Complete news archive

  • Spanish electricity tariff ABS closed

    Notes issued by Alectra Finance, a Spanish electricity tariff deficits transaction, have been assigned final triple-A ratings by Moody's and Fitch. This is a securitisation of the payments made by the Spanish Comision Nacional de Energia (the CNE) relating to the compensation entitlement that arose as a result of the funding by certain Spanish electricity utility companies of a deficit .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • Small EM synthetic CLO rated

    Moody's has assigned triple-A ratings to €39m of notes issued by Terra II Senior CLO - a synthetic balance sheet CLO sponsored and arranged by Citigroup Global Markets.

    The rated notes represent a fixed percentage of a 2% mezzanine tranche, with a 25% attachment point, and reference a pool of predominantly Asian and other emerging market corporate loans. The issuer .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • California steps up Moody's legal action

    Legal action is being taken against Moody's by the California Attorney General in order to force the ratings agency to explain why it gave its highest ratings to "risky and toxic" RMBS. Attorney General Edmund Brown accuses Moody's of withholding evidence documenting its role in the housing and Wall Street crisis.

    Brown's action comes seven months after the Attorney General .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • NAMA transfer for Opera CMH loan

    The junior loan in CMBS Opera Finance CMH - a CMBS predominantly backed by Irish real estate loans - is to be transferred to the Irish National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) later this month, according to a notice released on 15 April.

    The move has prompted a revaluation of the properties backing the deal and resulted in a valuation of .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • CLO amends interest proceeds definition

    Sandelman Finance 2006-1 has entered into an amendment to the indenture that revises the definition of interest proceeds and includes certain other changes, such as to the transfer and resale provisions. Under the amendment, the collateral manager will no longer have the discretion to reallocate to interest proceeds principal proceeds that are in excess of a loan's outstanding principal balance.

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • CLOs amended to include workout securities

    A raft of CLO issuers have entered into supplemental indentures that allow them to create one or more subsidiaries, which will be able to own certain workout securities that the issuer itself could not own without endangering its tax status. These amendments were made pursuant to Section 8.1 of the indenture, which allows changes to the indenture without investor consent .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • US CRE prices drop after short rally

    US CRE prices declined by 2.6% in February according to Moody's commercial property price index. It is the first month-to-month decline in four months and nationwide prices are now 41.8% lower than their October 2007 peak, but 3.4% higher than their October 2009 low.

    "From November to January, CRE prices increased by an aggregate 6.3%," says Moody's md Nick Levidy. .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • US CMBS delinquency increase 'largest on record'

    The delinquency rate for US CMBS recorded its largest increase on record, rising by 69bp in March to 6.42%, according to Moody's. The agency notes that 45bp of the increase was due to the US$3bn Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town loan moving into delinquency. The balance of delinquent loans increased by US$4.3bn in March, with 343 loans becoming delinquent.

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • Bank Trups CDO defaults, deferral times up

    Fitch says seven new bank defaults caused US bank Trups CDO default rates to hit 11.6%. There are 103 bank issuers in default at present, representing around US$4.4bn across 81 Trups CDOs. Fitch md Kevin Kendra says negative Trups CDO pressure will continue because of underperformance among small and medium-sized US banks.

    Bank deferral rates climbed by 1.5% to 17.7% .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • 'Drastic' rating action for Eclipse 06-3

    In what has been described as a 'drastic' rating action, Fitch downgraded the class A notes of Gemini (Eclipse 2006-3) from triple-B minus to triple-C. As part of the same action, the agency also downgraded the transaction's class B and C notes from BB/CCC to CCC/CC respectively, and affirmed its class D and E notes at double-C.

    Structured finance strategists .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • No arrears impact for Granite ratings

    Fitch says the ratings of 18 securitisations containing mortgage loans originated by Northern Rock, most notably those from the Granite Master Trust, are not affected by the bank's misreporting of arrears figures in 2007. The arrears of 0.68% were misstated as 0.42%.

