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London and Capital Asset Management, which manages roughly $200 million in fixed-income assets, is in the market for a head of fixed income. Cliff Ongley, compliance officer, says the firm would like to fill the recently vacated spot as soon as possible. The new hire should have expertise in a wide range of fixed-income sectors--from investment grade to high yield to emerging markets--and be comfortable handling debt issued in a wide range of currencies.

Metals USA, a Houston metals processor and distributor, is talking to five undisclosed banks about refinancing a $100 million credit facility led by Bank of America, as part of its strategy to exit Chapter 11. Michael Kirksey, ceo, told sister publication Corporate Financing Week that he expects to have a $175 million credit facility to replace the B of A loan.

A small piece of the New Orleans Hornets' revolver was believed to have changed hands at around 101 1/2 last week. These are assets that people feel comfortable with, one dealer noted, explaining why the pro-rata was able to trade above par.

Wachovia Securities is launching a $450 million bank deal backing Gray Television's $502.5 million acquisition of Stations Holding Company, which is comprised of 15 of Benedek Broadcasting's stations. The loan comprises a $75 million revolver priced at LIBOR plus 3% and a $375 million "B" term loan priced at LIBOR plus 31/ 4%. It is undecided whether the "B" tranche will be sold at par, one banker said. Calls to Jim Ryan, cfo of Gray, were not returned. A Wachovia banker declined to comment.

Australian mortgage lender Suncorp-Metway this week priced Apollo Series 2002-2 Trust, its third residential mortgage deal for a total of A$750m. Offshore investors were keen buyers of the paper due to the lack of European MBS. Salomon Smith Barney lead managed the issue with co-manager UBS Warburg. Apollo Series 2002-2 Trust offered four tranches of notes which were rated by Fitch and Standard & Poor's. All were priced in line with recent transactions.

Korea Electric Power Corp (Kepco) returned in style to the dollar bond market, after an absence of nearly three years, with a $650m five year global issue yesterday (Thursday). The 144a Reg S transaction was a resounding success - despite being issued when US stockmarkets were taking a hammering.

Australia Citigroup/SSB and UBS Warburg are preparing an IPO of Laminex, which markets and distributes laminated particle board for kitchen, office furniture and other applications.

The Republic of the Philippines took the market by surprise this week with an opportunistic $300m five year issue, reinforcing its reputation as Asia's most prolific international issuer. The deal was launched after less than two days of pre-marketing, with ING acting as sole bookrunner for the Reg S transaction.

Australian insurer QBE Group on Wednesday evening sold $150m (A$277m) of long dated convertible bonds in a privately placed add-on tranche to an almost identical $250m offering completed in April. The transaction was the second success for lead manager Merrill Lynch in offering this particular 20 year hybrid structure in Australia. Both issues were launched this year for QBE. The transaction was in the form of the Merrill Lynch manufactured zero coupon notes the bank calls Liquid Yield Option Notes (Lyons).

Undeterred by the Nikkei 225 hitting 19 year lows this week, joint lead managers and joint bookrunners Daiwa SMBC, Morgan Stanley and UBS Warburg are forging ahead with the float of Nippon Steel's software integration subsidiary, NS Solutions. If all goes as planned in the regulatory filings, the deal could raise more than ¥47bn ($400m), making it the largest IPO since March.

Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing threw its future in the global semiconductor industry into the spotlight on Monday when the state sponsored Singapore chipmaker announced a $634m deep discount rights issue. Ultimate controlling shareholder Singapore Technologies (under government controlled Temasek Holdings) is taking its 60.5% share of the offer and Merrill Lynch is underwriting the other 39.5%. The bank's senior management will be on tenterhooks until the result of the issue is announced on October 9.

AMP Diversified Property Trust returned to its tried and tested domestic investor base with a A$145m five year transaction on Wednesday, despite specially arranging an innovative structure to appeal to offshore accounts Concerns about domestic investors being saturated with property trust issuance led AMP to also look at offshore accounts. But the deal ended up being placed mostly in local hands and was increased by A$5m as investors rallied to a credit story that they understood.