Search results for

Sotogrande, España. We have arrived in Sotogrande which some people describe, perhaps unfairly, as Wentworth-on-Sea. In fact it's more of a combination of Palm Beach and the Hamptons. Billionaire polo patrons rub shoulders with each other and play schoolboy games such as "Bet my yacht's bigger than yours". That particular argument was brought to an abrupt end with the arrival of Australian business tycoon, Rick Stow, in a converted naval frigate!

Bookrunners Commerzbank and HSBC Trinkaus brought Europe's high yield market to the heart of the Continent this week with the launch of a Eu100m deal for German precious metals and coin producer Deutsche Nickel. Although modelled on Anglo-Saxon structures, the unrated transaction involved purely continental players and offers a blueprint for the development of a deep corporate debt market in Germany.

Bookrunners Commerzbank and HSBC Trinkaus brought Europe’s high yield market to the heart of the Continent this week with the launch of a Eu100m deal for German precious metals and coin producer Deutsche Nickel.

Barclays Capital this week launched a £137.4m bond, the largest yet to finance a hospital under the revived Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The bond structure builds on earlier hospital transactions, allowing participants to claim that if there is not yet a production line for capital market transactions from the sector, there is at least a viable template. "I do not think I would call it a cookie cutter, but there clearly have been efficiencies in that we apply some lessons across transactions," said Charles Silberstein, a managing director at the London office of FSA, the monoline insurer that gave the transaction a

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter this week launched the first ever collateralised debt obligation (CDO) backed by euro denominated assets. Issued via special purpose vehicle EuroCredit CDO 1, the Eu400m bond allows investors to gain rated access to the growing European high yield debt market.

Hertz took advantage of a welcome recovery in the US high grade corporate bond market after last week's swap spread debacle to launch a debut $500m eight year global bond. The deal, led by JP Morgan and priced at 147.5bp over the 6.125% August 2007 off the run Treasury (from a 150bp area guidance), was two times oversubscribed and tightened by two basis points when syndicate broke.

Hyundai Motors and Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) are to head the new issue pipeline from Korea, raising $1.5bn from equity offerings. Both companies hope to beat the projected autumn rush, with KEB likely to begin roadshows during the second week of September, slightly earlier than expected but head to head with the Hyundai transaction scheduled to launch around the same time.

Lebanon's Banque de la Méditerranée enlivened a moribund emerging market debt sector yesterday (Thursday) with the launch of a $75m three year Eurodollar bond. Sole lead managed by Warburg Dillon Read, the issue featured a 8.75% coupon and an issue/fixed re-offer price of 99.72 to give a spread of 290bp over the 6.25% August 2002 US Treasury.