Search results for

What's the latest buzz from the sun-drenched shores of Lake Geneva? There has been a game of musical chairs among the swanky local private banks, and we are told that the DJ is still playing. First, Benedict Hentsch flew too close to the sun in his involvement with Swissair and was bought out by his co-partners at Darier Hentsch & Cie. Second, the Darier Hentsch partners realised that they had their backs to the wall, and that with unlimited liability in an increasingly dangerous investment world they might lose not only their shirts, but be found on the Rue du Mont-Blanc wearing nothing but their Ralph Lauren boxer shorts.

Guarantor: Westpac Banking Corp Rating: Aa3/AA-

William Hill's stock price soared after its £735m IPO on the London Stock Exchange this week and shed a much needed ray of light on the otherwise dreary equity markets of Europe. On the day that William Hill priced its offering of 284m shares (last Friday) the FTSE 100 was having one of its worst days of the year, falling nearly 3% and closing at a nine month low. But such was the strength of the William Hill book - the deal was more than 10 times covered - that when trading started on Monday, the shares soared to a close of 246p, up 9% from the issue price of 225p. The deal was priced from an initial range of 190p-240p.

Amsterdam's security services should have been put on full alert last Friday when SNS bank unleashed some of the MTN market's naughtiest boys on the Dutch capital. The car racing party was a great success. Deutsche Bank's Chris Jones was pulled over for driving his vintage car the wrong way up a cycle lane, CSFB's Scott Rouse managed to take a wrong turn at the start of the course and finished two hours later than the others, and UBS Warburg's Gavin Eddy got a ticking off for over-revving his engine. They were rewarded for their road-hog endeavours with a night of drinking and dancing. During the day the party tried to blend in to the Dutch countryside... by dressing up in traditional costume. HSBC's Fergus Kiely looked amazing (Leak requests that someone email the photo over immediately) and one eager (male) partygoer chose the costume with long yellow plaits and a beautiful skirt and apron. That was not the only party thrown last week. The conference in London meant that banks have been keen to wine and dine their clients. BNP Paribas kept the food concept simple, with its party in Harrod's food hall. No doubt they had a riot among the biscuits and jars of caviar. Royal Bank of Scotland also hosted a drinks party and Barclays treated its clients to an evening at the Natural History Museum. Bet they had a whale of a time.

Amount: Eu150m Rating: Moody's/Fitch

International Flavors & Fragrances (Luxembourg) Sárl has mandated ABN Amro and Barclays to arrange its Eu300m multi-currency revolver. The five year deal carries a margin of 55bp over Euribor which moves on a ratings grid.

Chicago-based Madison Dear-born Partners (MDP) this week made a pre-conditional cash offer of Eu2.15 per share for Irish paper-based packaging company Jefferson Smurfit Group (JSG). The price is a 38% premium to the JSG share price before the offer and values the company at around Eu3.7bn ($3.5bn).

A M$160m term loan for Borneo Samudra has been completed. The borrower owns an oil palm plantation. The deal is divided between a M$100m five year portion and a M$60m seven year tranche. Banks received an all-in fee of 145bp over cost of funds.

UK mortgage lender Northern Rock hit the market hard last Friday with another igneous rock, momentarily replacing the well known Granite name with Dolerite, a new master trust. The group's first entry into the commercial mortgage backed market was greeted warmly by investors as Citigroup/SSSB offered $600m and £83.75m of notes backed by a diverse portfolio of properties.

Compiled by Richard Favis, RBC Capital Markets, Johannesburg Tel: +27 11 784 5065

Mediobanca has added three banks to the named dealer panel off its euro5 billion ($4.79 billion) Euro-MTN programme. They are Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Goldman Sachs and Salomon Smith Barney. The programme has $752.73 million-worth of debt outstanding off 24 trades, most of which are denominated in euro.

Even as Rick Stoddard, the head of Merrill Lynch's issuer client group for Asia, prepares to leave, the bank has wasted no time in making three new hires to help target the US bank's client and issuer base. Raymond Wu and Leenor Lee are joining Merrill Lynch's investor client group, which is responsible for marketing and selling debt instruments, including derivatives.