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A $20 million chunk of Crown Cork & Seal traded last Tuesday at 79 1/2, down nearly a point from the level traded at an auction the day before. Industrial Bank of Japan was the rumored seller, and J.P. Morgan was said to have bought the piece. Officials at both shops declined to comment. A day earlier, a $10 million piece of Crown Cork was auctioned off between 81-82 on news of a possible bankruptcy filing. The company's troubles center on aggressive acquisitions throughout the 1990s and declining sales, culminating in a loss of $174 million in 2000. Compounding the pressure is a $400 million bank debt payment due next year. Timothy Donahue, cfo, was traveling last week and could not be reached for comment. A spokeswoman declined to comment.

Credit Suisse First Boston last Tuesday launched syndication of two new deals totaling $676 million. CSFB is in the market with a $350 million credit for the financially troubled Washington Group and a $325 million refinancing for CSK Auto. A banker familiar with the Washington Group deal said it comprises a $200 million revolver with a commitment fee of 1% and a $150 million revolver carrying a 2% commitment fee. Pricing on both pieces is tied to a grid and is currently set for LIBOR plus 4%. The reason for the difference in the commitment fees on revolvers that are both set for three year tenors could not be ascertained by press time. Katrina Puett, media relations specialist at Washington Group, said treasury officials were traveling and unavailable to answer questions. Bankers said CSFB is looking for other agents to come in on the deal as it will provide exit financing for the company now that Washington has emerged from bankruptcy.

Bill Wivel, fixed-income portfolio manager at Columbia Partners, in Washington, D.C., is retiring effective Dec.14 after 44 years in the investment management business. Wivel says Gary Dickinson, who has been co-manager with Wivel for the last year, will become sole manager of the firm's $600 million taxable fixed-income portfolio. Wivel says he is leaving the business because, at the age of 69, "It's time to enjoy life." He has been at Columbia Partners for five years, coming over from RIMCO, the investment subsidiary of Riggs Bank, also in Washington. Wivel began managing blended fixed-income and equity accounts in 1957, and has focused exclusively on fixed-income since 1970. He says the biggest change to the business came roughly 10 years ago, when Bloomberg machines became a fixture on portfolio managers' desks. The additional information and analytical tools the Bloomberg provides has only marginally improved managers' performance, but has certainly led to greater trading activity and market volatility.

Traders last week were immersed in the complexities of the Enron Corporation saga as the beleaguered company's bank debt fell to the low 20s from the 50 range after news broke last Wednesday that the Dynegy Corp. deal was off. No trades were reported last week and dealers said they expect investors to hang on and hope their senior secured status comes through for them in what, at LMW's press time, appeared to be an imminent bankruptcy. Market players said many in the debt are distressed shops that bought paper in the 50s. Many original lenders bailed at that level or earlier on their view of its ultimate recovery on the paper.

Thirteen former fixed-income salesmen from Gruntal & Co. LLC's New York corporate bond sales desk have filed a statement of claim--a copy of which was obtained by BondWeek--with the National Association of Securities Dealers, alleging that they were all denied severance after they were terminated on July 25. Similarly, five of the 13 allege that they were denied fair value for the stock they had purchased in privately held Gruntal. Michael Riordan, Gruntal's counsel at Ressler, Amery & Ross of Morristown, N.J., would only acknowledge that he is preparing a response and was uncertain as to whether he could comment on behalf of Gruntal. The claimants have retained Liddle & Robinson of New York as their counsel. An associate with Liddle & Robinson notes that Gruntal has to file a response with the NASD by Dec. 18.

Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited handed the sole lead of a $125 million refinancing toScotia Bank after the bank came in with a term sheet and wanted to go it alone, without co-leads Deutsche Bank and Barclays Capital. The company secured an additional $25 million while obtaining more flexible covenants, said David Garofalo, v.p. finance and cfo. "Scotia was more confident to underwrite the entire deal," Garofalo said. "Scotia Capital came in with a term sheet and said they'd like to refinance the existing facility. We said we'd consider it under certain terms and they met them."

HSBC is planning to build a European credit strategy team as part of its effort to enhance its credit research group. Frances Hutchinson, London-based head of fixed-income credit research, says the firm is evaluating what the function of the credit strategy team will be and what products it will provide. A timeline for the group's establishment has not yet been set, but HSBC will be in the market to hire credit strategists, she adds.

IMC Global's debt is being bid at 100 on the sale of the company's chemical unit in early November. When IMC sold Penrice Soda Products, the Australian unit of its soda ash and boron chemicals business, the company raised $43 million. According to company officials, the money raised will be used to pay down debt. Calls to Reid Porter, executive v.p. and cfo, were referred to Dave Prichard, spokesman for investor relations. He declined to comment on trading levels, but said, "IMC is continuing to make progress on non-core asset sales, including the Penrice deal and pending sale of our salt business," which will bring in $600 million in cash. "Since we did bank refinancing last May, we've made considerable progress," he added.

Last week's successful $400 million issue by Nationwide Mutual Insurance shows there is still strong demand for property and casualty insurance paper, says Greg Habeeb, portfolio manager at Calvert Asset Management in Bethesda, Md. Because, bonds of large household property and casualty insurance names, such as Allstate and American International Group, have more than recovered their pre-disaster spread levels, Habeeb says the real premium is in lesser-known names. Recent purchases he has made include bonds of Liberty Mutual Insurance in 30- and 100-year maturities. He says Liberty is a comparable credit to Nationwide, although it trades well behind that name. Last week, the Liberty 7.875% notes of '26 were trading at 345 over Treasuries, while the Nationwide paper was at a spread of 305 basis points over the curve. Other purchases Calvert has made include Lumberman's Mutual Casualty Insurance,XL Capital and Renaissance Re.

Nextel Communications' levels are back on the upswing, trading up to 91 5/8 then hitting 93 5/8 by the end of last week. Dealers noted a few $5 million trades that totaled a modest amount and pushed the debt up about three points over two weeks. There has been a steady progression for Nextel over the last month, ever since recently bottoming out in the high 70s.

Lloyds TSB may build its own asset-backed commercial paper conduit to help its corporate banking clients raise off-balance sheet debt. David Brealey, London-based head of securitization and corporate finance, says that at present the firm uses third-party asset-backed CP conduits, but creating its own, which would be $5 billion in size, could be cost-effective. Lloyds uses two CP conduits structured by other firms, and Brealey declined to name the outside firms or the amount of assets allocated to them. To head up the development of conduit capabilities, Lloyds has hired Mark Escott as director of securitization. He joins from Bank Gesellschaft, where he held a similar role. Brealey says that if the firm decides to go forward with the CP conduit, more hires will be made in the new year. Lloyds' securitization team currently has 18 members.

A loophole in Securities & Exchange Commission tender rules has opened the door to a breed of bond tender offers that various bond market buy-siders are calling "predatory" and "exploitative." The practice, alternately called "mini-" or "trashy-" tenders, takes advantage of an SEC rule enabling any firm to tender for up to 5% of a company's bonds (or stock) without registering their activity. With increasing frequency, this has given rise to firms which send banks, money managers and mutual funds--both large and small--official looking tender offers for a company's bonds at up to 15 points below market price. One veteran buy-side trader, Jim Claire of Evergreen Investment Management, calls these companies "shady operators," arguing that they try to exploit bond managers' fiduciary obligation to pass on tenders to clients. Claire continues, "I hope someone gets around to shutting these [crooks] down."