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Bear Stearns has eliminated six fixed-income analysts from its London-based European research team, saysJohn Knight, a firm spokesman, declining further comment. Three of the layoffs were made in high-grade research while the rest were made in high-yield. Among the analysts let go was Graham Neilson, fixed-income strategist. His responsibilities have been assumed by Alexander Popov, a junior analyst. Philip Crate, head of European fixed-income research, was on holiday and could not be reached for comment.

Brown Shoe Company closed a $350 million secured revolving credit facility in late December, replacing more expensive bond debt and getting increased liquidity. Andy Rosen, cfo, explained that the company retired a bond deal with a coupon of 91/2 %. The new debt has a floating rate and starts at LIBOR plus 2% to 21/2 % based on a grid. The St. Louis-based company sells footwear worldwide. It markets brands like Naturalizer, LifeStride and Buster Brown.

Charter Communications' bank debt traded up slightly to

Anaheim, Calif.-based CKE Restaurants is closing a new $100 million credit facility at the end of January, a drastic reduction from the almost $500 million facility closed in 1997. Debt was incurred to finance the acquisition of the Hardee's food chain by Carl's, a part of the franchise, said Dennis Lacey, CKE's executive v.p. and cfo. "Hardee's was somewhat troubled, but they [Carl's] felt they could turn it around. But Hardee's continued to bleed and there were violations of the bank debt and noncompliance," he added. Covenants were waived so CKE was never in default, but to reduce leverage stores were sold including Hardee's and other restaurants, he said.

Credit Suisse First Boston has increased the pricing on its deal for Washington Group International after investors cited it as a storied credit that is a tough sell. The spread is now up to

Deutsche Bank has hired Chris Johnson for the newly created position of senior leveraged finance originator, according to firm spokesman Ted Meyer. Johnson was formerly chairman of Merrill Lynch's global leveraged finance group, where he had spent 14 years within its high-yield unit. He resigned in early December as Merrill has undergone a sweeping reorganization of its once prominent operation (BW, 12/17). Johnson will be a managing director, although his reporting lines are in the process of being finalized, according to Meyer, who speculates that he will most likely fall under the command of global leveraged and structured finance chief Rich Byrnes. Meyer says his role will be to expand DB's high-yield client roster. He started several days before Christmas. A call to Merrill spokeswoman Jessica Oppenheim was not returned as of press time.

U.S. corporates with Argentine peso exposure have been denied a payout on more than USD1 billion in non-deliverable forwards after an emerging markets trade group stopped publishing a daily forward dollar/peso rate because of the Latin American country's economic meltdown. The Emerging Markets Traders Association suspended publication of the daily rate on Dec. 21, but the situation has only now turned critical since the markets have reopened following the year-end holidays, according to fx traders in New York.

China's largest bus shelter advertising firm, Clear Media, listed on the Hong Kong market shortly before Christmas and by yesterday (Thursday) its shares were trading at HK$5.70, slightly below the offer price of HK$5.89. With Clear now listed, two other similar companies, Media Nation and Media Partners International, are also perparing for their launch. China-based Clear Media closed at HK$5.40 on its market debut on December 19, about 8.3% lower than the HK$5.89 issue price as investors showed their wariness about the company's high valuation. By January 3, the stock had recovered to HK$5.70.

Hong Kong Chinese companies raising capital for expansion could help new share sales in Hong Kong this year rise to HK$100bn, according to research by Arthur Andersen.

The Development Bank of Singapore launched its first full scale collateralised loan obligation on December 13. The S$2.8bn synthetic deal is one of the first CLOs for an Asian bank outside Japan. It conveys the risk of loans DBS has made to 136 Asian clients, with 80% of the pool in Singapore.

The Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation (HKMC) is set to issue the first bond off its new $3bn mortgage backed securitisation (MBS) programme in February or March. The deal, which will be lead managed by Merrill Lynch, will probably be for HK$2bn-HK$3bn with the tenor yet to be decided.

The last few weeks of 2001 proved to be the most positive for the new issues market in Japan, with Nomura Research Institute (NRI) rounding off the year with a 39% surge from its listing price on December 17. NRI, one of Japan's top computer systems integrators and business software developers, defied the general Tokyo market misery with a strong debut. It was Japan's largest IPO of 2001, and one of the few that closed the year above issue price.