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London International Exhibition Centre plc met investors this week to discuss prospects for its £178m structured bond, which was downgraded by Fitch to BB- and CC two weeks ago. "We provided some background information on the latest forecasts, which Fitch had seen and which formed part of the background for them to provide the re-rating," said Chris Hunt, LIEC's finance director.

Rosy Blue NV, a privately owned diamond wholesale company in Belgium that is one of the biggest buyers of rough diamonds from DeBeers, this week launched its long awaited securitisation backed by its stock of diamonds. Lead managed by Nomura, pre-marketing started last July, but was hit by a number of delays.

SA Home Loans, the largest non-bank provider of mortgages in South Africa, is preparing to launch the first securitisation in South Africa to be backed by residential mortgages. The deal is lead managed by JP Morgan Securities South Africa and Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank (SCMB), a division of the Standard Bank of South Africa. Roadshows will begin next week.

Non-conforming mortgage lender Southern Pacific Mortgage Ltd this week launched a £350m securitisation backed by first and second lien sub-prime mortgages. Lead managed by Lehman Brothers and ABN Amro, the deal marks the first securitisation to come from Southern Pacific since it was restructured with a capital injection from Lehman Brothers in January 2000. It still retains an interest in the group.

ScottishPower, the UK based electricity company, this week announced plans for a £1.9bn refinancing of its subsidiary Southern Water Services, using techniques based on securitisation. Credit Suisse First Boston will lead manage a £1.8bn bond issue by the end of March 2002, which along with £100m of existing debt will be ringfenced in Southern Water, which is one of the 10 main regional water utilities in England and Wales.

Tenovis GmbH & Co KG, a leading provider of business communications solutions in Germany, has launched the first rated German term securitisation to use a secured loan structure, with a Eu300m transaction. Lead managed by Morgan Stanley and Schroder Salmon Smith Barney, Tenovis Finance Limited issued a single tranche of notes rated A2 by Moody's and A+ by Standard & Poor's. It was priced at 150bp over three month Euribor. "Pricing was in the range we'd expected and many people were intrigued by the deal," said Steve White, ABS syndicate official at Morgan Stanley in London.

* Morgan Stanley has begun marketing the eighth deal from its European Loan Conduit (ELOC) programme, a £545m deal expected to be priced in around two weeks. A £434m triple-A piece will be issued above a double-A tranche worth £38m and a single-A piece worth £31m. A triple-B piece of £28m is also planned with a £14m single-B tranche. All have average lives of five years and a seven year final maturity. Notes are backed by 10 loans on 49 properties in the UK.

Deutsche Bank plans to hire up to five new structurers and sales professionals for its London-based structured products group as the current volatile global equity markets fuels demand for equity-linked notes. Johan Groothaert, managing director and head of equity structured products and alternative investments in London, said the bank currently has a team of roughly 50 staffers in the structured products group and is overstretched. He added he is looking to add the personnel in the new year.

Singapore-based OCBC Bank plans to offer equity derivatives, credit derivatives and exotic interest-rate and currency derivatives for the first time next year. The bank currently offers plain-vanilla foreign exchange and interest-rate derivatives. Yap Tsok Kee, v.p. of global treasury, said the bank will look to offer and trade the products within six months, after it has dealt with the time consuming integration of Keppel Capital Holdings.