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Swiss Re will issue a catastrophe bond deal later this month led by Lehman Brothers, according to a buy-side investor. Called Redwood Capital 2, after the first series issued in December (BW, 12/24/01), the deal size should be approximately $200 million. Goldman Sachs, the other major CAT underwriter, will not be part of this deal, according to this investor. Michael Millette, a v.p. and CAT banker with Goldman, declined comment. The investor adds that the transaction is likely to get an investment-grade rating. At present, only 10% of the $2 billion in outstanding CAT bonds are investment-grade. Five percent of outstanding CAT bonds are rated single-B while the remainder are double-B.

Nextel Communications and Global Crossing found popularity with would-be buyers last week with $40-50 million of each name trading. A $2.5 million piece of Nextel's term loans "B" and "C" traded at 84 3/4 in the street following higher bond prices by week's end. The paper, which had been auctioned off as low as 80 two weeks ago, hit the 83 3/4 level by midweek. On Thursday, $2.5 million of the name's "D" term loan traded at 83 3/8. Officials at the company could not be reached by press time.

UBS Warburg is looking to hire two asset-backed analysts to cover the European market and one public sector analyst. One ABS hire will be a replacement and the other a newly created position, says Helen Clement, global head of credit research in London, where the two would be based. At present, the firm only has one ABS analyst after its London-based analyst, Ralf Gasser, was let go amid allegations he and other UBS analysts had accessed Morgan Stanley's research Web site without authorization, according to a Bloomberg article. The public sector analyst will replace Beate Muenstermann, who left at the same time as Gasser. Clement declined to comment on the analysts' departures.

UBS Warburg has added veteran mortgage-backed securities trader Michael Hirschberg to its collateralized mortgage obligation trading effort in New York. Hirschberg joins from Bear Stearns, where he worked for 12 years, beginning as a summer intern on the fixed-income trading floor. Hirschberg will trade trust IO/PO bonds and head up all MBS derivatives trading, according to his new boss, Dave Martin. Martin says the position is newly created, and a response to customer demand for more mortgage derivatives. He will be a managing director.

Recent downgrades of Road Chef and Welcome Break, two landmark whole business securitization deals of roadside service complexes in the U.K., could put a damper on the market's appetite for these kinds of deals and bring closer scrutiny from ratings agencies, London-based bankers say. Last week, Fitch Ratings downgraded Road Chef's two single-A tranches to triple-B+, and its triple-B tranche to double-B. Welcome Break had four single-A tranches downgraded to triple-B+ and one triple-B tranche downgraded to double-B. Fitch noted that both companies are coming close to the danger zone in terms of being able to service their debt.

Total investment grade issuance for the week was $12.5 billion, with a big surge as a combination of Greenspan's testimony and better-than-expected economic data made spread product more attractive for investors. Highlights of the week include the 3-tranche $3 billion deal for National Rural Utilities (A2/A), which had a tough start but ended up pricing 5-7 bp inside of original price talk as the market mood improved. Heinz (A3/A) also took advantage of the surge in demand for corporates bringing $1.25 billion of 10- and 30-year debt into a hot market. The deal was a blowout, launching and pricing in the space of a few hours. Despite the high profile accounting blowups that have plagued some of the benchmark borrowers in the corporate bond market, there is still clear appetite for better quality borrowers and investors still have money to put to work.

Société Générale is structuring a EUR300 million (USD261 million) arbitrage synthetic collateralized debt obligation. An investor in London said the portfolio consists of credit-default swaps referenced to 54 European and six U.S. blue chip corporates. He added, there is no exposure to the airline or gaming industries.

In last month's Australian deals of the year, we opted for a transaction that was daring and unique. Rather than look at the handful of IPOs that had taken place in the course of the year, or the larger secondary deals from the likes of Macquarie Infrastructure Group, we gave our equity award to the insurer, QBE. QBE, like all insurers, was hit badly by the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington DC. Quite apart from the insurer's exposure to the disaster, QBE's share price took a battering during the uncertainty that followed, dropping from A$10.21 to A$3.28. If the company was to keep its capital base solid, convince investors of its strength, and take part in any later upswing in the insurance markets, it needed to raise new capital. It therefore went to the market with an A$663 million (US$342.3 million) rights issue, becoming one of the first issuers after September 11 to attempt to access the markets.

Australia has one of the best-performing economies in the developed world – saved, in many respects, by the things that were causing consternation and criticism a year or so ago. Chris Wright reports.

Asiamoney met with Ian Macfarlane, governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, in Sydney in February. On the agenda was Australia's economic performance relative to the rest of the world – strong in every sense except the currency.

The predominant theme of the Australian debt capital markets for the last three years – the gulf between supply and demand – is set to become much more pronounced this year. Chris Wright reports.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has announced the country is out of trouble economically. The state of New South Wales is particularly well positioned to enjoy this renewed growth – it may argue, in fact, that it was never in trouble in the first place. Asiamoney's Fiona Haddock met with its long-serving premier, the Honourable Bob Carr, in Singapore.