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Bank of America and Credit Suisse First Boston's credit for dialysis provider, DaVita Inc., will be shown to investors today in Los Angeles and on Friday in New York to a buyside eager to jump in on the huge $800 million "B" piece. "They're bumping up the leverage, but they generate so much cash flow and they plan to continue to pay down debt," said one buysider who is looking to invest in the seven-year term loan "B" at pricing of LIBOR plus 3 1/4%. Rich Whitney, cfo at DaVita, is otptimistic that interest in the name will generate enough orders to potentially result in a reverse flex on the deal. "There's a good chance they'll be a flex down," he said, regarding positive buzz on the credit.

Barclays Capital Asia is looking to issue its first synthetic collateralized debt obligation in Asia on the back of a recent push into the regional credit market, according to Rick Ng, director and head of sales for fixed income and structured products in Hong Kong.

SNCB, the Belgian railroad operator, has entered a 10-year exotic interest-rate swap to hedge itself against movements in six-month Euribor. Johan Verhoeven, head of back office at the treasury in Brussels, said the state-owned company often converts fixed-rate bond offerings into floating-rate liabilities and so wanted to go an extra step and hedge its floating-rate exposure. It entered the EUR75 million (USD66 million) notional swap with a German bank, which he declined to name.

Hedge funds in Asia plan to step up their convertible arbitrage activity in light of a flood of expected convertible bonds issues in the coming months, according to hedge fund managers.

Bank of America Securities continued hemorrhaging equity derivatives staff last week with the resignation of four traders in New York and the departure of Nick Waltner, managing director and head of equity financial products in Tokyo. The move follows the recent departure of six professionals from the New York office to launch a hedge fund (DW, 3/4). Waltner, the four who resigned in New York and the six launching the hedge fund all reported directly or indirectly to Jonathan Sandelman, managing director and global head of equity financial products in New York. Sandelman did not return repeated calls.

Cargill International plans to hire a derivatives-savvy manager for its financial markets group's coal trading operations in Geneva. The company currently trades over-the-counter coal derivatives and is also planning to start physically settling coal derivatives, according to Peter Bishton, head of the power generation team in Geneva. The coal team is currently part of the power generation team. The hire will report to Dave Rogers, president, who is responsible for the company's international trading business. He splits his time between Cobham, U.K., and Geneva and was unavailable for comment.

Solutia, a chemical company in St. Louis with nearly USD3 billion in sales last year, is considering entering an interest-rate swap on the back of a high-yield bond it plans to issue in the next few months. Kevin Wilson, treasurer, said the size of the bond offering has yet to be decided, but predicted it would be no larger than USD300-400 million.

Credit default-swap spreads of London-based aluminum and steel-maker Corus Group tightened roughly 20 basis points last week as initial panic over U.S.-imposed steel tariffs died down slightly and the broader market moved tighter. Mid-market five-year protection was quoted at 400 basis points Thursday, about 20bps tighter than at the beginning of the week. Spreads had widened roughly 50bps the previous week on news of the steel tariff. "Initially the market tried to push it higher, but now it is basically trading flat to where it was [before the tariff was announced]," said one trader. However, he noted Corus and other European steelmakers have underperformed. "The general trend has been for credit to come in, but steel has effectively lagged whilst pretty much everything else--oil, retail, paper and tobacco--has all come in even more," another trader in London added.

James Parascandola, a credit derivatives trader at IntesaBci in New York, has left the firm, according to a firm official. Parascandola, who resigned from the firm about three weeks ago, reported to Paolo Josca, head of credit derivatives in New York.

Deutsche Bank has hired Danielle Merone, a fixed-income derivatives sales professional covering hedge funds at Credit Suisse First Boston, in a similar position in London. She left CSFB in the middle of last week, according to an official at the firm. Merone is on gardening leave and could not be reached.

Deutsche Bank's equity derivatives group in London is structuring a product that will allow discretionary account holders to take on exposure to a basket of listed and privately held water companies, in what is believed to be the first product of its kind. Shachi Shah, v.p. global equity derivatives in London, said the payout will be based on an index of water companies, which her department is currently drawing up. The firm expects to raise approximately EUR100 million (USD88 million) for the product when it goes live within three months. Shah declined all comment on how the product will be structured.

Deutsche Bank is preparing a USD5 billion balance sheet synthetic collateralized debt obligation that is expected to hit the market in May, according to a market official who is familiar with the deal. The product is being structured as a replacement for Deutsche Bank's 1999 Blue Stripe CDO, which has a three-year call that will mature in May.