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Société Générale has put all new equity derivatives products on hold while it re-evaluates the situation in the aftermath of last week's terrorist attacks, according to Dan Fields, managing director of equity derivatives in Sydney.

Salomon Smith Barney has moved its entire derivatives group to the firm's disaster recovery facility in Rutherford, N.J. The group was forced to move from its headquarters at 390 Greenwich Street in TriBeCa, Manhattan, following the collapse of the Twin Towers. The firm's headquarters is about eight blocks from the World Trade Center. The building is structurally sound, but New York authorities have closed off access to Manhattan below 14th Street, according to an official. "We are fully operational here in Rutherford. We created this disaster facility some time ago," the official added. He is uncertain when the group will be able to return to

Weather consultant Weather Risk Advisory has closed because of a lack of cash. "It was a cash shortage," said Peter Brewer, founder and ceo in Cambridge, U.K. He explained that the consultancy had a long-term business plan to raise GBP3 million when it started in September 1999 and had only been able to raise GBP1 million because of the harsh economic climate for venture capital funding in a nascent market. A broker said the consultant was ahead of its time in attempting to run a business dedicated to the weather market.

Stan DeGroot, senior fx options trader at ABN AMRO in Amsterdam, has moved to Sydney to become Asian head of foreign exchange options. DeGroot said he made the move three weeks ago and is responsible for the Asian region, declining further comment. He reports to Colin McKeith, head of global financial markets in Sydney. McKeith referred calls to Steven Blaney, who confirmed the moves. DeGroot replaces Stuart Piller, who left the firm a few months ago. Piller could not be reached for comment.

Bank of America is pitching volatility swaps to its clients because it expects Japanese equity market volatility to fall as the Nikkei plummets. The Nikkei fell below the Dow Jones Industrial Average last week, driving up implied volatility to its highest levels since the August 1998 Long-Term Capital Management crisis, according to Nick Waltner, managing director and head of equity financial products in Tokyo. As a result of the high vol, hedge funds and relative value players are looking at variance swaps to speculate on volatility falling.

U.S. airlines, such as American Airlines and United Airlines, are expected to be the most active names in the credit-default swap market when trading returns to normal levels. Credit-default swap traders said spreads for five-year protection on American Airlines jumped to 410 basis points from about 210 basis points last Monday. The airline industry faces USD370 million a day in lost revenues through grounding their services. The loss will also have a negative impact on the companies' credit worthiness, which will cause spreads to widen further.

Barclays Capital's derivatives division has moved from its New York headquarters at 222 Broadway to a disaster recovery building in Carlstadt, N.J. The division includes credit, interest rate and equity derivatives trading, research, structuring and sales.

ABN AMRO is looking to double its credit derivatives desk in Singapore to six to meet growing client interest in Asia for credit products. Aashish Ponda, head of credit derivatives for Asia-excluding Japan, in Singapore, said he plans to hire an additional trader and at least two structurers in the coming months. Ponda continued that it is seeing growing interest in clients considering structured credit products and needs to make the hires to take advantage.

Moody's Investors Service lowered the rating on American Lawyer Media's $29 million secured revolving credit facility reflecting the company's poor financial performance compared to its projections. ALM finished the quarter ending June 30, 2001 with $1.6 million in cash and bank availability of $1.8 million. Moody's notes that cash has the potential to be insufficient during the immediate term. The New York City-based company publishes law journals. Stephen Jacobs, cfo, could not be reached for comment. Calls to a spokesman's office also were not returned.

PG&E National Energy Group closed a $1.25 billion deal last month after it paid down its existing $1.1 billion deal as part of an effort to consolidate the business. The deal breaks down into a $500 million, two-year tranche and a $750 million one-year tranche. "The new deal is part of our financial strategy. We moved the debt up a layer in the corporate structure," said John Cooper, senior v.p. finance. The company has been in the process of a restructuring plan since National Energy Group formed in December 1998, he explained. First the company did a bond issue then worked on bank financing. The original deal was under PG& E Corporation. National Energy Group, a subsidiary of PG&E Corp., develops, owns and operates electric generating and gas pipeline facilities and provides energy trading, marketing and risk-management services. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Md.

Viad, a holding company for payment services and convention event areas, decided to go with a commercial bank rather than a pure investment bank on a new facility because the company feels a bank could best respond to its needs. David Iannini, treasurer, said the company took bids for the facility, but decided to stay with incumbent Citibank. "Investment banks are struggling because of the commercial banks. They don't have the same mentality or personnel to do the revolvers." Iannini continued, the investment banks need to adapt by providing all lines of credit on the same terms.

Lehman Brothers' $1 billion credit for Tesoro Petroleum has been assigned a Ba2 rating byMoody's Investors Service, with the rating incorporating the leverage taken on for the large, debt-funded BP purchase. Additionally, the two refineries, infrastructure assets and related marketing of BP appear to have been bought at a premium relative to other refining asset transactions. The credit is split between a $175 million five-year revolving credit, an $85 million five-year term loan "A," a $90 million five-year delayed draw-term loan, a $300 million six-year term loan "B," and a $350 million capital markets term loan, expected to be refinanced with a subordinated note issuance. The term loan "B" has been well received in syndication following launch, as bankers cited the attractiveness of the sector (LMW, 9/10).