Search results for

* Commerzbank Global Equities has appointed Jonathan Lee and Christopher Rigg to its research team. Lee, pan-European telecoms analyst, joins from CA-IB Investmentbank where he was head of telecoms research, primarily covering emerging European telecoms operators. Rigg, Japanese strategist, joins from Rothschild Asset Management in Hong Kong, where he was director and chief investment officer responsible for asset managers investing $1.3bn in Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong and India.

CROATIAN pharmaceutical company Pliva this week completed a European roadshow in support of its $100m Euro-commercial paper programme. The facility, the first to be set up by a central and eastern European corporate, was initiated by programme arranger Bank Austria Creditanstalt late last year.

THE FRENCH equity-linked rush stepped up another gear this week as three companies took advantage of near-perfect issuing conditions and rampant investor demand to launch convertible and exchangeable bonds. Since the beginning of the year French companies have led the way in issuing equity-linked debt in the new euro market, with utility group Vivendi and retailer Promodes tapping the market already in January. First of this week's trio into action was construction group Bouygues, which launched a Eu460m bond issue via BNP Capital Markets and Crédit Lyonnais.

Australia Deutsche Bank Australia is arranging a $250m restructuring facility for Pasminco.

France Paribas has won the mandate to arrange the debt financing backing NatWest Equity Partners' £138m acquisition of Imo Car Wash.

THE EUROPEAN high yield market welcomed its first insurance name this week with the launch of the $550m deal for Willis Corroon, the world's third largest insurance broker. Lead managed by Chase Manhattan, the 10 year issue of senior subordinated notes was priced at the wider end of price talk with a 9% coupon and at a spread of 432bp over the 10 year Treasury. Pent-up demand for new issue paper among European investors resulted in an exceptionally large European component of demand for the dollar transaction.

SETH WAUGH, one of the principal architects of Merrill Lynch's dominance of the global fixed income markets, has become the latest senior figure to leave the bank's fixed income division. Both sides stress that the parting is amicable, but Waugh's position had been in some doubt since a reorganisation of Merrill's senior management in its global debt markets division in December last year.

* Three Spanish savings banks this week launched a Eu351.5m (Pta58.5bn) mortgage securitisation -- Spain's first in the single currency. Seville based Caja de Ahorros El Monte, Catalonia's Caixa de Terrassa and Caja General de Ahorros de Granada pooled 7,682 mortgages in TDA 6, a vehicle managed by Titulización de Activos. EBN Banco lead managed the bond -- Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo, SG, Crédit Agricole Indosuez and Bank Austria joined the three issuers as underwriters. Market participants believed a third to a half of the paper was sold to investors -- the issuers retained the rest for use as repo collateral.

PREMARKETING was in full swing this week for HypoVereinsbank's Eu2.1bn collateralised loan obligation, Geldilux 99-1. HVB and joint bookrunner Goldman Sachs held roadshows in Frankfurt, London and Paris, while teams of salespeople roved Europe for meetings with individual investors. "We are very, very proud of this issue," said Oliver Reisinger, head of primary markets at HVB. "We are one of the very few banks in the world that could do a deal like this."

ING BARINGS is on the verge of admitting defeat by pulling Heilongjiang Agriculture's $200m IPO this weekend. But while the move deepens the gloom settling over China's H-share sector, Goldman Sachs will launch Shandong International Power next week, apparently safe in the knowledge that 40% of the sale is covered by a strategic investor. The conflicting news crowns a week of worry for Hong Kong's equity capital market bankers. Amid a steadily worsening stream of results from once star performers, such as China Southern in the red chip and H-share sector, the withdrawal of the -- albeit small -- Zhujiang Steel Pipe Holdings IPO further demonstrated the instability of the market.

HONG KONG corporates displayed a rare burst of activity in the domestic and international debt markets this week with issues from three of the territory's leading names: Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTRC), Hutchison Whampoa and Sun Hung Kai Properties. After years of heavy reliance on the extremely cost efficient Hong Kong dollar denominated syndicated loan market, the emergence of all three borrowers in the domestic fixed rate bond sector proved a surprising and welcome development for the local market.