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The Walt Disney Co. has entered an interest-rate swap on the back of a USD1.75 billion global bond offering last month, according to Thomas Staggs, cfo in Burbank, Calif. The company finalized the global bond sale in late February and had looked to do an interest-rate swap immediately following the offering. Instead, was forced to wait a couple weeks because it could not enter at a low enough rate he said, declining to elaborate.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein is structuring a USD3 billion synthetic collateralized swap obligation with a unique step-up coupon designed to assuage CDO investors who have been battered as a result of downgrades. In the deal, dubbed Petra, the second loss tranche is a single A rated credit-linked note with a coupon that jumps 50 basis points if it gets downgraded to BBB and 150bps if it goes to speculative grade, according to an investor who is familiar with the deal. The deal is likely to come to market in the next couple of months. Officials at DrKW declined comment.

Enodis, a food service equipment provider, has entered over-the-counter foreign exchange swaps to convert proceeds from a sterling-denominated bond offering it issued late last month into dollars and euros. Although the company is headquartered in London it has significant assets and exposure outside the U.K., said Susan Sharrock Yates, interim treasurer in London. "The bulk of our assets are in dollars and we generally seek to try and match the currency of our assets, but we were advised that it would be [cheaper] to issue in sterling, including swapping across," she said. She declined to quantify the cost saving of issuing in sterling and not dollars or euros.

One-month implied volatility for U.S. dollar/yen options fell 50 basis points, as investors slowed their activity in the options market in the wake of the coming holiday weekend. One-month implied vol fell to 10.0% by Wednesday afternoon, down from a high of about 10.5% the previous week. FX options traders in New York reported diminished trades in the market as spot moved little throughout the week. "Spot has barely moved. The holiday weekend is keeping everyone out," said one trader. Common trades saw investors looking to buy three-month to six-month dollar calls/yen puts with strikes between JPY150-155, while spot hovered around JPY132.52. A week prior spot was around JPY131.25.

The Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Co., one of Japan's largest insurers with over USD36 billion in assets, is considering increasing the size of its credit-linked note investment portfolio in the coming months from the JPY50 billion (USD376 million) it purchased before fiscal year-end last month. Takeshi Ushiki, deputy manager of the financial services department in Tokyo, noted that with credit-default swap spreads narrowing in Japan credit-linked notes look more attractive. He continued that management is currently discussing increasing the use of credit-linked notes as part of its strategy for the coming year but declined to elaborate on a targeted investment range.

A Lloyd's of London syndicate managed by Hiscox is prepping its first earthquake risk catastrophe bond, according to a CAT bond professional in New York. "This is Lloyd's first CAT bond. It makes the deal quite interesting," the analyst added. The USD25 million CAT bond will securitize California and New Madrid, Mo., earthquake risk.

Deutsche Bank has hired Rachel Bobillier, a credit derivatives saleswoman to alternative funds at JPMorgan, in a similar role. Wadih Canann, the only other credit derivatives salesperson to hedge funds, said the firm has hired her to meet increasing demand.

Merrill Lynch was putting the finishing touches to a JPY40 billion (USD304 million) synthetic collateralized debt obligation referenced to a pool of unrated and high-yield assets last week.

MMC Enterprise Risk, an operating entity of New York-based Marsh & McLennan Companies, has hired Ram Kelkar, a managing director in Merrill Lynch's structured finance group in New York, to head its enterprise risk management team for the Midwest region in Chicago, according to an official. Kelkar left Merrill last week.

Moody's Investors Service is beefing up its synthetic collateralized debt obligation ratings team in New York, according to Isaac Efrat, managing director. The firm plans to add two professionals to its 17 member team in the coming weeks. The new hires will report to Efrat and William May, senior v.p. in the structured finance group.