Search results for

Bradley Berggren, head of the structured products group for equity derivatives at Banc of America Securities in New York, resigned last week. Berggren, who joined the firm in the merger with NationsBanc Montgomery Securities several years ago, reported to Jonathan Sandelman, managing director and executive committee member. Sandelman said Berggren decided to quit because he wanted a lifestyle change. Berggren could not be reached for comment.

UBS Warburg has hired Phil Tsao, interest-rate derivatives marketer for Greater China at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, as head of Asia derivatives marketing, according to Joonkee Hong, managing director and Asian head of debt capital markets in Hong Kong. Hong declined further comment and Tsao is on gardening leave and could not be reached.

AMC Entertainment, the largest theater chain in the U.S., is considering entering an interest-rate swap to convert a 10-year USD175 million fixed-rate bond it issued two weeks ago into a synthetic floating-rate liability, according to a company official. The theater company, which plans to use the proceeds from the offering to reduce its outstanding bank debt and pursue possible acquisitions, is looking to enter a swap in which it would receive a fixed rate equal to the 10.1% coupon on the bond and pay a floating interest-rate. "We always look to the swap market when we do an offering. With the way rates have been getting slashed, we think it's a pretty good bet we'll get a nice floating rate," the official added. The maturity on the swap would equal that of the bond.

Swiss Re plans to invite the entire weather market to participate in the first ever weather derivatives auction this summer. The auction will be held over a two or three day period, during which Swiss Re will solicit bids and offers for calls and puts on heating degree and cooling degree-day contracts, according to Frank Caifa, associate director of Swiss Re's financial products group in New York.

One-month cable implied volatility rose and risk reversals moved further in favor of sterling puts/dollar calls last week as investors continued to speculate that the pound would weaken against the dollar. One-month implied volatility ticked higher to 7.5% last Wednesday, up from around 7% a week earlier. Foreign exchange options traders in New York reported that the options were typically at the money, while spot was trading around USD1.43. The rise in volatility was attributed to comments made by John Townend, director of Europe for the Bank of England, who said the pound was overvalued against the euro. Some investors thought Townend's comments would help to strengthen the pound because they seemed to imply that the U.K. is still a long way from euro entry.

Bank of Queensland, a regional bank in Brisbane with over AUD4.2 billion (USD2.1 billion) in assets, is considering entering the credit derivatives mart in the next six to 12 months for its AUD500 million (USD257 million) fixed-income portfolio, according to Tim Ledingham, head of financial markets.

Bank One, the sixth-largest bank holding company in the U.S. with more than USD270 billion in assets, is setting up a weather derivatives desk in New York to broker plain-vanilla weather derivatives, according to market officials. The firm has hired Scott Matthews, director of weather derivatives marketing at United Weather in Jersey City, N.J., to set up the desk. Matthews joined its New York office three weeks ago. He confirmed the move, but declined further comment.

Brian Heyworth, head of fixed income and derivatives sales to institutions for the U.K. and Ireland at Bank of America in London, has been promoted to European head of fixed income and derivatives sales to institutions. Heyworth replaces Gerhard Seebacher who moved to New York last year to take the new position of global head of derivative product sales, according to Heyworth. Seebacher covered both positions until Heyworth was promoted at the beginning of the month. Seebacher did not return calls.

Citibank and Merrill Lynch are racing to become the first to offer over-the-counter derivatives on Indian stocks and expect to hit the market in the next six to 12 months. "We want to be the first to bring this out," said an official at Merrill in Mumbai.

The African Development Bank has drafted a proposal which would allow the bank's borrowers to use over-the-counter derivatives for the first time to hedge interest-rate, foreign exchange and commodity-linked risks. The bank has used derivatives for its own risk management for about a decade. This development, however, would facilitate the use of OTC derivatives by its lower-rated borrowers, according to Samuel Mivedor, financial analyst in the treasury department in Abidjan, Cote d' Ivoire. "We will be acting as an intermediary between these companies and the banks; all the clients that are eligible for borrowing will be eligible to use the risk management tools," he said.

Bank of America plans to hire three securitization structurers for its London-based European securitization team. The move is part of the bank's broader plans to hire more than 100 people in London to expand its European operations this year, according to officials familiar with the firm's plans.

Credit-default swap trading volume on Hong Kong telecom giant PCCW rocketed last week on the back of a five-year USD400 million convertible bond issue by PCCW's subsidiary PCCW Capital.Emmanuel Dianflon, Asia head of credit derivatives at BNP Paribas in Hong Kong, said that on Monday and Tuesday over USD70 million traded, whereas before the issue the typical volume was USD10-20 million a week.