Search results for

The New Year has begun quietly as the market slowly gets back to work. Jut seven euro trades were closed for $1.01 billion. There was a good mix of nationalities and sizes though. A few issuers went for large public deals. Dexia Credit Local de France closed a three-year euro500 million ($449.85 million) note via Nomura International. The note pays a quarterly coupon of Euribor +0.05000%. Pfandbrief Bank International closed the next largest trade - a four-year euro300 million note that pays an annual coupon of 3.880%. And Credit Lyonnais Finance (Guernsey) did a three-year euro250 million issue. The note pays interest quarterly. At the other end of the volume scale, Beta Finance Corp closed a euro12 million trade that matures on January 7 2003. Rabobank International issued a euro15 million note through its financial repackaged vehicle, EDAM Securities Two. The note matures on December 1 2010. Bear Stearns closed for just euro1 million. Its note goes out to June 30 2007. Essent Nederland closed the shortest-dated trade - a euro66.28 million note that settles on July 11 of this year.

The European loan market will not have to wait long for its first jumbo syndication in 2002, as France Télécom confirmed on Wednesday that it will launch its Eu15bn refinancing at the beginning of next week. France Télécom will open what is set to be a busy yet testing period for the European loan market. The first month of the year is traditionally a tricky time for borrowers and arrangers as participants search for true pricing and liquidity levels.

The European loan market will not have to wait long for its first jumbo syndication in 2002, as France Télécom confirmed on Wednesday that it will launch its Eu15bn refinancing at the beginning of next week. France Télécom will open what is set to be a busy yet testing period for the European loan market. The first month of the year is traditionally a tricky time for borrowers and arrangers as participants search for true pricing and liquidity levels.

Freddie Mac will next Thursday launch the largest ever fixed rate bond issue, a $7bn Reference Note, as it seeks to take advantage of favourable primary market conditions to avoid the problems interest rate volatility is posing its calendar programme. All of the US agency's Reference Notes have a target size of around $10bn, although lower at launch, but the volatility of the last few months has presented Freddie Mac with original issue discount (OID) problems that threaten to hamper increases to its outstanding deals.

Investors across Europe are looking forward to an opportunity this year to put behind them two consecutive years of falling equity markets. Investors across Europe have endured numerous profit warnings and plummeting markets and they expect some respite in 2002. Morley Fund Management has placed a year end target for the FTSE 100 in 2002 of 6000. This would be a 13% increase from the FTSE's opening this year of 5217.4. "With value returning and the worst of the economic news hitting right now, we anticipate a far better year ahead for investors," Morley said in a report. Axa Investment Managers, in a report looking ahead to the new year, is also optimistic. "Major markets have not experienced three consecutive down years in a very long time and, as such, we remain optimistic on the bullish nature of 2002," read the Axa paper published on December 31.

Freddie Mac will next Thursday launch the largest ever fixed rate bond issue, a $7bn Reference Note, as it seeks to take advantage of favourable primary market conditions to avoid the problems interest rate volatility is posing its calendar programme. All of the US agency's Reference Notes have a target size of around $10bn, although lower at launch, but the volatility of the last few months has presented Freddie Mac with original issue discount (OID) problems that threaten to hamper increases to its outstanding deals.

Investors across Europe are looking forward to an opportunity this year to put behind them two consecutive years of falling equity markets. Investors across Europe have endured numerous profit warnings and plummeting markets and they expect some respite in 2002. Morley Fund Management has placed a year end target for the FTSE 100 in 2002 of 6000. This would be a 13% increase from the FTSE's opening this year of 5217.4. "With value returning and the worst of the economic news hitting right now, we anticipate a far better year ahead for investors," Morley said in a report. Axa Investment Managers, in a report looking ahead to the new year, is also optimistic. "Major markets have not experienced three consecutive down years in a very long time and, as such, we remain optimistic on the bullish nature of 2002," read the Axa paper published on December 31.

Fund managers can be exposed to up to 150% more risk than they have predicted due to inadequate risk modelling systems, according to a report published yesterday (Thursday) by ABN Amro. The report demonstrates that certain risk models can be up to twice as successful in risk prediction and control during stress periods as less sophisticated models used by the majority of fund managers.

The launch of three funds last year helped Gartmore increase its hedge funds under management by 46%, as its flagship fund made an impressive return of 10.7%. Gartmore now has $2bn of hedge funds under management, and is expecting to launch more funds this year."We have one strategy under seed and have three more planned," said Graham Martin, account director for hedge funds at Gartmore.

Hewlett-Packard International Bank has upped the size of its $200 million Euro-CP facility to $500 million.

* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

The Region of Lombardy, the richest and largest region in Italy, has signed a euro2 billion ($1.81 billion) Euro-MTN programme. Merrill Lynch and UBS Warburg are the co-arrangers. The facility is rated AA+ (Standard & Poor's), Aa2 (Moody's) and AA (Fitch). All three ratings are one notch higher than the Republic of Italy's (AA/Aa3/AA-), making Lombardy the first region in the world to be rated above the sovereign by all three main agencies. Nicolo Ragnini, head of Italian public sector at UBS Warburg, believes that these strong ratings will be a great asset to the region. He says: "To receive such good ratings from all of the agencies is a great achievement. They are now the best-rated Italian issuer around. This gives them a huge advantage over Italian banks and corporates." The programme will be used to finance Lombardy's transport infrastructure. There is no debut trade planned as yet, but it is expected to come early next year. The deal will mark a step forward for the Italian sub-sovereign bond market, which was given a boost in December when the Region of Tuscany issued its first bond off its euro1.5 billion Euro-MTN shelf - a euro465 million long-dated deal. Lombardy follows in the path of other regions that have accessed the Euro-MTN market and reflects the increasingly popular trend towards alternative finance in Italy. Six other Italian regions - Abruzzo, Lazio, Liguria, Marche, Sicily and Umbria - have signed Euro-MTN facilities in the last four years. The dealers are the arrangers, ABN Amro, Banca IMI, Caboto (Gruppo IntesaBci), Deutsche Bank, Dexia Capital Markets, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers and Salomon Smith Barney.