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A total of $85 million in Regal Cinemas' bank debt traded up into the high 80s last week with dealers attributing it to a strengthening sector and reorganization for the debt. "It's getting close to the end," a trader said, noting that the restructuring is underway but declining to give details. "They had been in trouble for a while because of overall problems in the industry." Dealers also attribute the better levels to investor Philip Anschutz buying out much of the bank debt. Meanwhile, another cinema name that Anschutz has invested in, United Artists, has pulled out of bankruptcy. The Knoxville, Tenn.-based company has about 400 theaters across the country.

Shurgard Storage Centers signed a $360 million credit facility last month, replacing a $200 million deal due to expire in September. "We noticed the market was tightening and wanted to expand the bank group," said Jeffrey Szorik, assistant v.p., explaining why new financing was pursued now. "Diversity in capital sources is in our best interest long-term with more and more bank consolidations." The facility comprises a corporate revolver. Shurgard, a self-storage real estate investment trust, is based in Seattle.

A variety of telecommunications deals are continuing to fall under the weight of market saturation. Dealers said competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), wireless and broadband companies are trading down. Nextel "B/C" dropped as low as 98 and has since been bid at 98.625, down from 100.25 a few weeks ago. SpectraSite Communications was as low as 98, but is sluggishly working its way to 99. Nextlink, once trading in the 98-99 range, is now at 91-92. "The CLECs are getting hammered," a dealer said. "The companies that need money in the near-term [for building their networks] have gotten hit. They may need to scale back."

Quotes for Warnaco Group's bank debt tumbled 10 points into the mid-30s late last week following an announcement of a bigger than expected earnings loss. Traders seemed to be awaiting a conference call scheduled as LMW went to press to take action. "The banks are so shellshocked that they're not ready to take a market price and go."

Moody's Investors Service downgraded the debt ratings of Tower Records' credit facility to B3 from B2 due to a weak domestic market for entertainment products. The company has a $125 million senior secured credit facility due this year. The ratings reflect limited financial flexibility to withstand volatility in the market for entertainment products as a result of both competition and timing of new product releases. There is also uncertainty regarding the refinancing of Tower's revolving credit facilities which expire in 2001. The company has received a commitment letter for a new facility from lenders, but that final terms have not yet been approved.

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.