Search results for

India Arrangers ANZ Investment Bank, BA Asia and Crédit Lyonnais are waiting for responses from two banks before closing the $110m equivalent yen denominated loan for Reliance Industries. The borrower is deciding whether to increase the size of the deal or to scale back allocations as a result of oversubscription.

Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) this week took a further step in its efforts to penetrate the US investor base with a debut global callable bond, a $1bn three non-call one transaction, led by Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch. Horst Seissinger, vice president of capital markets at KfW, said that there were three highlights of the deal. "Firstly, we have entered a new segment in the US dollar market with a global callable transaction," he told EuroWeek.

Two Kazakh banks are on the point of awarding mandates for prospective Eurobonds. KazKommertsbank (KKB) is expected to announce on Monday the appointment of two banks for a $100m-$150m five year offering in either dollars or euros. ABN Amro and Merrill Lynch had held the mandate for KKB's previous aborted attempt to issue a Eurobond two years ago. However, EuroWeek understands it is far from certain that both banks will be reappointed.

Koçbank this week signed up a group of banks to arrange a $100m one year refinancing facility. This is the first Turkish loan to hit the market in 2002. Joint arrangers for the deal are Bank of New York, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, HypoVereinsbank, First Union National Bank, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and WestLB. The deal carries a margin of 80bp over Libor.

Republic of Lebanon has issued one of its biggest Euro-MTNs to date: a $1 billion three-year transaction. The note was issued on March 5 and goes out to March 2005. It pays a semi-annual coupon of 10.25%. The trade is syndicated and Merrill Lynch is the bookrunner. Deutsche Bank is the issuing and paying agent. The trade comes at a time of uncertainty for Republic of Lebanon. Reuters reported on Monday, March 4, that Lebanese-bond investors could face the type of credit event seen by Argentina in 2001. Standard & Poor's rates Lebanon B with a negative outlook. The country is emerging from a two-year recession but financial recovery is slow and the country's debt repayments are rising steadily. They currently stand at 165% of gross domestic product. On Wednesday Banque du Liban took steps to refinance some of this debt by swapping $1 billion-worth of Lebanese pound treasury bills into dollar-denominated debt. The refinanced treasury bills now mature in March 2005 and pay a coupon of 10.25%.

BNP Paribas has created a new role for valued banker Brian Lazell as head of credit markets Asia Pacific ex-Japan. Lazell's former role, global head of emerging markets, has been phased out, and BNPP was keen to keep Lazell on staff. His newly created position in Asia gives him responsibility for all credit derivatives, bond markets and securitisation activity in the region, encompassing origination, syndicate, sales, trading and research. "On a practical level, I will be increasing the bank's breadth and depth of activity of these products in Asia," Lazell told EuroWeek.

It has been a tough week for dealers who have had to put on a professional front while pitching for MTNWeek's awards. But Leak was most impressed with one pitch in which one tired trader likened the ABS market to a 'red-headed step child', i.e. the least popular member of the family. MTNWeek's auburn-haired editor was not offended though. The house will still be considered for fifth-best dealer in the market. Barclays's Monja Blattner was crowned Kohlkonigin, or cabbage queen, at Bremer LB's annual party for winning charades. She was given a tin pig to wear around her neck, and taken for a walk around a lake during which she had to drink a shot of schnapps at every 50 paces. Leak is proud to say that at MTNWeek's awards even the losers will be treated better than that. At least they will be indoors. Some will go to any lengths to seduce the judges. Vorarlberger's Hannes Leitgeb is convinced he will win something this year, not for his programme's performance, but because he sent the judges a picture of his four beautiful female traders. Thank you Hannes, they are very beautiful. Leak thinks the Spice Girls will have a run for their money. JPMorgan's MTN desk will report to Alex Haidas when Rob Nankivell leaves the desk at Easter.

In a highly unusual double for the Asian capital markets, the Republic of the Philippines and the Federation of Malaysia launched global benchmark issues within hours of each other this week.

Mexico has filed a ¥500bn ($3.8bn) shelf and renewed its dollar funding shelf, raising hopes that it will soon return to the international markets. Bankers at Japanese bond houses, however, told EuroWeek that it might be some months before the Samurai market improves enough to enable Mexico to issue in yen.

Egypt National Bank of Egypt is in the market looking for a new $250m term loan.

The Republic of Portugal this week issued its second syndicated OT of the year, a Eu2bn August 2007 benchmark, via ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Caixa Geral de Depositos and SG. Portugal's debt agency, the IGCP, took the unusual step of launching the issue simultaneously with an exchange offer out of the February 2007 OT, which added Eu332m to the issue, or 13% of the outstanding bond.