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John Horner has leftLehman Brothers and joinedJ.P. Morgan Securities as its new 15-year and agency adjustable rate mortgage-backed securities trader. Horner will be a v.p. and report to residential mortgage group chief Kevin Finnerty. He will replace veteran MBS trader Tom DeNunzio, who Finnerty says is looking at other opportunities within the organization, stressing that DeNunzio's decision was voluntary. Horner will also fill the role of agency backed ARMS trader, a slot J.P. Morgan has been looking to fill for sometime, says Finnerty.

Kmart's debt levels fluctuated again last week as investors continue to gauge the value of guarantees that market players are saying the company's subsidiaries will provide on the bank debt (LMW, 2/18). The name began last week with $5 million trading in the 60-63 range down from the 68-71 two weeks ago. After hitting the 62-64 level mid-week, the credit popped up again with $20 million of the name trading in the 63-65 range, said traders. Buyers and sellers could not be determined. Lehman Brothers is rumored to be compiling a report on the retail chain's subsidiaries to shed light on the value of guarantees on the parent company's debt although a bank spokesman denied knowledge of such research.

Lehman Brothers has reassigned Tom Bernard from his role as head of investment-grade and high-yield sales and trading, in a bid to beef up its high-yield origination business, according to Bill Ahearn, a firm spokesman. Bernard will assume additional high-yield duties, working as co-head of high-yield capital markets alongside Rob Redmond, who had been the sole head. He will no longer work with the investment-grade team.

Low cash flow margins should be one of the main focus areas for potential investors in the $350 million senior secured credit for Cumulus Media, according to Moody's Investors Service, which has assigned a B1 rating to the credit. Revenue at the company is suffering from more than just a soft advertising environment, said Dominic Ward, analyst at Moody's, noting that issues at specific radio stations are causing overall low revenues. J.P. Morgan is leading the deal, which is in the market.

Incapital, the Chicago-based underwriter of InterNotes--corporate bonds sold at par to retail investors--is set to announce the addition of several new issuers to its client roster in the next two months. Tom Ricketts, ceo, says he will likely announce two to three new issuers this month, and two to three more in April. He would not disclose names or even sectors of the companies, though he says each is a household name, and each will register a shelf of at least $1 billion.

Steel Dynamics picked J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley to lead a $550 million refinancing that includes $350 million of bank debt, after previous lead Mellon Financial sold a portion of its loan portfolio, including the old Steel Dynamics deal. Tracy Shellabarger, v.p. and cfo of Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Steel Dynamics, said, "Mellon sold loan portfolios to GE Capital a couple of months ago." With that relationship gone, the company shopped elsewhere.

Swiss Re will issue a catastrophe bond deal later this month led by Lehman Brothers, according to a buy-side investor. Called Redwood Capital 2, after the first series issued in December (BW, 12/24/01), the deal size should be approximately $200 million. Goldman Sachs, the other major CAT underwriter, will not be part of this deal, according to this investor. Michael Millette, a v.p. and CAT banker with Goldman, declined comment. The investor adds that the transaction is likely to get an investment-grade rating. At present, only 10% of the $2 billion in outstanding CAT bonds are investment-grade. Five percent of outstanding CAT bonds are rated single-B while the remainder are double-B.

Nextel Communications and Global Crossing found popularity with would-be buyers last week with $40-50 million of each name trading. A $2.5 million piece of Nextel's term loans "B" and "C" traded at 84 3/4 in the street following higher bond prices by week's end. The paper, which had been auctioned off as low as 80 two weeks ago, hit the 83 3/4 level by midweek. On Thursday, $2.5 million of the name's "D" term loan traded at 83 3/8. Officials at the company could not be reached by press time.

UBS Warburg is looking to hire two asset-backed analysts to cover the European market and one public sector analyst. One ABS hire will be a replacement and the other a newly created position, says Helen Clement, global head of credit research in London, where the two would be based. At present, the firm only has one ABS analyst after its London-based analyst, Ralf Gasser, was let go amid allegations he and other UBS analysts had accessed Morgan Stanley's research Web site without authorization, according to a Bloomberg article. The public sector analyst will replace Beate Muenstermann, who left at the same time as Gasser. Clement declined to comment on the analysts' departures.

UBS Warburg has added veteran mortgage-backed securities trader Michael Hirschberg to its collateralized mortgage obligation trading effort in New York. Hirschberg joins from Bear Stearns, where he worked for 12 years, beginning as a summer intern on the fixed-income trading floor. Hirschberg will trade trust IO/PO bonds and head up all MBS derivatives trading, according to his new boss, Dave Martin. Martin says the position is newly created, and a response to customer demand for more mortgage derivatives. He will be a managing director.

Recent downgrades of Road Chef and Welcome Break, two landmark whole business securitization deals of roadside service complexes in the U.K., could put a damper on the market's appetite for these kinds of deals and bring closer scrutiny from ratings agencies, London-based bankers say. Last week, Fitch Ratings downgraded Road Chef's two single-A tranches to triple-B+, and its triple-B tranche to double-B. Welcome Break had four single-A tranches downgraded to triple-B+ and one triple-B tranche downgraded to double-B. Fitch noted that both companies are coming close to the danger zone in terms of being able to service their debt.

Total investment grade issuance for the week was $12.5 billion, with a big surge as a combination of Greenspan's testimony and better-than-expected economic data made spread product more attractive for investors. Highlights of the week include the 3-tranche $3 billion deal for National Rural Utilities (A2/A), which had a tough start but ended up pricing 5-7 bp inside of original price talk as the market mood improved. Heinz (A3/A) also took advantage of the surge in demand for corporates bringing $1.25 billion of 10- and 30-year debt into a hot market. The deal was a blowout, launching and pricing in the space of a few hours. Despite the high profile accounting blowups that have plagued some of the benchmark borrowers in the corporate bond market, there is still clear appetite for better quality borrowers and investors still have money to put to work.