    The historical performance of an originator's mortgage loans forms a key part of Fitch's rating analysis, but the .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • Improved outlook in seven SF sectors

    Fitch says a number of structured finance sectors across EMEA are starting to benefit from the muted global economic recovery, but warns that exceptions remain. "The ratings outlook has improved for seven sub-sectors since the start of the year, while only one sector reflected an increasingly negative outlook. This is in line with Fitch's view that the outlook for several .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • APAC upgrades match downgrades

    Fitch downgraded 25 Asia Pacific securitisation tranches (including public, private, international and national ratings) in Q110 and upgraded 24, while affirming 226.

    "The main drivers behind the highest upgrade to downgrade ratio for two years were fewer downgrades to Japanese CMBS plus special servicing activities, combined with properties selling faster than in the previous 12-18 months in Australian RMBS [see .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • Concerns continue despite Spanish SF stabilisation

    Fitch says arrears have begun stabilising across more Spanish structured finance sectors, but the agency's performance outlook for the rest of the year remains cautious.

    Fitch's Spanish RMBS 90-days plus arrears index improved to 2.02% in December 2009, from 2.51% the previous quarter and 2.14% a year earlier. The Bank of Spain reported a decline in the non-performing loan ratio .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • Australian, New Zealand performance 'relatively strong'

    Fitch says 95 publicly-rated tranches backed by assets in Australia or New Zealand were affirmed during Q110, while eight were upgraded and one was downgraded.

    "The increased ability to sell properties combined with the special servicing activities has resulted in improved asset performance for two Mobius non-conforming RMBS transactions, leading to the relatively strong upgrade number in the first quarter," .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • Strong quarter for Indian ABS

    Fitch says it has affirmed 17 publicly-rated series of Indian structured finance transactions in Q110. Single loan sell-down transactions accounted for 13 of the affirmations, following the affirmation of the underlying obligor Shriram Transport Finance's (STFCL) national long-term and short-term ratings.

    The other affirmations were of purchaser payouts issued by STFCL and SREI Infrastructure Finance, based on the level of .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • AIG mulls possible legal action against GS

    AIG is considering legal action against Goldman Sachs in order to recover losses incurred on US$6bn of CDOs similar to the one that has resulted in fraud charges from the SEC, according to reports.

    AIG lost an estimated US$2bn on CDO obligations from Abacus transactions and is understood to be reviewing the relevant documentation. Although AIG has not announced any .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • Vendor introduces CDS liquidity signals

    CMA has published a review of liquidity signals in the CDS markets - the first in a series of white papers by the vendor addressing issues of interest and concern to OTC credit market participants. The report examines the relationship between OTC credit market quoting activity and CDS spread movements and focuses on two case studies: the fall of Lehman .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • Monthly updates for EMEA CMBS specially serviced loans

    As the number of loans going into special servicing increases, Moody's has launched a new monthly publication analysing special servicing loans that back EMEA CMBS, which it hopes will increase rating transparency.

    The rating agency says its report will explain why a loan is transferred into special servicing, the loan's current status, and Moody's observations about the focus of the .......

    News Round-up 21 April 2010

  • Market reaction

    Goldman CSO fraud hard to prove

    The SEC's decision to bring fraud charges against Goldman Sachs in relation to Abacus 2007-AC1 CSO (see News Round Up) immediately roiled share and CDS markets. But it does not appear on the surface that the structured finance markets will have any long-term impact from the case.

    CDS on Goldman widened 41% following the SEC's announcement, according to Fitch Solutions, while .......

    News Analysis 21 April 2010

  • WBS revival

    Whole business securitisation interest stirs

    Banks are in early talks to bring whole business securitisations back into the public's eye, according to sources involved in the process. The securitisations, which are different than typical asset securitisations, are garnering attention in light of the tight spread environment in corporate bonds.

    "There's definitely a lot of interest in this area again," says one source familiar with the .......

    News Analysis 21 April 2010
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