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Andrew McKnight left Goldman Sachs' distressed loan desk last week for Fir Tree Partners. Although McKnight could not be reached for comment, his new place of employment was confirmed by his voice-mail at the buyside firm. Last year, Goldman Sachs was rated number one for its distressed desk on LMW's Trading Desk Survey. Officials at both companies could not be reached by press time.

GTCR Golder Rauner last week ponied up an eye-popping 61/ 4% up-front fee to entice investors to join the credit backing its acquisition of TSI Telecommunication Services from Verizon Commuications. The expensive move, footed by the sponsor, put the deal over the top with investors who were reluctant to jump into the unfavorable telecommunications sector. Bankers expressed surprise at the size of the fee, but noted an uphill struggle was expected as lead bank Lehman Brothers was betting on a market improvement that would have helped its aggressive financing package.

Last week saw softness overall in the high-yield market. Junk desks even handled investment-grade names such as WorldComand Ford Motor Co.Here was other action.

ING Capital Advisors priced notes last week and is expected to close this week a collateralized loan obligation, Endurance CLO, taking over management of an existing Chase Manhattan deal. Michael Campbell, managing director at ING Capital, said Endurance is a migration deal, whereby ING has assumed management of a $300 million portfolio of assets that was once a Chase sponsored synthetic deal. The existing leveraged loan portfolio, referred to in the market as KVH, was structured by Chase in 1998 with multiple tranches of notes sold to investors. Chase held the loans on its balance sheet, but the risk of losses on the loans was held by investors. Campbell declined to comment on why management was changing hands and on investor profiles.

Lone Star Partners has tapped J.P. Morgan, Bank of Montreal and Wells Fargo Bank for the largest real estate subscription facility to date, according to LMW sister publication Real Estate Finance & Investment. The $1 billion facility will be used for the firm's $2.5 billion Lone Star Fund IV. The largest real estate subscription facility previous to this was an $800 million facility provided by J.P. Morgan to the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund IV International, which was completed last August. Calls to John Grayken, general managing partner of Lone Star, were referred to Owen Blicksilver, a spokesman, who declined to comment.

Traders said no one was willing to step forward and trade Tyco International's bank debt last week as bid/ask spreads were too wide for a deal to be struck. Bids were thrown out at 94, but speculation that there is upside in the company kept sellers from unloading. "The loans are being quoted but no one is letting go of them," one trader commented, despite all of the talk the company has caused over the last couple of weeks. One piece of Tyco that is trading, however, is the credit protection. One dealer noted that last year an investor could buy credit protection for roughly 150 basis points per annum and now it's trading between 525 basis points and 575 basis points. Some market players are concerned that the multi-industry conglomerate may be the next big fallen-angel, but one trader noted that there has been no change in its ability to service its debt.

CSK Auto has refinanced a $150 million credit facility priced at LIBOR plus 31/ 2% to obtain more permanent financing and debt amortization relief. The new deal, led by Credit Suisse First Boston, J.P. Morgan and UBS Warburg, was upsized and includes a $170 million term loan, and a $130 million revolver, both priced at LIBOR plus 31/ 2% subject to a borrowing base formula. "We feel we received fair market pricing," said Don Watson, cfo for CSK Auto, of the facility, which closed at the end of December. Before the refinance, CSK was facing high leverage because of debt-financed acquisitions such as Rossi, Big Wheel and the PACCAR acquisitions. Marie Menendez, v.p., senior credit officer at Moody's Investors Service said without the refinancing, CSK may not have been able to meet debt payments from internally generated cash flow, she explained (LMW, 12/01).

AES' bank debt started getting increased looks from traders last week as negative earnings announcements hit the market. Interest in the name was high, but only $10 million moved in the 90-92 range, down from 94, according to dealers. Merrill Lynch is rumored to be one of the sellers. The buyer of the paper could not be identified, but institutional players such as Stanfield, Fidelity, American Express, Duke Capital and some CDOs are said to be among the buyers of some $50 million that has traded over the last month, said a dealer. Union Bank of California is lead agent on the deal and believed to be one of the banks holding onto the credit. A dealer at Union Bank said that despite its placement in a bad sector and current accounting fears, AES is still a sound name.

Deutsche Bank is holding a bank meeting tomorrow for AMF Bowling Worldwide, following the bankruptcy court's approval of a reorganization plan. The exit financing credit consists of a five-year, $75 million revolver with $25 million drawn at closing, and a $275 million, six-year "B" term loan. Pricing on the revolver and term loan is LIBOR plus 31/ 2% and LIBOR plus 4%, respectively.

Joe Bencivenga, former global head of high-yield at Barclays Capital, has joined Chela Technology Partners, a New York-based firm that advises technology and emerging telecom companies on restructuring and mergers and acquisitions. Bencivenga becomes the third partner at the six-person firm. Afsaneh Naimollah, managing partner who founded the firm two years ago, and Gilles Gade, partner, are also Barclays alumni. Bencivenga says he joined the firm because "a lot of these technology and telecom firms have fallen on hard times and the market abounds with restructuring opportunities."

Jonathan Savas, a wireline telecom analyst and a runner-up in Institutional Investor's 2001 All-America Fixed-Income Research Team, will join Alliance Capital in New York later this month as a v.p., according toAndy Aran, senior v.p. and director of credit research at Alliance. He will report to Katalin Kutasi, head of high-yield research. Savas' last position was as a director at Merrill Lynch. He had recently been reassigned from high-yield research to another department that could not be determined (BW, 12/16). A message at Merrill Lynch says that his number is no longer valid at the firm.

CDC IXIS Capital Markets, the investment-banking arm of France's CDC IXIS Group, is laying the groundwork for a London-based asset-backed securities business, several ABS bankers say. The firm is looking to hire marketers and structurers, according to the bankers who say they were contacted by executive recruiters. Calls to Ana Diaz, newly appointed head of ABS origination, were not returned. It could not be determined where Diaz had been employed prior to joining CDC, but she was co-head of origination at Commerzbank Securities in London two years ago, according to a Commerzbank spokesman. Crédit Agricole Indosuez, another large French bank, recently established a London-based ABS business (BW, 2/4).