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Credit Suisse First Boston has increased the pricing on its deal for Washington Group International after investors cited it as a storied credit that is a tough sell. The spread is now up to

Deutsche Bank has hired Chris Johnson for the newly created position of senior leveraged finance originator, according to firm spokesman Ted Meyer. Johnson was formerly chairman of Merrill Lynch's global leveraged finance group, where he had spent 14 years within its high-yield unit. He resigned in early December as Merrill has undergone a sweeping reorganization of its once prominent operation (BW, 12/17). Johnson will be a managing director, although his reporting lines are in the process of being finalized, according to Meyer, who speculates that he will most likely fall under the command of global leveraged and structured finance chief Rich Byrnes. Meyer says his role will be to expand DB's high-yield client roster. He started several days before Christmas. A call to Merrill spokeswoman Jessica Oppenheim was not returned as of press time.

U.S. corporates with Argentine peso exposure have been denied a payout on more than USD1 billion in non-deliverable forwards after an emerging markets trade group stopped publishing a daily forward dollar/peso rate because of the Latin American country's economic meltdown. The Emerging Markets Traders Association suspended publication of the daily rate on Dec. 21, but the situation has only now turned critical since the markets have reopened following the year-end holidays, according to fx traders in New York.

China's largest bus shelter advertising firm, Clear Media, listed on the Hong Kong market shortly before Christmas and by yesterday (Thursday) its shares were trading at HK$5.70, slightly below the offer price of HK$5.89. With Clear now listed, two other similar companies, Media Nation and Media Partners International, are also perparing for their launch. China-based Clear Media closed at HK$5.40 on its market debut on December 19, about 8.3% lower than the HK$5.89 issue price as investors showed their wariness about the company's high valuation. By January 3, the stock had recovered to HK$5.70.

Hong Kong Chinese companies raising capital for expansion could help new share sales in Hong Kong this year rise to HK$100bn, according to research by Arthur Andersen.

The Development Bank of Singapore launched its first full scale collateralised loan obligation on December 13. The S$2.8bn synthetic deal is one of the first CLOs for an Asian bank outside Japan. It conveys the risk of loans DBS has made to 136 Asian clients, with 80% of the pool in Singapore.

The Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation (HKMC) is set to issue the first bond off its new $3bn mortgage backed securitisation (MBS) programme in February or March. The deal, which will be lead managed by Merrill Lynch, will probably be for HK$2bn-HK$3bn with the tenor yet to be decided.

The last few weeks of 2001 proved to be the most positive for the new issues market in Japan, with Nomura Research Institute (NRI) rounding off the year with a 39% surge from its listing price on December 17. NRI, one of Japan's top computer systems integrators and business software developers, defied the general Tokyo market misery with a strong debut. It was Japan's largest IPO of 2001, and one of the few that closed the year above issue price.

The yen market was finding big trades hard to achieve yesterday. Only four of the 22 trades announced were for over ¥1 billion ($7.85 million). But there was one ¥6 billion deal, by Earls Seven, the Deutsche Bank-arranged financial repackaged issuer. It goes out to March 2004. And Apollo Spires, the Merrill Lynch-arranged conduit, did a ¥1.1 billion 27-month trade. European Investment Bank followed Apollo Spires's example, announcing a ¥1.1 billion deal, but it has a longer term of 30 years. And the last trade over ¥1 billion was a ¥1.13 billion five-year deal by Societe Generale Acceptance. The French issuer also announced a ¥500.4 million three-month note. First Chicago Tokio Marine Financial Products and Macquarie Bank both did three trades each. First Chicago's were two ¥100.08 million two-month trades and a ¥100 million two-month trade. Macquarie Bank went for a ¥30.34 million two-month note, an ¥83.68 million two-and-a-half month note and a ¥100.1 million six-month note.

Yen trading remained strong yesterday, with 24 deals being announced raising $622.25 million for the issuers involved. Telenor Communications did its second deal of the year, a ¥7 billion (54.96 million) 10-year trade with Salomon Smith Barney as the dealer. Its other trade of 2001 was also denominated in yen. Kommunalbanken was one other Norwegian issuer in the market. It did two notes, for ¥1.5 billion and ¥800 million that go out to March 2032 and December 2021 respectively. Salomon Smith Barney did the second trade. And Eksprtfinans completed the trades from Norway with a ¥500 million 20-year note, also led by Salomon Smith Barney. World Bank went for six yen deals, between ¥1 billion and ¥2.2 billion in size and from 20 to 30 years in length. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter did the biggest yen deal for some time. It was a ¥50 billion three-week note. Kommunekredit, Royal Bank of Scotland, Toshiba Capital (Asia) and Voyager, the financial repackaged issuer, all went for ¥500 million trades. They have respective terms of 25 years, 15 years, 10 years and eight-years-and-five-months.

South Africa Energy Africa's $50m seven year facility has been signed by mandated arranger ABN Amro.