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This chart, provided by Citibank/Salomon Smith Barney Inc., tracks bid-ask prices for par credit facilities that trade in the secondary market. It also tracks facility amounts, ratings, pricing and maturities.

On the view that the Federal Reserve will consider at least another 25 basis points worth of rate reductions, C.S. McKee & Co. will put in place a barbell strategy by moving 10% of the portfolio from intermediate to long-end positions. Bryan Johanson, portfolio manager, is seeking to capture the drop in rates and also plans on swapping out of his TIPS into treasuries.

American Century Investment is considering rotating approximately $75 million from CMBS to home equity loan (HEL) ABS, says portfolio manager Greg Gahagan. He points to the relative stability of HEL prepayment speeds and the widening of HEL ABS spreads as the main basis for this move.

A $5 million piece of 360networks bank debt took a 10-point fall early last week and traded into the 43-44 range after the company announced its earnings had been slashed. Credit Suisse First Boston was rumored to be the seller and Bear Stearns was said to have bought the piece, although dealers at both banks would not comment. One trader called the initial drop in levels a result of a "panick sale," but adds they've since rebounded to the 44-46 range. Dealers agree that the telecommunications company is still struggling in a saturated market. The company is an international fiber optic cable provider based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Calls to the company were not returned by press time.

J.P. Morgan Securities has lost another veteran CDO pro as Mario Verna left to join Deutsche Bank, according to a Deutsche Bank CDO executive. Deutsche Bank, which plans on beefing up its CDO group, according to this executive, has made Verna a director in its global credit products group. Verna's position was created because of the department's expansion, according to a Deutsche Bank source, and he is reporting to Marc Pfeffer, chief operating officer of the global credit products division, and will be based in New York, structuring CDOs. He has been in the structured products business seven years, including a stint at Fitch as a structured products analyst. At newly merged J.P. Morgan Chase, where he was v.p. with the CDO group, Verna reported to Romita Shetty, the head of the CDO group. Verna would not comment on his motivation for leaving, nor would he disclose his new compensation package. As of press time, Shetty was traveling in Europe and did not return a phone call seeking comment. Former CDO group executives at J.P. Morgan Securities point to a string of recent defections to rivals, including Verna, John Clements (BW, 4/9) and several unspecified others, as proof of the difficulty in merging the two high-profile CDO operations.

There were a number of small trades of Nextel Communications' bank debt last week, with levels finally settling in the 95 range. "It had been moving up. These names tend to stay stable or trend upward, drop down, then slowly creep their way back up," a dealer explained, adding that the credit's massive size has helped it stay ahead of the hit to the telecommunications sector. "It's just so big and so liquid, it tends to be the bellwether of the industry. Everyone who's anyone is in Nextel," he noted.

The pro rata market is in the process of a major restructuring as banks examine the lack of return associated with the business and the increasing difficulty in finding players to share the burden of large credits, syndication pros said in a panel discussion last week. Bankers said those changes are affecting the way deals are structured and posting a red light for certain borrowers.

Bank of America is seeking commitments from institutional investors for a $95 million term loan "D" for San Antonio-based, Kinetic Concepts, Inc. Lulu Olson, treasurer, said the bank meeting was held May 9 and that the closing of the deal is anticipated in the first week of June. Pricing is LIBOR plus 31/ 8% for the five-year loan. Deutsche Bank is syndication agent and B of A is lead and administration agent. Fremont Partners, the San Francisco-based investment firm, is primary sponsor for the deal.

European high-yield investors are saying the popularity of Europe's largest-ever junk bond says far more about the paucity of European non-telecom junk paper, than about the quality of the E550 million ($440 million) issue by Messer Griesheim (B2/B+). The first quarter saw European junk issuance round out at around $2 billion, against the $30 billion chalked up in the U.S. The investors express concern over the structural debt subordination, which, they say, puts them in a very precarious position in the event of default. There are also questions about information on the explanation of cost-cutting plans, the ability to raise funds via asset sales, and the quality of communication between top executives. Nonetheless, the bond was reportedly oversubscribed by E1.45 billion ($1.28 billion) and trading at E104.5 last week. A high yield syndicate official at Goldman Sachs, which underwrote the deal, declined comment.

Moody's Investors Service assigned a B1 rating to Hialeah, Fla.-based Telemundo Group Inc.'s new $500 million of senior secured bank facilities, citing the strength of its security interests and guarantees and improved programming performance. Christine Padgett, v.p., senior credit officer at Moody's, said the debt is secured against a valuable asset base, consisting of 10 full-power stations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. These are a piece of the spectrum which Telemundo has the license to operate, she explained.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded IMC Global Inc.'s senior unsecured debt ratings to Ba2 from Ba1 and Moody's also withdrew the Ba3 rating on the company's existing $800 million credit facility.