CLOs
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Peripheral ABS playing catch-up
Structured finance issuance in the European core has held up well over the summer, with spreads continuing to grind tighter. Although peripheral ABS spreads remain wide of the core, the periphery appears to be catching up.
"Spreads throughout Europe - in both the core and periphery - have been going in the same direction for a while now, albeit at .......
News Analysis 4 August 2017
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Job swaps round-up - 4 August
North America
Hunton & Williams has promoted a pair of litigation lawyers with securitisation experience to counsel, based in New York. Michael Kruse focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation relating to financial services and structured finance. Robert Rich focuses primarily on representing corporate debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, indenture and securitisation trustees, lessors and other parties in interest in .......
Job Swaps 4 August 2017
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Reinsurance firm taps CLO market
Nassau Re has priced an inaugural US$438m CLO. Dubbed Nassau 2017-I, the transaction is a broadly syndicated CLO managed by NCC CLO Manager, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nassau Re affiliate Nassau Corporate Credit.
Rated by Fitch and S&P, the transaction comprises US$231.3m AAA/AAA rated class A1A notes (which priced at three-month Libor plus 132bp), US$30m AAA/AAA A1Bs (3.28%), US$59.5m NR/AA .......
News 1 August 2017
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Libor gives CLOs pause
UK FCA ceo Andrew Bailey last week suggested that financial markets should transition away from Libor benchmarks to transactional-based reference rates by end-2021. His speech caught the attention of the CLO industry in particular, given Libor's central role as a reference rate to calculate interest income on debt tranches, as well as on the majority of underlying loan collateral.
"The .......
News 31 July 2017
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Job swaps round-up - 28 July
North America
Ashurst is cutting its CLO practice because it sees it as "less relevant" to its global structured finance practice. It says "it will not be replacing the CLO team," many of whom have moved to Chapman and Cutler. The five partners joining Chapman and Cutler are Pat Quill, David Nirenberg, Steve Kopp, Doug Bird and Tom Glushko.
Hunt .......
Job Swaps 28 July 2017
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US CLOs on the up
Activity in the US CLO secondary market is currently on the increase after a quiet July.
"It's been pretty slow for the last few weeks, but it has picked up a bit this week," says one trader. "Overall, the secondary market is very strong and is now trading through primary."
The trader continues: "The relative lack of new issuance is .......
SCIWire 27 July 2017
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Euro secondary staves off summer
The European securitisation secondary market has not yet quite shutdown for summer with a pick-up in activity seen yesterday.
For the first time in a while more than minimal secondary activity was seen across ABS/MBS sectors yesterday. A mixture of the slowing primary market and final pre-August positioning drove increased trading from both investors and the Street.
The session saw a flurry .......
SCIWire 27 July 2017
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Job swaps round-up - 21 July
Acquisitions
Job Swaps 21 July 2017
BGC Partners has acquired commercial real estate finance company Berkeley Point Financial for US$875m, subject to certain adjustments at closing. Berkeley Point focuses on the origination and sale of multifamily and other CRE loans through government-sponsored and government-funded loan programmes, as well as the servicing of CRE loans, including those it originates. The company is set to become part of .......
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Euro CLOs carry on
The European CLO secondary market is carrying on in the face of the earlier than usual secondary market summer slowdown across other securitisation asset classes either side of the Atlantic.
"Overall things are ticking along and given it's the summer we're still doing decent volumes this month so far," says one trader. "However, the market remains dominated by primary in .......
SCIWire 20 July 2017
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'Brighter year' for securitisation recruitment
The structured finance industry has seen one of its best years in terms of hiring since the financial crisis, according to recruiters. While ABS was the standout sector for recruitment in the US in 1H17, CLO hiring activity continued to be strong in Europe.
One headhunter believes that 2017 has been particularly buoyant for the UK and Europe. "In various .......
News Analysis 19 July 2017
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Expensive valuations concern CLO investors
The biggest concern for the CLO market is expensive valuations, according to the latest quarterly survey by JPMorgan. Over half of survey respondents identified expensive valuations as a key concern.
