BANK ONE and Union Bank of California are set to launch Thursday, Sept. 20, deals for Coraopolis, Pa.-based DQE Capital and its unregulated subsidiary Duquesne Light. According to bankers familiar with the situation, the bank meeting will be done via a conference call and IntraLinks, a secure online environment for project and document management used for large leveraged capital markets transactions. The deals were originally set to launch last Thursday at the Millennium Hotel in downtown New York. IntraLinks is a secure meeting room on the Web, where project and relationship management teams schedule, conduct and manage business interactions online.
IntraLinks has been used in syndicated loans for several years, but according to bankers, could be used more extensively now that travel is curtailed and many bankers are displaced from the workplace. Adam Sloan, senior v.p., at IntraLinks, said that bankers displaced by the World Trade Center tragedy, have been able to log on from any location to use the system., including their homes. "Some clients have lost internal documents or are unable to access corporate emails," he explained. Through the site potential participants can access all the information on a deal and post questions to the lead arranger.
The DQE loan is a $245 million 364-day credit that is priced at LIBOR plus 1 1/8%. There is a 17.5 basis points fee on the unused line. Pricing on the $150 million deal for Duquesne is LIBOR plus 1% with a 15 basis points undrawn fee. Union Bank is the administrative agent on DQE and BANK ONE is administrative agent on the Duquesne loan. Pricing has not changed since the postponement of the old deal. Calls to Frosina Cordisco, v.p. and treasurer of DQE were not returned. Commenting on the use of a conference call, rather than the more personal bank meeting, a BANK ONE official, said the commercial banks usually like to meet the corporates, but this is a solid credit. Where a conference call could present an additional hurdle, is if the borrower has a story to explain, for example more high-yield than investment grade, he explained.