Search results for

Australia A A$200m commercial paper programme for Mitsui & Co Financial Services (Australia) Ltd, guaranteed by Mitsui & Co (Australia) Ltd, has been completed by arranger National Australia Bank.

NIKKO has announced that its London office has assumed responsibilities for its international operations -- the first Japanese securities to grant such autonomy outside Tokyo. As part of the move, Michel de Carvalho has been appointed overall head of Nikko's international operations. He succeeds Masashi Kaneko, who has been appointed president of Nikko's Securities in Japan following the resignation of eight board members on October 3, including previous president Kichiro Takao, after Nikko was accused of paying money to racketeers. Nikko is the latest Japanese house -- after Nomura, Daiwa amd Yamaichi -- to revamp its board after becoming implicated in scandal. De Carvalho will become the most senior foreigner at a Japanese firm, as he will also become a member of the management board.

SWEDEN'S Incentive will shortly complete the next leg in the restructuring of its core shareholdings with the $225m spin off of its subsidiary Munters. The Munters offering follows a 5m sale of shares in Incentive by its major shareholder, Investor, which was completed last Friday. Investor raised Skr3.45bn ($460m) from its sale, which was one of the largest sales on an accelerated bookbuilding process from the Nordic region to date.

THE SAFRA private banking group has made its mark on the world's bond markets by being the first issuer ever to offer a 1,000 year 'millennium' bond. The $250m 144A transaction was launched by Republic National Bank of Luxembourg on behalf of its parent Safra Republic Holdings -- the Geneva-based umbrella for a number of banks the three Safra brothers Edmond, Moises and Joseph own in Latin America, the US, Europe and Israel, including Brazil's Banco Safra and New York's Republic National Bank of New York.

Finland Expect news imminently of a new facility for Cultor Ltd. The company, which was last in the market for a $270m revolving credit through Merita Bank and UBS in February 1996, has hired the same two banks to arrange its latest foray.

PREMARKETING began on Tuesday for the Dfl 200m IPO of Dutch chemicals distributor Holland Chemical International. ABN AMRO Rothschild is global coordinator and bookrunner on the sale, which will comprise around half each of new equity and half secondary shares. The existing shares are being sold by two principal shareholders, venture capital fund Nederlandse Participatie Maatshappij and Holland Chemical's chief executive, as well as some 220 current and former employees of the company. The initial response to the IPO from Dutch institutions has been solid and positive, according to ABN AMRO officials. Premarketing to investors outside the Netherlands will begin next week, via a roadshow which will take in Vienna, London, Paris and Zurich. The roadshow will also visit the US, where the shares will be available for sale via Rule 144a.

ROSE Funding, NatWest Markets' corporate loan securitisation vehicle, brought its second jumbo deal yesterday (Thursday) to an enthusiastic reception from investors around the world. NatWest, via Repeat Offering Securitisation Entity Funding No 2, issued $5.5bn of dollar and sterling FRNs in 12 tranches, with a legal maturity in October 2004. Around half the deal, including both sterling and dollar notes, will be sold at closing into Rose Inc, NatWest's Delaware registered multiseller commercial paper conduit.

* Discover brought its second credit card securitisation of the year yesterday (Thursday) through Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, structured as an index amortising note. It is the first time the issuer has used this technique, and the first time that any index amortising transaction has been launched directly from a credit card master trust, rather than as a repackaging of credit card securities.

BANK Labôuchere's pioneering securitisation of share leasing contracts, LABS 1, roared off the books in 20 minutes on Friday, despite coming at an unpopular maturity for Dutch institutions. Lease Assets Backed Securities BV sold Dfl 400m of triple A rated 5% bonds maturing in January 2002. Dutch pension funds and insurance companies bought 70% of the 4 1/4 year paper, even though they normally invest at the seven to 10 year tenor.

* A widening in 10 year Deutschmark bond spreads this week could make the pricing of the Asian Development Bank's forthcoming European currency benchmark global transaction wider than expected. Comparable triple-A spreads moved out by three to four basis points this week, with price talk on the ADB deal moving from 8bp earlier in the week to 12bp yesterday (Thursday).

THE CHINESE government has given permission for the first international bond offering by a pure corporate entity, underlining its commitment to allow state owned industries greater financial autonomy. Bao Shan Iron & Steel, an unlisted company that is one of the PRC's most efficient and high quality steel producers, has mandated JP Morgan for a $300m rule 144a issue.

TAIWAN'S majority state-owned development bank, Chiao Tung is preparing a first subordinated debt offering from the republic. With the international debt markets traditionally seeing very little activity out of the country because of restrictive withholding taxes, bankers said that the prospective US-targeted offering stands to set an important benchmark.