Search results for

HSBC Bank, the former Midland Bank, this week delivered on its promise of becoming a regular issuer of collateralised loan obligations. The bank launched two almost identical three and five year securitisations from its master trust, Clover Securitisation Ltd, which is backed by the bank's loans to investment grade UK corporates.

Robert Palache, one of the most high profile figures in the European ABS market, resigned from his post as co-head of securitisation at Nomura in London this week. The bank issued a statement which quoted Palache as saying: "I have immensely enjoyed my time at Nomura, and I would like to express my appreciation to all the talented people I have worked with.

RBS Financial Markets and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney this week began marketing the £2.026bn bond issue that will finance the sale of Welsh Water, the UK utility, to an equity-less company that will run the business in the interests of customers. The transaction will repay bridge debt that the leads have extended to Western Power Distribution (WPD), a consortium of US electricity companies that bought Welsh Water last year.

Rheinische Hypothekenbank last Friday raised Eu1.539bn with its second securitisation of multi-jurisdictional European commercial mortgages. Lead managed by Commerzbank, Europa Two Ltd is a little larger than Rheinhyp's first transaction a year ago - a Eu1.345bn issue led by Barclays Capital (books) and Commerzbank.

WR Grace is the latest asbestos-related name to take a fall due to litigation. The company announced a surge of lawsuits this year and says it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. A total of $10 to $15 million traded between 40 and 50.

Wall Street firms, including J.P. Morgan and Salomon Smith Barney, are gearing up to recommend long single-stock vol positions on companies about to report earnings. While earnings seasons often offer opportunities for going long vol via buying straddles, calls or puts, this season should present plenty of opportunities to benefit from long vol positions given overall negative investor sentiment, said New York-based equity strategists. Worse-than-expected earnings releases from one company can send shockwaves through the entire market.

A proposed bankruptcy reform bill that has cleared both houses of the U.S. Congress contains cross-product netting provisions that are crucial for the derivatives community. "It expands the scope of assets and transactions that can take advantage of cross-product netting, and clarifies its enforceability," said Paul Saltzman, general counsel at the Bond Market Association, according to DW sister publication BondWeek. For example, though Saltzman says a strong argument could currently be made for netting out an interest-rate swap and a repurchase agreement, passage of the legislation would make netting those different products much easier.

Adam Friedman, managing director, equity derivatives marketing to corporates at Bear Stearns in New York, has taken the new position of director, equity derivatives structuring for U.S. and Latin America at Scotia Capital in New York. Friedman worked at Bear Stearns for approximately two weeks before moving over to Scotia--he had previously covered corporates at J.P. Morgan, coming from the Chase Manhattan side of the merged entity.

BMO Nesbitt Burns is planning to become a credit-derivatives market maker for clients. Credit spreads have been widening in the cash markets, spurring more interest from clients in credit derivatives as a means of gaining synthetic exposure and a means to hedge credit exposure, said David Hyma, executive managing director and head of capital markets in Toronto. Clients interested in the product include internal BMO clients, such as loan portfolio managers, asset swap portfolio managers, and collateralized debt obligation stucturers, and external clients, including corporates, financial institutions, and regional commercial banks.

Credit default swap spreads widened last week on several technology companies, some of which, including Solectron and Corning, had outstanding convertible bonds. As share prices have fallen for these companies, convertibles have become cheaper, said Tanya Ferencko, principal, credit derivatives trading at Morgan Stanley in New York. If a bond is trading at a wider spread, that implies that the default swap spread should be wider as well.

Andrew Kellner, head of interest-rate derivatives at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in Tokyo, has recently left the firm. Yukiko Omura, managing director and head of global debt-Japan, said Kellner left the firm for personal reasons and is now in Europe. She added that he might return to the industry in the future, possibly at the end of the summer. "We'd be glad to hire him back if an appropriate position is available," Omura added. A trader from Dresdner's Frankfurt office will be filling Kellner's shoes, she continued, declining to name the individual. Kellner could not be reached.