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The Hellenic Republic is preparing a Eu355m securitisation backed by air traffic control revenues. Lead managed by Morgan Stanley, the deal follows the republic's Eu2bn securitisation in October backed by grants from the European Union.

Morgan Stanley continued its long-running European Loan Conduit (ELOC) programme this week, with a £547.58m transaction backed by UK commercial mortgages. Coronis is the eighth ELOC transaction and the fourth this year. Six tranches of notes were issued backed by 10 commercial loans originated by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and secured on 49 properties in the UK.

JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs this week launched a Eu684m securitisation backed by secured and unsecured non-performing loans originated by Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL). Ares Finance 2 is the second securitisation of non-performing loans originated by BNL to reach the market this year, following a Eu633m transaction in August called Ares Finance.

Schroder Salomon Smith Barney is preparing to launch next Friday a £1.8bn commercial mortgage backed securitisation of commercial properties occupied by British Telecom (BT). The portfolio will comprise around 5,700 properties through which BT operates its fixed line network.

Bahrain Arrangers Arab Banking Corporation and SMBC signed banks into the $107m one year deal for Aluminium Bahrain (ALBA) on Friday November 23.

South Africa BoE Bank's $100m one year deal is progressing well in syndication. Some $30m has already been raised from three banks that have joined the deal.

Norway Arrangers BayernLB and Den norske Bank have launched the Eu50m three year deal for Finansbanken into general syndication.

Austria Austrian utility OMV is still to decide which banks will be arranging its new Eu500m facility.

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.

TPG, the privately owned Dutch mail carrier with approximately EUR7.5 billion (USD6.6 billion) in assets, is examining using credit derivatives for the first time to hedge its counterparty credit risk. Lars Wickson, assistant treasurer in Amsterdam, said the company is keeping abreast of events in the credit derivatives market as a possible means to supplement other risk management techniques. The company already uses plain-vanilla derivatives, both listed and over-the-counter to offload interest-rate and foreign exchange risk. He said the company works with roughly 15 relationship banks and picks counterparties on the basis of price and credit rating. He declined to name the firms.

The Japanese government and major Japanese banks, such as the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., saw their credit ratings downgraded by Fitch Monday, prompting a flurry of trades in the credit-default swap market. "Things are absolutely crazy," said Ralph Orciuoli, managing director of structured credit products at Bank of America in Tokyo, noting that volumes on the sovereign surged to around USD100 million per day early last week from USD30-50 million in a typical week. Spreads on 10-year protection on the sovereign jumped from 27-32 basis points to 33-37bps last Wednesday, he noted.