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Axia Energy, the energy trading company formed by subsidiaries of Koch Industries and Entergy, has filed suit against Hess Energy Trading Co. (HETCO) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, in Houston. In the civil action, filed May 8, Axia charges that HETCO conspired with two former Koch employees--who were later hired by HETCO--to obtain proprietary weather derivatives information from Axia. Stephen Semlitz, managing director of HETCO in New York, said the charges are without validity. "We are not using anything that's proprietary to Axia, nor are any of our employees." Officials at Axia declined all comment.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in Tokyo has hiredHideto Takata, interest-rate derivatives trader at Bank of America in Tokyo, in a new position trading short-term interest-rate derivatives. Torsten Schlotzhauer, head of interest-rate derivatives trading at DKW and to whom Takata reports, said the new hire has a good background in interest-rate trading, and should make a positive contribution as a market maker on the short-end. Schlotzhauer added that he plans to expand the desk, declining all further comment on this point. Takata could not be reached by press time.

Marsh Securities, a unit of insurance, risk management and consulting company Marsh & McLennan Companies, has hired Paul Scalfani, managing director, structured credit products at CDC Investment Management in New York. Scalfani joins in the new position of managing director, head of the structured solutions group in New York. Jamshid Ehsani, president and ceo of Marsh Securities, said Scalfani will be responsible for structuring and placing transactions. He added that Scalfani's clients will include corporates and financial institutions. Marsh Securities often uses listed and over-the-counter credit derivatives to structure transactions, such as CDOs, CLOs and CBOs, for clients.

Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse First Boston separately are looking to enter the weather derivatives market for the first time. The move is significant, according to weather traders in the U.S. and Europe, because both likely would be able to bring corporates into the market via their lending and investment banking relationships, and both are large, well capitalized firms.

The U.S. dollar likely will appreciate to between JPY125-127 over the next two-months and to take advantage of the move Ken Landon, senior currency strategist at Deutsche Bank in Tokyo, recommends investors purchase dollar calls or buy the greenback outright in the spot market.

Heightened expectations that the European Central Bank will cut interest rates in line with the Federal Reserve following last week's 50 basis point U.S. rate cut are driving demand for over-the-counter Euribor corridor swaps. The trades are designed to take advantage of the growing interest-rate differential between ECB and Fed short-term rates, explained Mathias Echene, v.p.-structured products marketing at Schroder Salomon Smith Barney in London. Investors in Germany, France Belgium and Luxembourg have been piling into the positions in sizes of USD50-100 million (notional), he said.

Systeia, an alternative investment hedge fund management company in Paris, has hired Dr. Julien Lederer, a mathematician from the University of Paris, to develop trading models, according to Jean-Louis Juchault, ceo. Juchault formed Systeia earlier this year with David Obert. Both had previously worked together at Banque de Reescompte et de Placement Gestion (Barep), an alternative investment manager with EUR5 billion (USD4.4 billion) under management. Systeia hopes to have some 10-15 traders on board by year-end. Lederer could not be reached.

Sal Oppenheim Jr. & Cie has over the last several weeks been pitching exotic reverse convertible structures to its client base of brokers as their customers look to get to grips with volatile equity markets showing no clear direction. Aside from classic reverse convertible, the German firm has also been structuring reverse converts with up-and-in calls and down-and-out puts, according to Christina Mägerlein, senior v.p. in the retail products group in Frankfurt.

Jonathan Ende, managing partner at New York-based venture capital firm NetCentric Partners, has joined Lehman Brothers as head of structured finance marketing to hedge funds in New York. A spokeswoman in New York said that Ende "will work to help develop and market our strong array of financing and structured credit capabilities to the hedge fund community." She declined to elaborate on the types of structured products that Ende is to market, or the timing of the move. Ende was unavailable for comment.

Long Island Power Authority is looking to enter an interest-rate swap to convert a $100 million fixed-rate bond it issued last week into a synthetic floater in order to better balance its debt portfolio and cuts its cost of funds. Lehman Brothers, which underwrote the bond deal, also will act as swap counterparty.