Search results for

Australia Deutsche Morgan Grenfell completed the $500m Euro-MTN programme for Bendigo Bank last week. The multi-currency programme was signed on May 15. Roadshows have been held over the past two weeks in Hong Kong, Singapore, Dublin and London, producing wide spread investor interest. Bendigo is still to decide between an inaugural public issue or a private placement.

Austria Arrangers Creditanstalt, HSBC and UBS are planning to launch syndication of the Asch7.5bn non-recourse project financing for the Connect Austria telecoms build-out by early June. The deal has a nine year tenor and a relatively conservative debt to equity ratio at about 60:40.

Finland Merita and Postipankki have closed general syndication of the DM200m seven year multicurrency revolving credit for Soumen Osuuskauppojen. The loan has been oversubscribed and the borrower is considering an increase. Banks were offered three levels of participation -- senior lead managers taking DM40m for a fee of 10bp, lead managers DM20m for a fee of 7.5bp and managers DM10m for a fee of 5bp.

Competition for LBO mandates has reached cut-throat levels, with many banks prepared to take big risks to secure a leading place on arranger league tables and boost their market share. So far the US firms appear to be winning, thanks largely to their ability to offer a one-stop shopping service (encompassing loans, bonds, mezzanine and equity) which is attractive to borrowers. The big European banks are fighting back, determined to avoid ceding one of the fastest growing areas of the European financing market to the Wall Street firms. There is no end to the battle in sight. And even a couple of deal disasters may not be enough to ease the bidding war.

* Commerzbank AG Rating: Aa2/AA- Amount: $500m

SITA Telecommunications Holdings, the world's largest operator of data communications networks, has confirmed its intention to seek a stockmarket flotation before the summer. The Netherlands-based company, to be known as Equant, is planning a dual listing in New York and Amsterdam in a deal that will value the firm at around $3bn.

Leveraged buy-outs (LBOs) have become one of the hottest areas of European investment banking, fuelled by the availability of increasingly varied and cost effective forms of financing. Banks have been rushing to put acquisition finance teams in place, attracted by the high returns on offer. Institutional investors, particularly from the US, are creating a new capital pool for senior debt financing. High yield bonds are starting to take off in Europe. Mezzanine is still plentiful. And the supply of private equity and venture capital is at an all-time high. Some financiers already fear that the LBO market may be overheating. At a time when asset prices are so high, and the competition for deals so intense, they believe that the market risks a repetition of its collapse in the early 1990s unless the currently hectic pace of activity slows down. But others say things are different this time -- that the economic outlook in Europe is much better than in the late 1980s; that lenders and investors are much more selective about the deals they will do, and how they structure them; that the development of new and more sophisticated forms of financing has fundamentally changed the dynamics of the LBO market; and that the long term prospects are bright. It is too early to tell who is right. But, one way or another, it is going to be an exciting ride in the leveraged finance market. Charles Olivier reports.

THE REPUBLIC of Kazakhstan has appointed JP Morgan to lead manage the country's debut euro denominated bond offering, likely to be just one of a growing number of Euromarket transactions from the well regarded Central Asian state in the coming months. This is the first time that JP Morgan has been awarded the sole bookrunner's role on a euro issue.

Guy Hands, managing director of Nomura's Principal Finance Group, has made himself, his colleagues and his firm a fortune by using securitisation techniques to finance LBOs. Can others do the same?

THE FIRST National Building Society has launched a I£200m mortgage backed security, in just the third bond market deal of its type to emerge from Ireland. Asset-backed bankers said the issue showed that securitisation was gradually creeping on to the financing agenda in Ireland, although relatively small asset pools and high liquidity among most lenders would continue to limit its use. Launched by SBC Warburg Dillon Read and UBS, the issue parcelled up just under 5,700 home loans via special purpose vehicle Celtic Residential Irish Mortgage Securitisation. The bonds were divided into two tranches: a I£190m senior tranche provisionally rated Aaa by Moody's and paying a discounted margin of 22bp over Dibor; and a I£10m junior tranche rated A3 and paying 62.5bp over.

* CSFB brought a rare Caribbean securitisation last Friday, with a $110m deal for Phoenix Park Gas Processors of Trinidad. Phoenix Park Funding, rated Baa3/BBB, is backed by exports of gas products from the company's fractionation plant to customers in the Caribbean, Central America and the US. All revenues will be paid to an account in New York in favour of the Cayman Islands SPV.

RBC DOMINION Securities launched the second deal last Friday from Haven Funding 32 plc, the club borrowing vehicle for UK housing associations set up by Hambros Bank. Haven 32 issued £21.6m of bonds fungible with the inaugural £60.75m deal launched in January. The issue raises funds for Focus Housing Association and Chiltern Housing Association, which are both new to the Haven programme.