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Moody's Investors Service assigned a Ba3 rating to Triad Hospitals' $1.4 billion senior secured credit facility because of the risk associated with its acquisition of Quorum Health Group. Triad will acquire the company for $2.3 billion in cash, stock and the assumption of debt. Russell Pomerantz, senior analyst, noted that Triad will raise $1.8 billion of debt and will utilize the proceeds to refinance existing debt at both Triad and Quorum. "There's risk associated with any acquisition, but the risk is greater because Quorum is a larger company," he said. Triad, based in Dallas, will own and operate 50 acute care hospitals and 14 ambulatory surgery centers primarily in small and mid-sized cities in 17 states throughout the country.

Terex Corporation issued $300 million in bonds two weeks ago as a sweetener for banks leading an increase of the company's existing revolver. Illustrating the difficulties associated with getting plain vanilla revolvers done in a market increasingly looking for return, the company cranked out a bond deal to generate fees for underwriters Credit Suisse First Boston and Salomon Smith Barney, the two banks leading the credit increase. "Basically it's hard to increase your revolver without generating fees for the banks," saidJack Lascar, director of investor relations. He noted the company decided to raise debt through the bond market to expedite completion of the company's revolver, as it encountered difficulty getting banks to increase its existing $125 million revolver to $300 million.

Bank of America, First Union, andToronto-Dominion Bank have taken agent roles on FleetBoston Financial's $200 million refinancing for Buckeye Technologies. FirstStar, ABN Amro, Wachovia Bank andFirst Pioneer have also put up commitments. Gayle Powelson, cfo, declined to comment more specifically on the amounts committed. Powelson explained that the new facility will replace a $225 million credit the company previously had with Fleet. "It's not an overall debt reduction because we have increased our basket for foreign loans," said Powelson, explaining that the company has opted to reduce it's overall bank debt in the U.S. and increase it abroad as the company becomes increasingly active on the foreign acquisition front. "It's more efficient to do loans abroad because of foreign currency issues," she said.

The International Mutlifoods deal set to be launched by early this month has lenders champing at the bit, eager to get at a deal most consider strong relative to what is out there. One banker looking at the deal noted that lead lenders UBS Warburg and CIBC World Markets could cut pricing and the credit would still probably blow out. The banks will hold a bank meeting to launch syndication of the $450 million deal for the Minnetonka, Minn.-based food company. John Byom, cfo, did not return calls.

Imperial Capital, a high-yield boutique based in Beverly Hills, is seizing upon securities industry consolidation and cutbacks to expand its sales and trading roster. Its most recent pickup is Scott Siemers, who joined the firm's New York sales team earlier this month as senior v.p. He was a senior junk trader at J.P. Morgan, until he was let go after Morgan merged with Chase Manhattan. Siemers reports to Steve Hornstein, a former head of the high-yield trading desk at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.

ABN Amro this week launched a A$150m securitisation of its own office in Sydney - the new Aurora Place development, which includes the ABN Amro Tower. The deal is the latest in a spate of property securitisations in Australia, where real estate investors began last year to find the capital markets an attractive source of leverage.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter on Tuesday privately placed a repackaged Samsung Electronics convertible issue on behalf of Apple Computer, the former owner of the bonds. The repacked bonds sold out in just 1-1/2 hours and the issue was more than eight times covered. In 1999, Apple invested $100m in Samsung in the form of a three year convertible bond with a 2% coupon and a yield to maturity of 5%. The bonds were originally structured as public securities to allow subsequent distribution to institutional investors. As part of the agreement, Apple was unable to sell the bonds for one year after purchase. This lock-up expired in July 2000 and, following the recent slowdown in demand for PC products, Apple chose to eliminate its financial exposure to Samsung Electronics.

Should an issuer whose shares have crashed nearly 80% in the past year err on the side of caution when raising new funds? The answer is almost certainly yes, but lead manager Merrill Lynch ran into criticism this week that the $500m SEC registered convertible bond it arranged for Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing was far too cheap. Merrill gave investors a pleasant Monday morning surprise when the firm launched a $350m convertible bond for Chartered. By Wednesday the bank had completed the deal at $500m with the books more than 10 times covered. There is also a $75m greenshoe.

Citibank this week priced the fifth and sixth securitisations of its Australian residential mortgages through its Compass Master Trust programme. Each deal was worth A$130m. Orders were strong enough for lead manager Salomon Smith Barney to price the issues inside the anticipated range and one day early.

Following Singapore Telecommunication's (SingTel) successful bid for Cable & Wireless Optus this week, the company stirred market contention when it revealed its plans on payment options to Optus shareholders, including an international bond issue. SingTel's bid, which still depends on minority shareholder approval from Optus, valued the Australian mobile phone operator at about A$17.2bn ($8.4bn). Analysts estimate that the Singapore-based telecoms company has cash of about $3bn on hand, leaving a financing gap for the acquisition. Optus is the second largest mobile telephone operator in Australia.

Hong Kong Pacific Century Cyberworks (PCCW) announced a total

Australia Bankers in Australia were disappointed to learn that the government has decided that a trade sale will achieve more than an IPO for Sydney Airports.