Search results for

GOSINVEST, an asset management and investment division of the Russian government, and the City of Moscow have awarded long term structuring and arranging mandates to Fredell & Co, the Swedish securitisation boutique. If they come to fruition, the mandates will likely be by far the most important yet to be awarded in the nascent structured finance markets of central and Eastern Europe. Gosinvest intends to raise finance for a wide range of state assets across Russia, while the City of Moscow plans to securitise revenues from the Moscow underground railway. "These are the best mandates you can get in Russia," said Peter Fredell, chairman of Fredell & Co. "Gosinvest owns oilfields, pipelines, trains, telephone lines, defence installations, and all the real estate Russia owns abroad -- basically, all the federal infrastructure.

JP MORGAN brought a new issuer to the Spanish mortgage backed market this week, with a Pta24bn deal for Caixa de Catalunya. "This is the first transaction since the new Spanish legislation on securitisation, though it was structured under the old law," said a securitisation official at JP Morgan in London. "The deal was very successful -- it was oversubscribed by 25%, and had a coupon which reflected the real cost of the deal.

Derivatives on pfandbriefe--the German mortgage bond market--have recently been opened up by the launch of a jumbo futures contract on the Deutsche Terminbörse.

Hong Kong Coreasia, a maker of eel food, has lowered its issue price due to difficult market conditions. Co-lead managers, NSC Securities and Tai Fook Securities set the price at HK$1, HK$0.13 less than previously. A total of 70m new shares are being issued.

IBJ LEASING returned to the Euromarkets this week with a $200m equipment lease securitisation, lead managed by IBJ International and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Amethyst Funding Corp II offered a single tranche of bonds rated triple-A by Moody's and Standard & Poor's. The notes pay 33bp over one month Libor, with an average life of 1.9 years and expected maturity in December 2003.

THERE was little consensus among bankers and analysts last week on which of the 12 candidates for sale by the Indonesian government will be first off the blocks. Bankers unhappy with the results of the mandate process noted the close relationships of the advisory victors Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers to local firms involved in the selection process.

IT WAS a busy week in the Hong Kong dollar market, with seven new issues launched. US agency Fannie Mae led the way on Tuesday with its second Hong Kong dollar deal of the year, a HK$300m global offering via JP Morgan. Priced at par, the five year deal had a semi-annual coupon of 10.10% compared with the 10.5% coupon achieved in January via a similar HK$300m five year issue via Deutsche Morgan Grenfell.

MOODY'S placed Malaysia's A2 long term senior rating on review for possible downgrade last Friday. The agency rates Malaysia one notch higher than Standard & Poor's, and said that its decision was prompted by the prolonged financial crisis in the region and its effect on Malaysia's financial markets and economy.

THE ASIAN Development Bank (ADB) returned to the US private placement market this week with a $750m structured deal via Morgan Stanley. Having successfully launched a $300m 30 put 10 issue last August, the triple-A supranational has made second use of the structure at a time when a new public transaction would likely force even more unpalatable spreads than its recent $2bn five year global offering.

AN EIGHT day slide on the Australian stock exchange has put the pricing prospects of NSW Tab in jeopardy, although AMP * which will be priced on Monday * is above the fray. Deals in the pipeline such as Rocla Industries A$600m (US$370m) IPO and Orica's A$170m IPO may be put on hold, said bankers. Although massive domestic interest will ensure that ABN Amro Rothschild and Merrill Lynch-led NSW Tab will be completed, analysts said the price may end up lower than expected.

PARIBAS is pre-marketing a $150m share offering for Thai pay-TV company United Broadcasting Company. Despite gloomy predictions about the likely fate of new issues this quarter, bankers are confident a deal can be completed by early July. The sale is the result of a merger between International Broadcasting Corporation and United Broadcasting Company which created the market leader in pay-TV in Thailand. In 1997, the combined company had 350,000 subscribers and it forecasts that number to grow to 1.1m by 2005.

THE PHILIPPINE government is poised to announce an extensive privatisation plan as part of its 'first 100 days in office' programme, a move that could help the country shed its reputation for bureaucratic inertia on privatisation. The only firm candidate for sale so far is Philippine National Bank (PNB), although rumours last week that George Soros was bidding for the government's 45.5% stake in the bank have proved unfounded. "It may have been just a ruse to attract interest to the bank," said one banker.