's funds, have started using out-of-the-money equity puts as a less expensive alternative to credit-default swaps when hedging the credit risk in convertible bonds (DW, 1/5).

The likely demerger of Six Continents has highlighted a hole in the International Swaps and Derivatives Association's 2003 credit derivatives definitions and lawyers are calling for the association to start work on a supplement. Derivatives professionals want to clarify the successor language so that when a company changes its corporate structure the transfer of obligations includes debt that is refinanced, and not just shifted around.

The cost of one-month dollar/yen options rose at the beginning of last week as the yen strengthened against the dollar to JPY117. Implied volatility rose to 12% on Monday, up from 10% the previous Friday, in reaction to the weakening dollar. There was strong customer interest for buying dollar puts/yen calls in a variety of maturities, with strikes in the range of JPY112-115, traders said. Implied vol had begun to rise the previous week as the yen strengthened from JPY120.5 early in the week.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein has hired Sergio Solorzano, CDO structurer at Credit Suisse First Boston in London, as v.p. in CDO structuring. He started last week and reports to Jeremy Vice and Darren Smith, co-heads of CDOs in London. Vice said Solorzano will structure both cash and synthetic deals.