Conversations with JPMorgan clients suggest there is still value in the CLO trade for the carry, but CLOs are not expected to tighten meaningfully in the near term. New issue .......
News 18 July 2017
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Job swaps round-up - 14 July
North America
Mortgage Capital Trading has hired Bill Berliner to the newly created role of director of analytics. He was previously mortgage community manager at Thomson Reuters.
BlueMountain Capital Management has hired Lee Kempler as coo for investments. He was previously md at Blackrock.
FS Investments has hired Michael Carter as evp, head of strategy. He will be based in .......
Job Swaps 14 July 2017
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Demand drives Euro CLO portfolio loosening
With demand for high-yielding assets outstripping supply, more European CLOs are being issued with atypical, looser portfolios. While investors may be taking on greater risk as a result, spreads are not reflecting this, leaving some wondering whether the compensation is adequate.
Neil Desai, portfolio manager at Highland Capital, says he has seen several European CLOs that have pushed the envelope .......
News Analysis 14 July 2017
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Job swaps round-up - 7 July
North America
Mayer Brown has hired Jay Kallas as counsel in its Chicago office, focusing on structured insurance and reinsurance transactions. He was previously counsel at Drinker Biddle & Reath.
Cadwalader has hired Peter Morreale as partner in the capital markets team in the Washington, DC office. He was previously at Goldman Sachs, where he was md and associate general .......
Job Swaps 7 July 2017
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Job swaps round-up - 30 June
North America
Alexander Popov has joined Carlyle Group as md to lead the credit opportunities business within the firm's global credit platform. Popov was previously md with HPS Investment Partners, formerly known as Highbridge Principal Strategies, and before that was svp at Oaktree Capital Management.
Funding Circle has hired Joanna Karger as US head of capital markets. She has extensive .......
Job Swaps 30 June 2017
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US CLOs slow
Activity in the US CLO secondary market is slow as the seasonal lull looks to have started early.
"It's a summer market already and there's overall not much action in secondary while primary continues to roll on with refis and re-sets," says one trader. "There's not much connection from investors for the most part - they're only active here and .......
SCIWire 29 June 2017
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Euro secondary solid
The European securitisation secondary market remains solid despite distractions from primary and month-end.
"As has been the case over the past few weeks people are focused on primary, but secondary is still ticking over this week," says one trader. "Over the past couple of days we've seen a number of bid lists going through and trading at decent to very good levels."
The .......
SCIWire 29 June 2017
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Refinancings spur trading reversal
The CLO refinancing wave appears to have caused a reversal of trading trends for investment grade and non-investment grade tranches in the secondary market. Demand for refinanced paper - represented mainly by triple-A to triple-B tranches - has resulted in a -28% year-on-year pull-back in CLO BWICs and -47% in TRACE trading volumes for investment grade tranches, according to JPMorgan .......
News 28 June 2017
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Euro middle market CLOs on the cards
Middle market CLO issuance is expanding in the US and emerging in Europe, with a variety of warehouse financing options for middle market loans and increasing variability. Increased middle market activity appears to be pressuring lenders, investors and arrangers, as demand exceeds available supply.
Investors in the US have flooded the middle-market loan space with liquidity, according to DBRS, with .......
News 27 June 2017
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Atlas CLO debuts AMR feature
Crescent Capital Group last week priced its latest broadly syndicated CLO. The US$413.7m Atlas Senior Secured Loan Fund VIII debuts an applicable margin reset (AMR) feature, which is designed to aid in the execution of CLO refinancings (SCI 5 September 2016).
The AMR feature is classed as a redemption event under the transaction documents, whereby the notes can be redeemed .......
News 27 June 2017
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Euro secondary steps up
Activity has started to step up across the European securitisation secondary market following an extended series of relatively quiet sessions.
Flows continue to be thin, though there have be patches of increased activity seen in a variety of sectors since the end of last week and into this. At the same time, rotation activity combined with month- and half-end positioning .......
SCIWire 27 June 2017