Search results for

Athlon Group, the Dutch motor company, signed a euro250 million ($214.78 million) Euro-CP programme on Monday, September 4. ING Barings arranges the facility. Athlon is the lowest-rated corporate to enter the market since March 1998, joining only three other European issuers rated A-3 by Standard & Poor's. This has not deterred Athlon's group treasurer, Frans De Jong. He says: "We see our rating as a passport for entering the European capital markets." Athlon will not be going out to promote the programme. De Jong says: "We have very good contacts with our investors and analysts and have decided not to roadshow." He also says, however, that Athlon is more than happy for investors to come and meet the management team. Attached to the programme is a Belgian dematerialized treasury facility. De Jong is a fan of the Belgian market. He says: "The Belgian CP market is quite impressive and has developed faster than the Dutch market." Following Shell Finance, Athlon is the second Dutch corporate to enter the Euro-CP market this year. It operates 36 auto body repair shops in the Netherlands. The dealers are the arranger, ABN Amro and SG. On the dematerialized programme the dealers are Bank Brussels Lambert and KBC Bank.

Macquarie Bank has added Barclays Capital as a dealer to its $3 billion debt instrument programme. The facility can issue both Euro-MTN and Euro-CP notes.

Turkey Koçbank is looking to refinance a $120m term loan signed on December 6, 1999.

Sterling bonds rallied yesterday (Thursday) on the release of the Institute of Actuaries' minimum funding requirement (MFR) review, which strengthened the market's belief that demand for corporate bonds will be boosted over the coming years by revisions to regulations governing pension funds' investments. Should the proposals included in the review be accepted by the UK government, pension funds will have more freedom to buy corporate bonds in place of the Gilts they have until now been forced to hold.

* Lehman Brothers has promoted Dan Cohen to head of equities in its Paris office reporting to John Phizackerley, head of equity sales for Europe. Cohen has been with the firm since 1989. Mick Chu has been appointed an executive director in European equity sales. He will be based in London, reporting to Garry Jensen, managing director and head of global European cash sales.

THE Middle East loan market has been attracting attention this week as three financial institutions move into the market. Two deals are from Bahrain, an area that has already tapped the market for $1.9bn this year compared to $801m in 1999.

France Transiciel, a French computer services company, completed the sale of the institutional tranche of its Eu100m capital increase, which represents 8% of its market capitalisation. "The deal went very well. Demand came mainly from UK and French institutional investors, with close to 50% sold to UK institutional investors," said a banker from Crédit Agricole Indosuez Lazard, which led the sale. The 10% retail tranche sale closed yesterday (Thursday).

Hungary Moody's this week placed on review for possible upgrade Hungary's Baa1 foreign currency ceilings for bonds and bank deposits, stating "[The country] is in a virtuous circle of economic performance, with strong economic growth powered by surging exports that bring increased penetration of high valued-added products in, primarily, EU markets".

Nomura Bank (Luxembourg) has signed a euro1 billion ($859.1 million) Euro-MTN programme. There is no named arranger and the sole dealer is the issuer. Natano Takayuki, manager of fund administration at the issuer, says: "For the moment the MTN notes will be limited to institutional companies in Japan. Depending on the market, we may decide to issue in Europe in the future."

What a sad end for the greatest name in banking. One minute JP Morgan was full of swagger and bravado. The next the bank had rolled over on its back, run up the white flag and thrown in the towel. Even worse was the news that the once patrician House of Morgan had surrendered to the uncouth barbarians of Chase Manhattan. Of course, no one has been fooled by JP Morgan for a long time. Writers, including ourselves, who are allowed to speak their own minds, blew Morgan's cover ages ago. We have not been invited to lunch at Morgan for years just because we said the bank was the most boring in the industry. How right we were. However, we did not just stop there. Morgan folk were outraged when we continued to criticise the effectiveness of the bank. Time after time we argued that the whole business strategy was cock-eyed and that Morgan, without some inspired acquisitions was digging itself into a deep hole.

* SNS Bank Nederland NV Rating: A2/A/A+