Search results for

Invesco, the UK fund manager, has hired Habib Subjally as head of global equities and two other fund managers, as it seeks to build a bigger presence in the product. Tony Broccado, chief investment officer at Invesco, told EuroWeek that pension schemes were increasingly looking for funds that have a global profile, rather than sectoral.

The State of Israel finally dispatched yesterday (Thursday) the first of two benchmark bonds it mandated last August. The respectable Eu400m seven year deal via Merrill Lynch and UBS Warburg proved that the state had recovered European investor confidence after the double blow of September 11 and the escalating Intifada. However, it is still not clear exactly where investor demand was coming from.

Brazil Corporacion Andina de Fomento (CAF), with joint arranger Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, is wrapping up syndication of the $82.5m bullet loan for electric utility Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras (Eletrobrás). The three year 'B' loan is priced at 400bp over Libor.

Phil Jones, the former global head of convertibles at Merrill Lynch, controversially resigned his post and moved into an apparently less senior position at Goldman Sachs this week. The departure is a U-turn for Jones, who just weeks earlier had said he was moving to Europe to spearhead a new focus on the region. Merrill Lynch bankers were shocked at the decision, claiming that despite the publicity behind the move, Jones had never been as interested in the European market. His new role at Goldman Sachs is based in New York.

Allied Irish Bank's FX trader John Rusnak has been grabbing the headlines this week but the MTN market has had its own share of vanishing acts recently. Deutsche Bank's star Euro-CP originator, Stephanie Sfakianos, who collected Deutsche Bank's Best Euro-CP house award at last year's MTNWeek awards, left the bank recently. But rumour has it she may resurface before long in a top UK bank. And UBS Warburg's Euro-CP and MTN originator, Christine Kassab, is leaving her duties on the origination desk to attend to other matters at the bank. Leak has not found out what these other matters are yet, but if she has a spare minute she might like to give Gavin Eddy and Paul Jones on the MTN desk a hand in snatching the lead back from Goldman Sachs, who insist on playing league table leapfrog. Christine will be replaced by a young lady named Pravda Bokil. And Deutsche Bank has announced two new additions to its Euro-CP trading desk, both of which will provide Leak with great opportunities for future nicknames. Dirk Pannewig joined the desk on February 1 from Deutsche's Frankfurt office, and Thorsten Benninghaus joined the desk in January from the US CP desk in New York.

Phil Jones, the former global head of convertibles at Merrill Lynch, controversially resigned his post and moved into an apparently less senior position at Goldman Sachs this week. The departure is a U-turn for Jones, who just weeks earlier had said he was moving to Europe to spearhead a new focus on the region. Merrill Lynch bankers were shocked at the decision, claiming that despite the publicity behind the move, Jones had never been as interested in the European market. His new role at Goldman Sachs is based in New York.

Iran EuroWeek hears that a group of French banks is close to signing a $500m four year oil-related pre-export financing through the Iranian central bank, Bank Markazi.

Yields on mmO2's euro1 billion ($867.75 million) five-year note rose by 80 basis points on Tuesday after the firm announced that it would cut 1,900 jobs from its German and British operations over the next year. Traders pointed to poor overall market sentiment, as well as mmO2's job cuts, for the rise in yields. "There has been a huge melt-down in lower-rated telecoms, which isn't based on fundamentals but on a risk averse attitude by investors," said Peter Plaut, credit analyst at Bank of America. "Anything with a low rating and perceived risk is getting sold off." Mm02 issued the euro1 billion MTN on January 25 2002. The note pays a coupon of 6.375% and was closed off the company's newly signed euro5 billion Euro-MTN programme. The issuer overcame widespread scepticism about the inaugural benchmark Eurobond when the trade was more than five times oversubscribed. Investors were initially worried that the company's Baa2/BBB- ratings would come under pressure but a fully reversible step-up coupon clause, which can increase or decrease as mmO2's credit rating changes, was added to the deal. The issuer has $1.32 billion outstanding off its facility off two issues. MMO2's other issue was a £

* Don Wilson and Bill Winters, co-heads of global credit and rates markets at JP Morgan Chase, have been appointed to the firm's executive committee. Four other new members have also been promoted to the executive committee, namely Dina Dublon, the firm's CFO, Steve Black, head of public equities, John Farrell, from human resources, and Jes Staley, from investment management and private banking. Bill Harrison's senior management team now numbers 15 people. * Joonkee Hong, joint head for UBS Warburg's debt capital market group in Asia and head of Asian derivatives, will relocate to the bank's Stamford, Connecticut base at the end of April, to head up global emerging market derivatives.

Kuwait's biggest commercial bank, National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), has set a benchmark for other private sector Gulf issuers, with a $450m three year FRN via JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. The bank used its strong Moody's ratings and its absence from the international loans market to achieve a tight 25bp over Libor for the transaction.

Bahrain Ashmore Investment Manage-ment has been in Bahrain promoting its new Arab Debt Fund this week. The Guernsey-based open-ended fund will invest primarily in sovereign debt from the Middle East and North Africa, and is targeting the buoyant demand within the region for fixed income exposure.