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Playtex Products is returning to the market with a seven-year, $470 million term loan "C" via sole lead arranger and administration agent Credit Suisse First Boston. Pricing on the line is a skinny LIBOR plus 21/ 2%, which is 75 basis points below pricing on the $325 million "B" tranche arranged this time last year (LMW, 5/3/01). The bank meeting was held last Thursday for the BB-/Ba3 name. Officials at Playtex did not return calls.

Credit Suisse First Boston is looking to hire an asset-backed securitization banker specializing in the Spanish market for its London ABS team, says an industry official. The new hire, who will replace a banker who has moved internally, will report to Lourdes Moreno, co-head of securitization in London. Calls to Moreno were not returned.

Credit Suisse First Boston has brought all of its European debt businesses together into one unit, including origination, securitization and credit derivatives. John Zafiriou, head of European fixed-income, says the firm is moving to one platform to take a unified approach to clients. The unified group will also include treasuries and short-term instruments, foreign exchange, asset finance, liability management, corporates, financial institutions and sovereigns. J.P. Morgan Securities has a similar organizational structure. No layoffs are believed to be involved in this move.

FAO, formerly Right Start, has rolled two asset-based lines into one $127 million facility on the heels of acquiring toy-stores Zainy Brainy and FAO Schwarz. The company put in place a $115 million, three-year revolver for its Zainy Brainy acquisition in September and also used an existing $10 million, four-year revolver it secured in January 2001. Both were led by Wells Fargo. The $10 million line was increased to $24 million for extra liquidity when the company acquired FAO Schwarz in January 2002 with the expectation that the lines would be consolidated in the spring.

Radian Asset Assurance has added Chris Allen and Michele Kearns as v.p.s in the global structured products division of its London office. Both will start next week and report to Ned Bowers, managing director and head of global structured products, who is based in New York. Elizabeth Emmons, a spokeswoman with the Radian Group, Radian Assurance's parent company, says both positions were created to expand Radian Asset Assurance's presence overseas. The two securitization pros will work at structuring and originating collateralized debt obligations, asset-backed securities and asset-backed commercial paper, she says.

Aurora Foods bank debt took a hit last Tuesday trading down to the 92 range off from the 97-98 range after the company reported poorer than expected losses, including a $20 million pretax charge. One trader referred to the trades as a "panic sale." Dealers said the market for the name had risen again to the 94-95 context by midweek. The company has been working on a turnaround plan for the last 18 months, but market players said that lenders were getting weary with the name.

Owners and managers of large Hong Kong companies took advantage of a Hong Kong stock market rally this week to launch two large block trades and one equity-linked issue. Merrill Lynch sold a large domestic currency convertible, raising HK$1.5bn for Sino Land. BNP Paribas Peregrine completed a bought deal to sell almost 10% of Shangdong International Power. HSBC also got in on the act, selling HK$734m of new shares for Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia).

Hong Kong Standard & Poor's has set Hong Kong's rating at A+ with stable outlook.

Telstra Corp battled through taxing market conditions to launch a A$500m November 2012 deal yesterday (Thursday). The Aa3/AA- rated telco had to issue the new deal wider than it had originally expected as the fallout from weak demand for international telecoms borrowers hit the domestic market. Despite this, bankers at the joint lead managers said that the fact Telstra was able to press ahead and succeed with its deal when the market environment was so poor reflects its strong name recognition and investor following. National Australia Bank (NAB), UBS Warburg and Westpac Institutional Bank were joint lead managers for the transactions.

The IPO of Projek Lebuhraya Utara-Selatan (PLUS), Malaysia's largest toll road owner and operator, is now expected to proceed before the float of Maxis Communications, one of the country's top cellular telecoms companies. The research blackout for the PLUS deal is slated for Monday evening and limited premarketing could start in the second half of next week.

Nikko Salomon Smith Barney this week launched a ¥250bn Euroyen convertible bond for Fujitsu, the largest ever international yen convertible for a Japanese issuer. The deal is a coup for Nikko/SSB, which has for several years been working hard to persuade more Japanese companies to issue equity-linked paper in volume. Fujitsu sold ¥220bn of paper after sole bookrunner Nikko/SSB had secured more than ¥1.3tr ($10.4bn) of orders from international investors hungry for the defensive instrument, which allows them to benefit from the equity upside of Fujitsu as the results of its rationalisation and refocusing strategy begin to show through. Nikko/SSB then exercised the greenshoe, bringing the deal to ¥250bn ($1.97bn).

Joint underwriters and lead managers JB Were and UBS Warburg were due to close the books on a A$1.4bn equity, equity-linked and debt package for Amcor at midnight last night (Thursday) Australian time. The deal highlights the move by Australian corporates into the global market and the willingness of international fund managers to support their ambitions. Amcor, Australia's largest packaging company, had on Wednesday announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire the PET container and closure assets of German company Schmalbach-Lubeca for A$2.875bn ($1.55bn).