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Charter Communications' debt traded this week at 98 ¼ in a $2.5 billion trade. Dealers cite the company's financial standing and a lack of new issue as the prime reasons for the interest. Matched against the debt of competitors such as Global Crossing and McLeod, which are both trading in distressed range, Charter looks solid, dealers said. Moreover, "There's no new issue and people are dying for paper," said a trader. Another credit pumping up on the low new issue is Adelphia Communications, which traded up to 98 7/8 from 98 ½ last week. Calls to Kent Kalkwarf, cfo at Charter, were referred to Mary Jo Moehle, director of investor relations, who declined to comment.

Credit Agricole Indosuez has added two members to its new loan team taking shape under Paul Travers, managing director. Charles Kobayashi and Charles Henneman signed on last week to help build up and expand a new investment management presence at the bank after the departure of Dan Smith and some other key loan players to Royal Bank of Canada two months ago.

Dealers reported a small trade of Enron Corporation's bank debt at 25 last Tuesday in a series of small trades following the company's Chapter 11 filing and debtor-in-possession financing. The debt dropped to 20 1/2 on Monday after the company filed for bankruptcy over the weekend, it bounced back to 25 after Citibank and J.P. Morgan offered $1.5 billion in DIP financing. Dealers say the bankruptcy filing can improve optimism on a company. "It puts a timetable on things," as one explained. Deutsche Bank and UBS Warburg are among the desks rumored to be active in the credit, although officials at both firms could not be reached for comment. Calls to Sharonda Stevens, company spokeswoman, were not returned.

An announcement on Monday that Enron Corporation had filed for Chapter 11 pushed trading levels up to 25 from around 20. Roughly $50 million has changed hands over the week. Dealers say the filing has put more certainty on a timetable for the company's financial issues to be sorted out. Citibank and J.P. Morgan have also offered $1.5 billion in DIP financing. Mariner Post Acute Network's debt traded on Tuesday in an auction at 69-70, which is up slightly.

Market sources said the last step in making a manager switch final on Indosuez Capital Funding IV from Credit Agricole Indosuez to Royal Bank of Canada will require approval from the ratings agency. "Rating agenices have stopped changes before but on this deal there's no reason it shouldn't go through," said one source close to the deal, referencing the fact that the management team at RBC was the former management team on the old deal. The management team at RBC, led by Dan Smith, formerly of Indoseuz, will be meeting with rating agency personnel from Fitch Inc., Standard & Poor's, and Moody's Investors Service at the end of the week. Officials at the rating agencies declined to comment. Smith did not return calls by press time.

Prudential Investments Japan, with a fixed-income portfolio of JPY100 billion (USD806 million), plans to launch a fixed-income fund in Japan that will purchase credit-linked notes and synthetic and cash collateralized debt obligations if there is enough demand. "We'll be conducting a feasibility study," said Mayuka Tomizuka, in the investment management department in Tokyo, noting that the decision will come down to the level of demand among its Japanese institutional clients. If the demand is deemed to be there the fund could launch in the latter part of next year. The fund manager has not established a target size or return for the fund, according to Tomizuka.

ABN AMRO Asset Management is looking into purchasing and selling credit derivatives next year to tailor its exposure to specific credits for its EUR850 million (USD749 million) European corporate bond fund. An official in Amsterdam said the fund, which holds about 150 investment-grade credits, has been in discussions with Merrill Lynch to determine whether it makes sense to use single-name default swaps. ABN uses a Merrill index for the fund, which is why it is talking to the dealer and not its in-house bank. However, it would be open to talking to other potential counterparties as well, according to the official. The asset management company would use default swaps to gain or reduce exposure to specific credits at specific maturities, which is currently difficult in what he called the relatively sparse European cash bond market.

Enron's contribution to the credit derivatives market--bankruptcy swaps--likely will die off if the power company files for bankruptcy, according to London-based credit derivatives traders. "Bankruptcy swaps was something it set up and something it wanted to make big, but it never really took off," noted a trader in London. "Bankruptcy swaps was something they set up and look where they are now," he added. Enron's European operations were placed into administration Thursday and Alex Parsons, spokesman in London, declined comment.

Rohan Douglas, head of credit derivatives research at Citigroup in New York, resigned from the firm last week, according to a company official. Douglas reported to Sumit Roy, global head of credit derivatives. The official added that Douglas is still working out the details of his compensation package and the firm had not yet begun searching for a replacement.

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi is studying the possibility of offering Asian clients credit derivative products, such as credit-default swaps, next year from its Singapore office. "There has been some discussion as well as initial studies," noted an official at the bank in the Lion City. "I'm hoping this will happen by the third quarter of next year," he added.

Citigroup Asset Management is planning to use interest-rate and cross-currency interest-rate swaps for its newly launched open-ended euro and sterling-denominated liquidity funds and could put up to 10% of its assets into synthetic securities. The fund manager will use swaps to hedge exposure and alter duration but not to leverage the portfolio's positions, said Olivier Asselin, head of the short-term duration group in London. The so-called liquidity plus funds are currently EUR10 million (USD8.8 million) and GBP18 million (USD25 million), some of which is seed capital, he expects them to grow substantially.

Goldman Sachs is structuring a USD160 million catastrophe bond for Paris-based reinsurance company SCOR Group to securitize Californian and Japanese earthquake risk and European windstorm risk, according to a cat bond analyst in New York. Officials at Goldman Sachs and SCOR declined comment. The analyst expects the deal to hit the market by early next year and is likely to be split into two three-year tranches. It is still too early to determine pricing or how the tranches will be divided.