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Calpine's "B" piece has grabbed the attention of the buyside, who pushed the size of the tranche to $1 billion from $600 million. When terms of the loan were originally floated, investors balked at the risk of lending to the embattled power generator, investors and bankers said. The LIBOR plus 23/ 4% spread was seen as way too low without enough security in place. But after pricing was upped 1% and some added collateral was thrown in, the deal gained traction. It could not be determined if the $1 billion revolver has been downsized in conjunction with the term loan "B" increase.

Citigroup Investments officials will most likely search for analytical expertise as they look to replace a senior portfolio manager and a trader who recently left the firm, according to a senior fixed-income official familiar with the firm's plans. Kathy Karlic, a senior portfolio manager who recently left the firm after 17 years to join GE Asset Management, had previously been Citigroup's research head. More recently, Citigroup lost Joe Mullally, a senior emerging markets trader who joined UBS Principal Finance (BW, 5/13).

Comcast opted for a new $12.825 billion credit facility with a $7 billion bridge loan to fund its acquisition of AT&T Broadband and will seek a public debt offering or asset sale to secure permanent financing at an opportune time. The company had two options to obtain the necessary financing, said Ken Mikalauskas, v.p. of finance at Comcast. It could secure a bridge loan or go to the public markets to raise the funds. "[The bridge loan] gives us the flexibility to access the capital markets at the right time for our permanent financing," explained Mikalauskas. New financing will be approximately the same size, he noted, and could include a sale of Comcast's 25% stake in Time Warner Entertainment.

Despite concerns over casinos in Las Vegas after the downturn in air travel following the terrorist attacks, Goldman Sachs and Bank of Nova Scotia's "B" term loan for Venetian Casino Resort's blew out within hours of launch two weeks ago and was five times oversubscribed as Loan Market Week went to press. "Venetian is a high quality casino property and there are strong advanced booking trends related to the company's conference business," noted Moody's Investors Service analyst Keith Foley. Las Vegas is still a very popular destination for conferences, he added. The $375 million bank debt has received a B2 rating from Moody's, which is one notch higher than the senior implied rating. The $850 million in second mortgage notes accompanying the credit have been rated Caa1.

Credit Suisse First Boston has hired David Jansky as a v.p. in its structured finance collateralized debt obligation group. He reports to Chris Ricciardi, managing director and head of U.S. structured credit products. Jansky, who started two weeks ago, will work on structuring asset-backed securities CDOs as well as investment-grade CDOs. Ricciardi says the position is a newly created one as his group has been expanding.

Tony Smith has resigned from Credit Suisse First Boston where he was a managing director and co-head of U.S. investment-grade research. Smith is widely expected to join J.P. Morgan Securities, but a person at that firm says he is unaware whether Smith's expected hire has yet become official. Smith would pick up commercial bank coverage from Katy Rossow, a v.p., who has resigned and will leave shortly to join GE Asset Management in Stamford, Conn, according to an internal announcement sent out by Margaret Cannella, head of high-grade research at J.P. Morgan. Cannella declined comment, and Smith, Rossow and Robert MacDougall, head of fixed-income at GE Asset Management, did not return calls.

Deutsche Bank is about to launch syndication of its $900 million deal for Fleming and is said to be showing the loan to large accounts. A banker said the credit, split between a $600 million revolver and $300 million term loan, backs the $430 million acquisition of Core-Mark International and Head Distributing, and refinances existing debt. Pricing on the revolver is set on a grid ranging from LIBOR plus 13/ 4% to 2%, while the term loan is priced at LIBOR plus 21/ 4%.

BHP Billiton, the Anglo-Australian mining group, is finally close to spinning off its BHP Steel business, which will have a market capitalisation of A$2.1bn-A$2.6bn when it lists separately in July. ABN Amro and Credit Suisse First Boston are handling the deal. The long awaited move, which was flagged in March 2001, will be the largest stock market listing in Australia for two years and will place BHP Steel in the list of the country's top 60 listed companies.

Australia Amcor shares surged to an eight year high last Friday (May 10) when trading resumed after the institutional part of a A$1.4bn new capital raising was completed. The deal is to help Amcor pay for the acquisition of parts of German firm Schmalbach-Lubeca.

The Czech Export Bank (CEB) has provided the only Czech sovereign exposure available in the Euromarkets, with a $350m seven year fixed rate bond via Morgan Stanley (books) and Ceska Sporitelna. The deal should be priced today (Friday) at a Treasury spread of 115bp-120bp, with distribution expected to be dominated by banks, plus a smattering of convergence and other funds.

Australia AGL has launched a A$300m 7% October 2007 transaction via ABN Amro and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). The energy investment and development company's deal was priced at 100.08 to provide a re-offer yield of 6.98% and a spread of 68bp over swaps. The initial pricing guidance was 65bp-68bp.