Search results for

Although the UK Premiership football season only started last weekend, three clubs have already scored in the asset backed securitisation market, with Leeds United planning a £50m deal backed by ticket receivables.

Although the UK Premiership football season only started last weekend, three clubs have already scored in the asset backed securitisation market, with Leeds United planning a £50m deal backed by ticket receivables.

Royal Bank of Scotland hosted a lunch for its MTN dealers yesterday at its offices at Waterhouse Square, London - a beautiful building, with gothic arches and turrets. Sanjay Sofat, Nigel Owen, Richard Harding and Ron Huggett were the hosts. The building was a far cry from the usual multi-storey glass complexes banks are going for these days. Shame that RBS is moving to a high-rise block in the City this weekend. Everyone who was anyone was there, including Kirsty McFarlane from RBS's dealer side, Commerzbank's Gayle Turner, UBS Warburg's Graham Cox, Deutsche Bank's Mike Bransford and HSBC's Evie Christodoulidou. The buffet lunch and regular top-ups of wine and beer, made the occasion go wonderfully. And while half the dealer community were socializing in Waterhouse Square, others were away at the annual crayfish party. But this week's spare thought goes to UBS Warburg's head trader, Gavin Eddy, who has been burgled again.

Lehman Brothers has revealed its plans for the Japanese cash equity sales team it has set up in London, composed mainly of former ING Barings bankers. The head of the six strong group is Ashley Kent, who announced in April his departure from ING Barings where he was head of Japanese cash equity sales in Europe. Kent will be joined by David Harris, who was most recently based in New York as head of emerging market sales trading for Crédit Lyonnais.

Meliorbanca has become the fifth Italian private bank to sign a Euro-MTN programme in the last 10 weeks. And the euro1.5 billion ($1.37 billion) Euro-MTN signing gives UniCredit Banca Mobiliare (UBM) its first arrangership of the year. Luca Peviani, Meliorbanca's CFO, says the wide spreads at present mean they will wait until next year to do their first trade. He says: "We have no plans for an inaugural trade because we want to wait to see if the market improves." Peviani is unfazed by the number of Italian banks that have recently joined the market. He says: "The competition is not a worry. We are a small investment bank, very different to the other banks in this sector, and we can be more effective and flexible as a result. We don't need to post aggressive levels all the time." Fitch rates the issuer BBB+ and trading off the programme will be concentrated on the euro sector. The bank's ability to do structures is something that Peviani thinks will entice investors. He says: "We are very strong in structured products, and are able to design issues tailored to investors' needs." The dealers are the arranger, Banca Akros, Banca d'Intermediazione Mobiliare, Banca di Roma, Banca Nazionale del Lavaro, Lehman Brothers, Natexis Banques Populaires, Salomon Smith Barney and UBS Warburg.

Algeria EuroWeek understands that Orascom Telecom may approach the loan market to help finance its $737m contract for the first privately operated GSM lines in Algeria.

While we basked in the Sotogrande sunshine and kept uncustomary hours at night, we had our lines open to Morgan Stanley and CSFB to keep abreast of the latest moves being made by John Mack who is now in total control at CSFB and is, by all accounts, about to conduct a purge which will make Josef Stalin look like a cream puff. Some of the stories coming back about Mr Mack's activities and modus operandi are truly mind-blowing and sounded far fetched to us, even after a lunch time bottle of Fino sherry. One friend said that Mack no longer needed to have a showdown with expensive high tech leader, Frank Quattrone, because there was a business article due to be published very shortly which could reveal all sorts of "problems". At Morgan Stanley, where Quattrone once worked, they are saying that Quattrone is a marked man. Hang in there Frank and prove them wrong.

* Bear Stearns has recruited Mathias Echene and Ricardo Figuerola to its European fixed income distribution business. Echene has started work as a managing director in the French sales team covering fixed income products and credit derivatives. He previously worked on French fixed income products for Citigroup.

Czech Republic Cesky Telekom is awaiting clearance from the Czech anti-trust authorities to proceed with its plans to buy out the remaining shares in EuroTel that it does not already own. Once clearance is gained, Cesky will launch a Eurobond, to be between Eu1bn and Eu1.5bn, that will finance the purchase of the shares.

Denmark Copenhagen Stock Exchange will consider the possibility of an IPO later this year, according to its interim report published on August 16.

* Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG Rating: Aa3/A+/AA-

* Fortis Finance NV Guarantor: Fortis Bank NV