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Charter Communications' bank debt traded up last week to 97 3/8 from a previous level of 95 3/4. Dealers reported about $10 million changed hands. Buyers and sellers could not be determined. The credit recently notched down on Adelphia Communications' new deal flooding the market with more cable paper. Dealers remain optimistic on cable names, but say where anything lands remains a mystery in current market conditions. "Just because $2.5 million of Charter traded at 96 doesn't mean the market was down; it just means one person wanted to sell," a dealer said, explaining why market fluctuations occur. "If I were to buy $10 million of Charter, it would push [levels] back up." Charter is a cable company based in St. Louis, Mo.

An estimated $50 million of Crown Cork & Seal has traded over the last two weeks in the 84-85 context. Last Wednesday the company released a third-quarter loss, citing pricing pressure and the impact of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies. The packaging products company reported a net loss of $13 million compared to a profit of $44 million a year ago in the same period. Deutsche Bank is said to be active in the name, but officials there would not confirm. Calls to Timothy Donahue, cfo, and the company's investor relations department were not returned.

Crown Media Holdings was able to close a $285 million acquisition credit despite a tough market because the company's target, Hallmark's video library, is well regarded by lenders. Bill Aliber, cfo, says the company began discussions with Hallmark last November and just recently closed the deal as available credit in the bank debt market tightened. "Hallmark helped us move up the food chain," said Aliber, explaining it was a lengthy negotiations process even with the Hallmark name. "The bank market became difficult, so it took a while," Aliber said--referring to the number of credit defaults over the last year and the resulting overall hesitation of lenders in the market. "What happened was the market got more challenging as the process went on," he said.

European swap and credits spreads, usually highly correlated, have significantly de-linked lately, making triple-A to single-A corporate credits unusually cheap. A combination of the impact of the Sept. 11 attacks and Europe's slowing economy has pushed out credit spreads. And, swap spreads have tightened on the back of European governments increasingly becoming receivers of swaps, propelling the decorrelation, according to Ciaran O'Hagan, credit analyst at Lehman Brothers in London. "The [corporate debt] market is a bargain right now," said Keith Patton, portfolio manager at Deutsche Asset Management, in London. "You just have to pick the right one," he added.

Apollo Management ventured in the market last week with the acquisition of IMC Global's salt business for $640 million withJ.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank set to lead a bank loan for Apollo. Credit Suisse First Boston will be providing a bridge to a bond offering and is expected to be on the bank credit. An equity investment of up to $160 million is said to be part of the deal.

Bank of Montreal and Bank of Nova Scotia's $685 million loan for Premdor is seen as a potential market bellwether, as it does not carry the baggage of other credits in the market right now and has good collateral coverage. Commitment levels could not be ascertained, but pricing has not flexed, said one banker, which is a good sign. A BMO official said pricing on the pro rata deck, comprising a $100 million revolver and a $100 million term loan is LIBOR plus 3%. On the $385 million "B," pricing is LIBOR plus 31/ 2%. There is also a $100 million asset-sale portion of the facility, he added. The credit backs the acquisition of Masonite from International Paper.

Brian Hessel, managing director and high-yield portfolio co-manager at J. & W. Seligman in New York, has resigned, according to a senior executive at the firm. Hessel could not be reached for comment. Paul Guidone, Seligman's ceo, was in Germany, and messages left for him were referred to Hank Green, a public relations executive at Adler & Associates, which represents the firm, who declined comment. Hessel's exit marks the second high-profile departure from the junk team at Seligman, which has some $2.5 billion in high-yield assets.Dan Charleston, who had been the top high-yield portfolio manager, was let go over the summer after the firm suffered heavy losses in its portfolio, according to the senior Seligman executive. As of last week, the high-yield fund was down some 17% year-to-date, according to Morningstar.com. Charleston could not be reached for comment.

Bear Stearns' $250 million term loan "B" for Appleton Papers, backing a management-led buyout, is said to be picking up commitments with a number of funds commiting a total of over $100 million to the credit. After launching to a skeptical buyside, the "B" had pricing flexed from LIBOR plus 31/ 2% to 41/ 4% and is being offered with a 13/ 4% discount. There is some concern among investors over the sunset nature of the business, since the main source of revenue is carbonless paper, considered a declining business (LMW, 8/10). The exact level of commitments could not be ascertained by press time.

Australian Magnesium Corp (AustMag) has made its third attempt to sell stock in four months. The deal is a A$500m equity raising, which has already been pulled back from the market twice. This time, the offer is not underwritten, as nervous investment banks fear putting their capital at risk in such volatile markets with so much latent event risk. Apparently undeterred, AustMag lodged the prospectus for its revised offer this week, ending two weeks of speculation after being forced to admit in late September that it was struggling to secure broker backing for the offer.

AUSTRALIA AMP Office Trust has increased its A$120m, 7.25% 2003 bond by A$50m via UBS Warburg. The increase, which is fungible with the original issue, was priced at 48bp over quarterly asset swaps, or 71bp over the 2003 Commonwealth government bond; a level which is only slightly tighter to the original launch price of 47bp in 1998. However, bankers noted that while the pricing originally tightened in, it later suffered along with the rest of the market from the cautious investor sentiment.

Dentsu, which controls 27.3% of Japan's advertising industry, would face an uphill task trying to convince institutional investors to buy as much as ¥54bn of stock, as it prepares for its IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. So instead, the company has decided to place 80% of the 135,000 share offering at home, with most, 75% of that, going to retail buyers. The other 20% will be targeted at international investors. Dentsu plans to sell 135,000 shares, 25,000 of which will be new stock. Shareholders, including Kyodo News, Jiji Press and Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank will sell the other 110,000 shares. Of the 110,000 existing shares, Japanese investors will be offered 83,000, with the remainder sold abroad. Merrill Lynch, Nomura and UBS Warburg are arranging the sale.

AUSTRALIA Oil and gas producer Santos on Wednesday night announced a A$250m off-market share buyback and the issue of a minimum A$250m in reset convertible preference shares. Merrill Lynch is sole bookrunner, underwriter and arranger. Macquarie Bank is joint lead manager.