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To: yard_man who wrote (85880)	3/26/2001 9:19:10 PM
From: marginmike	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Sorry to hear about your future loss-ng-

To: yard_man who wrote (85880)	3/26/2001 11:25:33 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Tip - I was reading an article about gigabit ethernet over copper to the home that made me think that Lucent is still capable of coming out with the next new thing, but thought you might want to see this from Financial Times - >>Lucent faces junk-bond status without MSDW's help By Richard Waters and Gary Silverman in New York Published: March 26 2001 19:10GMT \| Last Updated: March 26 2001 22:57GMT Lucent Technologies will be relegated to junk-bond status unless Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, its investment bank adviser, agrees to hold on to $1.6bn of its debt, a credit rating agency said on Monday. The warning, from Standard & Poor's, highlights the increasingly tortuous relationship between Wall Street banks and their big corporate customers. People close to Morgan Stanley have indicated recently that the bank expected to be repaid rather than hold the debt issued by the US telecoms equipment maker for a longer period. Morgan Stanley declined to comment on Monday. But Robert Scott, Morgan Stanley president, told analysts last week that the investment bank was confident it could "roll out" of the $1.6bn in commercial paper it holds "if that were necessary". To demand repayment at such a difficult moment for Lucent, however, could lead to the troubled company being stripped of its investment-grade credit rating. "It would be considerate of Morgan Stanley to roll [the debt] over at this point," said Bruce Hyman, an analyst at S&P. By standing behind a long-term customer at this moment, Morgan Stanley would strengthen its relationship with Lucent and could expect to earn fees from future work, he added. If the debt was not rolled over, Lucent would be forced to draw on a bank credit facility it lined up last month to repay Morgan Stanley. That would probably prompt S&P to begin a review of Lucent's credit rating before the end of this week, Mr Hyman added. Moody’s, the other leading rating agency, said it did not expect to cut Lucent’s credit rating if the company draws on its bank facility to repay Morgan Stanley. However, it added that a downgrade could follow if Lucent does not succeed in selling its optical fiber business "for a reasonable amount in the next couple of months." Lucent had planned to pay off the Morgan Stanley debt with some of the proceeds of an initial public offering of Agere, its microelectronics division. Morgan Stanley is also lead underwriter to the IPO. However, the collapse in demand for tech stocks has forced Lucent to slash the price of the IPO. The investment bank acquired the Lucent debt this year in anticipation of the IPO by buying the company's commercial paper. At the time, Lucent's deteriorating credit standing had effectively blocked it from rolling over its debt in the short-term commercial paper market. Most of that debt is set to mature at the end of this week. If there is enough demand for Agere shares, Morgan Stanley could exercise an "over-allotment" provision, giving it the power to issue up to $630m of extra Agere stock to repay some of the debt, according to a regulatory filing made on Monday. << financialtimes.com