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Volkswagen Bank, the auto maker's European financing arm, plans to securitize its E10 billion German auto loan portfolio for the first time, says Andreas Schuberth, a member of the bank's securitization team in Braunschweig, Germany. Previously, securitizations bearing the Volkswagen moniker have been lease deals through Volkswagen Leasing. Volkswagen Bank aims to build its securitization capabilities and establish a presence in the market to diversify its funding options and gain capital relief, says Schuberth.

Westdeutsche Landesbank has hiredTom Murray,Credit Suisse First Boston's former point man for power project finance loan syndication, as a managing director to fire up its loan and private placement effort for power and energy. Murray, who left CSFB Nov. 8 as part of the firm's strategic cutback in the area, joins the German landesbank's New York team this Monday, said Howard Moseson, managing director at WestLB, who declined further comment.

White Mountains Insurance has restructured its credit facilities to make the bank debt more closely resemble bonds by tapping institutional investors and decreasing the exposure of commercial lenders. The original credit was set up in June 2001 to back the acquisition of One Beacon Insurance Group." We wanted to restructure the debt so it no longer looked like a leveraged financing acquisition vehicle but more like longer-term debt," saidReid Campbell, a v.p. in capital markets at One Beacon, now a wholly owned subsidiary of White Mountains. But, "The bond markets have been too skittish."

Salomon Smith Barney was rumored to have traded $20 million of WorldCom bank debt this week with the paper jumping from the low teens into the 22 1/2 to 23 1/2 range. One trader noted this was the first time in the last six months that he had seen WorldCom's bank debt change hands, whereas the bonds have been a lot more active. Salomon officials declined comment. This latest move follows WorldCom's release of promising numbers in its monthly operating report, including EBITDA of $416 million. At the end of September, the company also stated that cash on hand totaled $1.4 billion, up $200 million for the month.

One sell-side analyst says investors should buy the bonds of Texas Petrochemical, while another is holding out to see whether the company succeeds in renegotiating its bank agreement.

Recent gains in the bonds of Tesoro Petroleum have a sell-side analyst advising investors to take gains in the event of a short-term run up in the bonds, while another has a hold on the name. A New York-based buy-side analyst plans to steer clear of the entire refining sector, but says if he owned Tesoro's bonds he would sell them.

Atlantic Asset Management, a Stamford, Conn.-based fixed-income manager with about $7 billion in assets under management, is up for sale, according to a client of the firm and an asset management banker familiar with the situation. David Weaver, v.p. of investments for $175 million Kansas State University Foundation, which is a client of Atlantic, said the firm informed the foundation that it was up for sale several weeks ago. Atlantic oversees a $6.5 million high-yield portfolio and a $68 million core fixed-income portfolio for Kansas State University Foundation. Weaver said the foundation has not considered terminating the firm in light of the sale. Atlantic specializes in investment-grade and high-yield debt portfolios, including collateralized debt obligations. The banker said that the firm's parent company, Industrial Bank of Japan, which purchased Atlantic Asset Management about two years ago, has put the firm on the block because it wants to get out of the asset management business. "They haven't owned the firm for that long, but it wants out of the business," the banker added. Elaine Hunt, senior v.p. and a founding partner of Atlantic, did not return calls seeking comment. John Dorman, spokesman for IBJ, also did not return calls.

BlackRock Financial Management is preparing its second real estate collateralized debt obligation of the year--a $290 million deal set to price before Thanksgiving, says a CDO market official. The notes will be backed by a mix of 77% commercial mortgage-backed securities, 20% REITS and 3% commercial loans. The average rating in the collateral pool is double-B. Called Anthracite CDO II, the transaction is co-led by Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley. Calls to Brian Zeitlin, head of global CDOs at Deutsche Bank, and to Jon Strain, head of the CDO syndicate desk at Morgan Stanley, were not returned. Andrew Phillips, an MBS portfolio manager at BlackRock, did not return calls.

U.K. building societies are increasingly studying securitization as a funding option. Treasury officials at Yorkshire Building Society and Skipton Building Society say that while they are still not ready to jump into the market, they are not ruling out residential mortgage-backed deals as an alternative fund raising tool. Officials at both societies say the are not in need of funding at the moment, but potentially could issue RMBS deals in the future, probably starting with non-member assets.

Most collateral managers of collateralized debt obligations will be able to avoid consolidating special purpose entities onto their balance sheets under new rules that will be proposed soon by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, legal and accounting experts with knowledge of the rules say. Treating SPEs as separate accounting entities is one of the major benefits of securitization and is seen as imperative to sustaining a healthy CDO pipeline. Previously, it was thought that most participants in a CDO would be forced to consolidate SPEs onto their balance sheets. "It looks like it's going to be okay for the CDO market," says Dan Castro, head of structured finance research at Merrill Lynch. He adds that, "Some of the provisions that might require some work will be minor and people will be able to work around them."

CenterPoint Energy's new loan zipped up to 105 in its first week of trading, leaving bank loan players agog. The deal's hefty LIBOR plus 93/ 4% pricing and 3% LIBOR floor was a hit with investors. But some bankers said the company, which desperately needed the financing to avert a potential Chapter 11 filing, was skinned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and Credit Suisse First Boston. "Bank debt should not trade out of the box at 105," said one dealer, making the point that the deal was too richly priced.

CIBC World Markets and General Electric Capital Corp. have at least two tickets in hand after a Nov. 8 bank meeting for Therma-Tru. The $305 million credit facility for the fiberglass door maker refinances existing bank debt, said a banker familiar with the deal. The line is split between a $75 million revolver priced at LIBOR plus 23/ 4% and a $230 million "B" loan with a LIBOR plus 31/ 4% spread. Agent banks also receive a 75 basis point fee on the revolver and 25 basis points upfront on the "B" piece, he noted. A CIBC banker declined to comment, while a GE banker did not return calls.