Search results for

Alastair Cooper, managing director and head of equity derivatives sales at Morgan Stanley in London, has left the firm. Cooper has been replaced by Tom Levy, head of program trading, according to Andrea Bothamley, spokeswoman. Levy, who will also keep his previous responsibilities, did not return calls.

Bank of America is looking to add at least one trader to its global interest-rate derivatives trading group over the next several months, according to John Kapustiak, global head of rates derivatives trading in Chicago. "I'm looking to add one more to the team. We're looking to hire opportunistically," Kapustiak said. The firm has been aggressively hiring sales professionals for the group for the last several months and adding a trader is part of an ongoing plan to continue the build up, said Jonathan Moulds, global head of the derivatives products group. "This business is not maxed out," Moulds noted.

ABN AMRO has hired Alaric Lau, managing director of liability management at UBS Warburg in Hong Kong, in a new position as v.p. of fixed-income derivatives marketing in Hong Kong. "Now we have a full-time marketing effort for the [People's Republic of China]," said Greg Major, Asian head of derivatives marketing in Singapore. China is becoming one of the largest markets for end-user derivatives in the region as a growing number of end users pull the trigger on transactions, he added. Lau declined to comment on his reasons for joining ABN.

National Australian Bank and Commonwealth Bank of Australia will substantially increase their credit derivatives trading activities this year because they are seeing greater customer demand and improving liquidity in the nascent market, according to officials at the banks. NAB has recently received regulatory approval to actively trade credit derivatives and CBA expects to receive the okay in the coming months. "We hope to receive approval before the end of the fiscal year," said Fergus Gilbert, head of credit trading at CBA in Sydney, noting that the fiscal year end is June 30.

WellPoint Health Networks, which grossed more than USD13 billion in annual revenues last year, is considering entering an interest-rate swap to convert a recent USD350 million note offering into a floating-rate liability. The Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based health care provider is contemplating entering a swap in which it would receive the 6.3% coupon on the 10-year notes and pay a LIBOR-based rate, according to a company official. The maturity on the swap would match the maturity on the note offering.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia has recently transferred Mike Halloran, global head of credit trading in Sydney, to the London desk to bulk up CBA's capabilities in the City.

Croatia is considering using over-the-counter fx options later this year in what would be its first use of OTC derivatives.Hrvoje Radovanic, assistant finance minister at the Ministry of Finance in Zagreb, told DW the sovereign is planning to use fx options to hedge currency exposure as it becomes more active in the international debt capital markets and grows in sophistication in managing risk. "We are closely monitoring the possibility of using them," he said.

Robeco Alternative Investments may use over-the-counter derivatives to structure a guaranteed fund of hedge funds it plans to launch in the spring. Edwin Noomen, v.p. in Rotterdam, said the fund is likely to be around EUR50 million (USD42.9 million), have a five year maturity and will be referenced to a portfolio of 15 funds across six categories, including convertible arbitrage and global macro.

Wall Street equity derivatives desks were abuzz last week with reports that Credit Suisse First Boston had bucked this year's trend and paid an eight-figure bonus to one of its star performers. Michael Crooks, managing director in equity derivatives group and head of the group's private client and retail team, reportedly received a bonus of at least $10 million, said rivals. Crooks did not return calls. Victoria Harmon, a CSFB spokeswoman in New York, denied the rumors. "That is absolutely not true."

Hedge funds shopping for credit protection last week pushed default swap spreads on European names, such as France Telecom and Fiat, about 80 basis points wider apiece. The two names underperformed sector peers, such as British Telecom and DaimlerChysler, which each widened by only 20 bps.

Algometrics, a London-based hedge fund, is seeking to raise up to USD500 million for a flagship equity fund that will trade over-the-counter equity derivatives. The global statistical arbitrage fund will invest in cash equities as well as exchange and OTC-traded equity derivatives, said Stephen Smith, managing director. The fund, which currently has USD30 million in private capital, will also act as an options market maker. Smith believes this will give investors a unique opportunity to take on exposure to market-making profits. The only other way they could achieve this is through buying shares in securities houses, which typically entails taking on exposure to other businesses.

Eight months after announcing its arrival in the nascent credit derivatives market with a pair of high profile hires from Bank of America, HSBC is looking to add at least 10 credit derivatives traders, marketers and structurers in New York, according to a company official. "This is something that has been in the works for more than six months. The ground work has been set and now we're ready to hire," the official said.