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Crédit Agricole Indosuez is looking to rebuild its merchant banking and asset management division after the defection of Dan Smith, Ken Kencel and a handful of other key staff and administrative personnel to RBC Dominion Securities last month. Paul Travers, the newly appointed managing director and co-head of Indosuez Capital, said the firm is looking to reassure investors that it is committed to the loan market. Travers arrives from Bear Stearns, where he was a senior managing director of the leveraged loan group responsible for leveraged loan origination and structuring. Smith and Kencel, who established a strong reputation managing CDO funds combining loans and bonds, will oversee RBCs New York-based leveraged finance and asset management unit.

Credit Suisse First Boston has stepped up to join Deutsche Bank to fully underwrite the $5.5 billion bridge loan to EchoStar Communications to finance the Hughes Electronics acquisition from General Motors for $24.6 billion in cash and stock, after market players were mystified as to why Echostar's advisor, UBS Warburg, was not on the roster. CSFB advised Hughes on the deal.

Market players rallied together Thursday night in a benefit auction for the family of Mike Lynch, a bank debt broker at Cantor Fitzgerald who died on Sept. 11. Traders throughout the market planned and donated items for the event, which raised $27,000. The auction was held at Hurley's Bar and items such as autographed sports memorabilia and game tickets were auctioned off. Proceeds from the auction will go to Lynch's wife and nine-month-old daughter. Besides traders, salespeople, clients and rescue workers were in attendance Thursday night.

Deutsche Bank is arranging a USD8.98 billion (EUR1 billion) managed hybrid collateralized debt obligation that rival managers say is one of the first deals in which the manager actively runs a portfolio of default swaps. The CDO, dubbed Jazz, will be managed by AXA Investment Managers, according to an indicative term sheet obtained by Derivatives Week, aLoan Market Week sister publication. The average spread in the portfolio will be 125bps and 70-75% of the credits will be European-based companies, with the rest coming from the U.S.

Sensing a tightening bank market, DIMON opted to mix up its financing between bank debt and bonds when it went out to the market this year to refinance its $250 million credit. The company closed a smaller-sized bank deal, reducing its revolver to $125 million and extending the maturity to three years from two years. The company also closed a $200 million note offering. The bank deal closed on Oct. 30. Ritchie Bond, senior v.p. and treasurer, explained why the bond deal was an integral part of the refinancing. "In this environment, the availability of commercial bank credit continues to contract. We wanted to stay ahead of that curve. By accessing funds through the bond issuance, we've been able to better secure long-term financial liquidity for DIMON." The Danville, Va.-based company is a worldwide dealer of leaf tobacco.

An estimated $20 million of Pacific Gas & Electric's bank debt traded in the 93 5/8 range early last week on news of the company's third-quarter earnings more than tripling. The company also reported that its utility unit, which has filed for bankruptcy-court protection, has cash holdings of $4.3 billion. Still, market players remain wary of how the company will hold up as California's economy suffers and questions remain about the stability of future utility rates. Also, San Francisco was voting last week as LMW went to press on whether to create a municipal power district. If approved, PG&E would lose 8% of its customer base. The utility company is based in San Francisco.

Language Line, the world's largest provider of over-the-phone translation services, has secured $200 million in bank debt via TD Securities amid a difficult financing environment that has seen banks pull back from extending credit. Matt Gibbs, cfo for Language Line, explained the market is tough right now, "partly because of the things that have gone wrong in the last six to eight months. People are gun-shy right now and don't want to extend credit." The fallout with new economy companies has made banks particularly wary of anything cutting edge, he said. Language Line utilizes some interesting technology, but it is not seen as a cutting-edge business, Gibbs explained.

A decent issuance week with about $15.5 billion in investment grade supply hitting the market. Utilities and energy companies were once again at the fore with Burlington Resources, First Energy, and Indianapolis Power & Light among the borrowers. The U.S. Treasury's surprise decision to suspend the 30-year bond appears to be already having an effect on corporate bond issuance. The weighted average maturity of issuance on the week was 12.7 years, which is 3.4 years longer than the year-to-date average. There is likely to be continued extension out the curve by borrowers looking to lock in low all-in rates and to meet the incremental demand for paper created by the shortage of Treasury supply. Utilities and Energy companies, with their need to fund capex, are natural long end buyers. The high yield calendar also remains healthy with over $1 billion in paper priced; there was one deal in emerging markets as Panama tapped the '08s for $250 million.

Following one failed attempt to raise funds through an international public bond issue in the dollar market, Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW) subsidiary PCCW-HKT Telephone successfully returned to the market on Wednesday with an inaugural $750m 10 year bond issue. The 144a Reg S issue was rapidly launched without a fanfare by financial unit PCCW-HKT Capital and guaranteed by PCCW-HKT. The speed and interest in the issue is in stark contrast to the aborted attempt to launch the telecoms company's $2.5bn jumbo dollar issue in July.

Four days into the international roadshow for the float of the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT), bankers working on the deal claim it is going as well as they could have hoped given the feedback received during premarketing. Their expression of confidence came as the international investment community appeared to be encouraged by the pricing of the issue but remained concerned over the corporate governance of state owned and privatised Thai companies.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) was finalising preparations to launch its inaugural domestic bond issue today (Friday), with only a few documentation procedures to be concluded. The partially government owned airline was looking to launch a S$800m 10 year fixed rate bond issue via Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) and the slightly surprising choice of HSBC. The joint lead managers have reported strong interest from the market and hope to see some overseas participation.

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) revealed this week that it would begin an all-encompassing international roadshow for its forthcoming jumbo global bond issue, following in the footsteps of regional rival PCCW-HKT's deal earlier this week (see separate story). Having recently secured an A1/AA- rating, the corporate is expected to launch what could be the largest corporate bond issue of the year, with an official size of $1.5bn in 10 and 30 year tranches. The corporate also reserved the right to arrange a euro tranche as did Singapore bank Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) earlier this year.