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BroadStreet Financial Products is structuring a USD500 million collateralized fund obligation on Bucephale's fund of hedge funds. The CFO is referenced to a portfolio of 18 hedge funds, diversified across sectors and regions, according to Andrew Smith, partner at Bucephale in New York.

Caltex Australia, Australia's largest oil refining and fuel distribution company, with over AUD3.2 billion (USD1.6 billion) in assets, is planning to enter interest-rate swaps on the back of its AUD1 billion floating-rate liability portfolio which consists of bonds and bank debt. Currently, 40% of the portfolio is hedged via synthetic fixed positions and the firm is looking to increase the amount to 50% of the portfolio as it anticipates an interest-rate hike over the course of the year, according to Seong Lim, treasury manager in Sydney. "We think rates have bottomed out," said Lim.

Credit Suisse First Boston's barrier options trading group, a main staple of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette's equity derivatives group before it was acquired by CSFB in 2000, has bolted to Lehman Brothers, according to a company official. Market professionals said the group was a "money-making machine" for DLJ, grossing more than USD200 million annually. It made up 90% of the profits brought in by DLJ's equity derivatives group, according to one former member. The market professionals added that picking up the DLJ group will move Lehman Brothers into the top five equity derivatives firms, from about eighth.

UBS Warburg hired Claudia Hamilton, a credit derivatives marketer at J.P. Morgan in New York, in a similar role last month, according to a UBS official. Her hire is part of the firm's ongoing effort to beef up its credit derivatives trading operation and intensify its push into structured credit products. Hamilton reports to Sal Naro, managing director and global co-head of credit derivatives trading in Stamford, Conn. While at J.P. Morgan, Hamilton reported to Andrew Palmer, head of credit derivatives marketing. Palmer and Naro did not return calls and Hamilton declined comment.

DaimlerChrysler is considering entering an interest-rate swap on the back of a USD2.83 billion bond offering it issued two weeks ago. In the swap DaimlerChrysler would receive the 7.3% coupon and pay a LIBOR-based rate on the USD1.5 billion dollar tranche. The swap would mirror the 10-year maturity of the bond, according to an official at the firm.

The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong recently announced changes to the listing rules relating to derivative warrants. The principal changes include the relaxation of certain restrictions in placing guidelines for derivative warrants, the introduction of a requirement for warrant issuers to provide liquidity for derivative warrants listed on the exchange and the simplification of certain disclosure requirements for listing documents.

One-month implied volatility for U.S. dollar/yen options fell more than 1.5 percentage points, as the spot market settled down on the back of more reassurances from Japanese government officials that they want to gradually weaken the yen but are not in favor of a rapid decline. One-month implied vol fell to 9.5% by Thursday, down from higher than 11% the previous week. Traders reported there were no massive deals throughout the week, although some long-term punters did take profits on the yen's slide. A common trade was for proprietary desks to take profits on one-year dollar calls struck at JPY140, as spot moved nearer the strike, and buy one-year dollar puts struck at JPY120. Spot was at JPY132.10 Thursday. "The real theme has been volatilities have come off quite smartly since last week," said one trader in London. The market in general became less bearish on the yen, with the one-month 25-delta risk reversals still in favor of dollar calls at 0.3 vol, compared to one vol the previous week.

The European Investment Bank has entered an interest-rate swap on a GBP150 million (USD216 million) bond it issued earlier this month to hedge the interest-rate risk. The swap converts the fixed-rate proceeds from the two-year bond deal to floating-rate liabilities, according to an official in the capital markets group in Luxembourg. The development bank issued another fixed-rate deal at the same time--a four-year GBP150 million bond--for which it does not plan to enter a swap.

Groupama Asset Management plans to shift 20-25% of its portfolio, or $30-37 million, from Treasuries into corporate bonds, betting that interest rates will rise over the next 12 to 18 months. Dan Portanova, portfolio manager, says the loss of the U.S. government surplus will also hurt Treasury rates. He says the firm will look to acquire bonds of industrial companies such as Tyco International, General Electric, 3M Worldwide and Ingersoll-Rand, which he says typically perform well during the early stages of a recovery. "Things are in place for us to start putting these types of trades on and it's just a matter of availability," he says. Portanova hopes to find bonds in three- to seven-year maturities, as he believes they offer the best value at present.

M&G Investments, one of the U.K.'s largest money managers, will add tier-one U.K. banks to its £1.2 billion corporate credit portfolio. Anna Lees-Jones, London-based portfolio manager, says she will pick up paper in both the primary and secondary markets. "U.K. banks have better fundamentals than [European Union] banks, because they haven't taken on as many non-performing loans and their business risk is less," she says. Lees-Jones declined to name the banks she is considering.

Dan Shackelford, portfolio manager with T. Rowe Price, says his firm is going to swap $200 million from intermediate Treasuries into credit products, on the view that interest rates will remain range bound and that the firm's priority is to add yield to the portfolio. Over the past two weeks the fund swapped $500 million ($250 million each into corporates and mortgage-backed pass throughs). Shackelford says the move will continue over the next two weeks, as the firm is going to sell an additional $200 million worth of Treasuries which it will evenly allocate to agencies and corporates. Shackelford says that the only real consideration for this move was a reach for additional yield.