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J.P. Morgan Chase has been selected as the principal lead arranger for the proposed credit facility backing Domtar Inc.'s, $1.65 billion acquisition of four paper mills from Georgia Pacific Corp. that will likely lead to a $750 million term loan. Jean Sebastien Van Brugghe, manager of investor relations for Montreal-based Domtar, said a bridge facility of $1.65 billion will be put in place, in order to demonstrate that Domtar has the financing to fund the acquisition, and enable Georgia Pacific to pay down their own debts.

Sensing a $3 billion deal could struggle in the current market, Kroger Company opted to avoid rolling up two separate credit facilities and instead went to market with a smaller deal. The company, which merged with Fred Meyer a year ago, opted to refinance and reduce its existing $1.9 billion deal, cutting it to $1.6 billion. Larry Turner, treasurer, said the company will refinance the roughly $1.1 billion existing Meyer facility next year. "We expect that a year from now we'll need less money," he explained. Turner said the new facility offers additional flexibility. Kroger's former credit was done in 1997, and the Meyer facility a year later, when "it was a sweet spot for borrowers. The lenders would call it a trough."

Metropolitan West Asset Management has hired Hahn Kang as specialist portfolio manager in charge of ABS, according to Tad Rivelle, MWAM chief investment officer. Hahn joins MWAM in Los Angeles from Lehman Brothers in New York, where he worked for seven years as an ABS trader, with a focus on secondary prime mortgage ABS. He will report to Rivelle. Kang says that his position was newly created, in order to give the asset management firm a new exposure in the ABS business.

More insurance companies are looking with interest at loans as an investment class and chipping in to commingled funds. Bankers and fund managers have long been pitching to insurers the virtues of loans' senior status and floating-rate component, and some of the biggest and earliest institutional players in the market were insurance companies. But increasingly, smaller insurers are jumping in, an investment consultant to insurance companies told Insurance Finance & Investment, an LMW sister publication. He noted the product had previously suffered a lack of awareness among smaller insurers, but it was now stepping out into the light.

Deutsche Bank has boosted its credit derivatives effort with hires in trading and structuring. Aelisa Kim Cipriani, director in the CDO team at Morgan Stanley in London, started Monday as a director in collateralized debt obligation structuring, according to Jeffrey D'Suza, head of European collateralized debt obligation business in London. This is a new position, he said, adding the department is growing in response to increased demand for structured products. Deutsche Bank also transferred Michael Furtado, a lawyer in the firmÕs legal department, to the CDO team. Furtado said he will focus on the execution and structuring of CDOs.

Hong Kong Citic Pacific's global bond issue was increased from $350m to $450m last Friday. The transaction was over twice oversubscribed at launch. The Baa2/BBB- rated deal carries a 7.625% coupon. HSBC and Merrill Lynch were joint lead managers.

Enron Corp, the US energy company, helped expand the credit spectrum in the Samurai bond market this week, when it became the first triple-B rated US corporate to launch a deal for a tenor of over one year. Merrill Lynch sole lead managed the dual tranche bond issue for the Baa1/BBB+ rated company, following a roadshow in Japan two weeks ago. Mizuho Securities and Tokyo-Mitsubishi Securities were co-managers.

Australia Australian Magnesium launched premarketing for its IPO on Tuesday. Arrangers ABN Amro, JB Were and Merrill Lynch are selling A$680m of new shares as part of a funding package for its Stanwell light metals project in central Queensland. Including the debt facilities, the total funding is likely to be in the region of A$1.7bn.

Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), Singapore's largest shipping company, is seeking to raise up to $132m from the New York Stock Exchange IPO of its chartering unit, American Eagle Tankers. NOL will also sell Singapore Depositary Receipts (SDRs), which will be listed in Singapore, to international investors. Salomon Smith Barney is lead manager for the transaction. Salomon has a long relationship with NOL and handled the 1999 equity issue that signalled the return to profitability for the Singapore-based international shipping group. ABN Amro and Morgan Stanley are co-leads. DBS Group Holdings and ING Barings are also involved.

Roadshow Holdings, the multi-media advertising arm of Kowloon Motor Bus, launched the roadshow for its Hong Kong IPO this week. The transaction, which Crédit Lyonnais Securities Asia is handling, will close when the company lists on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in London on June 28. The issue will raise up to HK$530m. Indosuez WI Carr Securities, Kim Eng Holdings, and KGI Asia are also working on the sale. Roadshow provides multi-media on-board broadcasting and advertising services through liquid crystal display screens on buses operated by parent Kowloon Motor Bus. Roadshow wants to extend its services to other transport such as green mini-buses.

Norway-based Kommunalbanken and Stockland Property Management accessed the Australian market this week against a background of subdued trading. The Aaa/AAA rated Norwegian local government funding agency launched its Kangaroo issue on Wednesday, marking its debut into the Australian bond market.

Members' Equity Pty Ltd, the Australian non-bank mortgage lender, this week launched its second offshore securitisation in the 144A market. Lead manager Credit Suisse First Boston employed neither of the structures that are now in vogue for international Australian MBS - the single tranche amortiser or a multi-tranche deal with a short piece targeted at US money market funds.