Search results for

Swiss Re, the bond reinsurance giant, has hired Frank Ronan, the former global head of structured credit products at Chase Securities, for its Swiss Re Financial Products unit in New York. Additionally, it has also addedDavid Hough, who was a senior structured finance executive at ABN Amro, to its Swiss Re New Markets unit. Both positions are newly created, according to a spokeswoman at Swiss Re in New York.

Bear Stearns has hired Robert Canning, former managing director responsible for derivatives sales to U.S. based financial institutions at Bankers Trust, as a managing director in the derivatives marketing and sales group in New York. Canning will also take the new position of head of derivatives sales and marketing for U.S. agencies, according to Peter Croncota, global head of fixed income and credit derivatives sales and marketing in New York. The three person U.S. agencies sales team originally reported directly to Croncota but the firm decided to create the new position because the department has recently grown and wants room to grow further as volumes increase.

Premarketing of what should be this year's largest share issue in Australia began this week, as Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank start discreet talks with fund managers about the float of the Australian and South African steaming and coking coal assets of Zurich-based trading company Glencore International. The assets have been injected into an IPO vehicle named ENEX Resources. Glencore plans to sell up to 70% of the company in a global share placement that will begin formally in early August and end in mid-September.

The Thai government this week gave clearance for the next stage of the Thai Airways privatisation. The government wants to sell another 23% in the company later this year, reducing its ownership to 70% and slashing the debt to equity ratio to five times from the current 17 times. It will achieve this through the issue of up to 400m new shares. However, there appear to be no plans for an international offer. Local investors will be given the first chance to buy into the airline and any unsold shares will be offered to members of the Star Alliance group, of which Thai Airways is a founding member, according to a statement from Pracha Maleenond, transport and communications minister.

HDFC Bank, India's second largest private bank, last Friday (July 20) priced its American Depository Receipt (ADR) issue at a fractional premium to its underlying share price in Mumbai. HDFC Bank raised $154m in the offering of 11.16m ADRs, becoming the second Indian private sector bank to list on the New York Stock Exchange. After filing with the SEC late the previous week, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley completed a compressed roadshow and one day bookbuild to sell the units, equivalent to 33.48m ordinary shares. There is also a 1.675m ADR greenshoe. Crédit Lyonnais Securities, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Cazenove are co-managers.

Despite a lack of interest from institutions, McDonald's Japan rose more than 9% in early trading on its debut on the Jasdaq over the counter market this week. The shares were only traded yesterday (Thursday) morning and will begin full trading today. The company appealed strongly to retail investors, who snapped up most of the issue and dominated early trading. To attract retail buyers, the company sold equity in 100 share lots of ¥350,000 ($2,800), instead of the traditional 1,000 share lot.

The Australian Magnesium Corp (AMC) share offering, which had been expected to raise A$680m, was shelved last Friday (July 20), following a poor response from international investors. The bookbuild was due to close on Thursday July 19, but, even after a one day extension, the books were not covered, forcing the company to pull the deal. Bankers close to the transaction said the issue would not be resurrected in the near future.

Recordable compact disc manufacturer CMC Magnetics slipped into the market on Wednesday before the summer holiday season to secure $100m from a zero coupon convertible. Lehman Brothers managed the deal, which was priced with the most generous terms of the year for investors - although this came as no surprise given the continued slide of the Taiwan equity market. There is also a $20m greenshoe.

The Philippines has made its first use of derivative products through a financial institution to achieve cost savings of around £18.8m, by raising $220.4m after swapping two peso bond issues into dollars. Initially, the Philippines Bureau of the Treasury auctioned a total of Ps11.81bn in three and five year fixed rate notes on Tuesday - the first time the sovereign had arranged fixed rate domestic bonds. The two tranches were arranged and underwritten by HSBC and gained the legal maximum participation of 19 investors.

Japan's Shinsei Bank this week launched a ¥73.5bn securitisation backed by a portfolio of residential mortgages it acquired when it bought Daihyaku Mutual Life Insurance last year. It will be the second largest RMBS deal ever to be launched out of Japan. Lead managed by Shinsei Securities, which was only set up in May this year, the deal may represent the start of a large and diverse programme of securitisation for the bank. In March last year Shinsei was bought by a consortium of 10 foreign banks that have decided to target the retail sector in Japan.

After weeks of anticipation, Telstra Corp finally launched its A$500m seven year domestic bond issue to a rapturous reception from its local investor base this week. With this success, Telstra has regained its reputation as a savvy capital markets operator after having hurt buyers of its issue last year when spreads on that deal ballooned.

Global dollar bond issuance took off again this week with more than $11bn of deals, as corporates took advantage of increasing flows of investor money into a booming high grade bond market. Issuers this week included Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), trading with a $2.25bn five year global debut, Wal-Mart with a $3bn two and five year offering, Reed Elsevier Capital with $1.1bn of five and 10 year dollar tranches, PNC Funding with $1bn of two and five year paper, and Qwest Capital Funding with $3.75bn of three, eight and 20 year bonds.