Search results for

Montreal based newsprint maker Abitibi Consolidated sparked a stampede down the credit curve in the US corporate bond market yesterday when it offered a blow-out $1.4bn Yankee bond. The overwhelming demand in the US for liquid, high yielding investment grade paper was such that the Baa3/BBB- five, 10 and 30 year bond issues by Abitibi attracted about $10bn of orders for a deal that was initially $1.25bn in size.

ABN Amro has appointed Arturo Porzecanski as head of emerging markets economics and debt strategy. He reports to Kevin Darlington, global head of strategy and economics, and Keith Schneider, head of fixed income for Latin America. "My goal is to provide the missing link in Latin American coverage," said Porzecanski. "I think that the biggest challenge is the organisational one. My main challenge is to milk the existing network of banks dispersed around the world, and channel this to investors via research. As an economist I will also support the equities side, although this is up and running."

South Africa South African investment bank Genbel Securities is tapping the market for a $100m three year revolver, and has mandated Commerzbank and Dresdner Bank Luxembourg to arrange the deal.

Aerfi Group plc, the Irish based aircraft lessor formerly called GPA Group, launched its seventh securitisation this week to an eager response from investors attracted by the quality of the aircraft portfolio. The $1.29bn deal, involving the issue of $960m of notes to investors, is the second transaction from AerCo Ltd, a trust set up by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in July 1998 to house 35 jet aircraft belonging to AerFi.

Société Générale is talking to commodity exporting and trading companies with a view to including them in its innovative risk transfer programme Mercure Trade Finance. SG designed the programme last year to reduce the credit and country risks in its commodities and trade finance division. It is akin to a synthetic CLO, in that the assets remain on SG's balance sheet, and investors provide capital which SG can draw on under a credit default swap if it experiences losses above a certain level.

Ten year dollar swap spreads ended yesterday (Thursday) trading slightly through the support level of 117bp over Treasuries that has persisted from April through June, at 116.5bp. For much of the week, 10 year swap spreads traded around 117bp, but the weight of new issues finally told, pulling the spread to a level 1bp lower than a week earlier. The market has been driven by new issue business this week. "The investment banks have been running the show," said a dealer at a money centre bank in the mid-West. "They know where the real market is at the moment."

Schroder Salomon Smith Barney expects to price Abbey National's record breaking £2.246bn securitisation of UK residential mortgages, Holmes Financing (No 1) plc, on Monday. "There is a lot of work to be done on the credit side and several important clients have asked for extra time," said Peter Apostolicas, director of syndicate for ABS at Salomon in London.

John Nacos, European head of Merrill Lynch's global mortgage capital and real estate group, left the bank in mid-June. He has joined Creditweb, an internet based mortgage and consumer finance company, as chief financial officer and a member of the board.

Crédit Agricole Indosuez executed its first collateralised loan obligation at the end of June, transferring nearly Eu2bn of credit risk with a structure placed entirely in credit default swap form. Known as CHLOE, the transaction conveys the risk on a Eu2.006bn portfolio of reference assets - syndicated loans and bonds representing the credit risk of 85 corporates.

BANK One has hired two experienced portfolio managers in London to help structure its planned bond arbitrage vehicle. Chris Hutton, head of debt capital markets at Halifax's group treasury, will join Bank One on Monday, while Neil Calder, assistant director in structured finance at Bank Austria Creditanstalt International, will move to the US bank in August.

Electricité de France has mandated Bayerische Landesbank to arrange a Eu2bn securitisation of current and future receivables from small and medium sized corporate customers. The German bank plans to execute the transaction in the asset backed commercial paper market. The two other shortlisted bidders, BNP Paribas and a consortium of CDC Marchés and Merrill Lynch, had offered bond solutions.