Complete news archive

  • Record solar loan facility secured

    SolarCity has closed a US$500m financing aggregation facility with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, which is expected to be the largest of its kind for distributed generation solar projects. Once deployed, the facility will finance more than 500 MW of solar power systems for homeowners, businesses and government organisations.

    The facility will be secured by .......

    News Round-up 6 May 2015

  • Director duo hired

    THL Credit Advisors has hired Thomas Lane as md and Brett Hinton as director. Lane will focus on leading the origination, structuring, underwriting and execution of investments in the media and information services sector for the firm's direct lending business. Hinton will focus on new business development across the firm's direct lending and tradable credit platforms.

    Prior to THL, Lane .......

    Job Swaps 6 May 2015

  • Euro liquidity hampered

    Broader market volatility combined with a holiday shortened week continues to hamper liquidity across European secondary securitisation markets.

    Yesterday saw another quiet day in European secondary with low volumes on- and off-BWIC. However, yesterday's Italian BWIC did trade reasonably well.

    Overall, spreads remained unchanged to slightly wider as market sentiment continued to soften on macro news. CLO paper remains the .......

    SCIWire 6 May 2015

  • Key persons replaced

    Blackstone/GSO Debt Funds Europe has confirmed a couple of key-person replacements with respect to Habourmaster CLO 9. The firm says that Debra Anderson and Mark Moffat ceased to be involved in the daily and managerial activities of the collateral manager on 31 December 2012 and 15 April 2015 respectively.

    Pursuant to the collateral management agreement, if any two key persons .......

    Job Swaps 6 May 2015

  • Ty Warner loan eyed

    The US$96.4m Ty Warner Hotels & Resorts Portfolio, securitised in MSC 2012-C4, has become the largest CMBS 2.0 loan to transfer to special servicing to date. Reported as being due to imminent non-monetary default, the transfer appears to be related to the troubles of owner Ty Warner, who pled guilty to felony tax evasion in 2014.

    Barclays Capital CMBS analysts .......

    News Round-up 6 May 2015

  • NPL pools up for bid

    The US Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced its first NPL sale under the Distressed Asset Stabilization Program for 2015 (SFLS 2015-1). Freddie Mac also announced its next standard pool NPL sale, scheduled for 20 May.

    HUD's latest sale consists of two portfolios: the first comprising geographically diversified NPLs (dubbed national pools), to be auctioned on 24 June; .......

    News Round-up 5 May 2015

  • Project Fi to have mixed impact

    Google's entry into wireless services with its Project Fi will have positive and negative credit effects on wireless tower ABS, according to Moody's. While efforts by Google to expand its usage-based Wi-Fi service throughout the US will increase mobile data traffic on wireless towers, it could also pave the way for low-cost carriers to enter the space, increasing competition and .......

    News Round-up 5 May 2015

  • Catlin acquisition completed

    XL Group has completed its acquisition of Catlin Group, following both parties' previous agreement to form a combined business (SCI 12 January). The combined company will be marketed as XL Catlin, with a global advertising campaign and new public website to be launched in due course.

    The closing of the transaction follows the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, Catlin .......

    Job Swaps 5 May 2015

  • Rating agency adds director

    Morningstar has hired Peter Danna as director of business development for ABS ratings. He will be responsible for managing all relationships with ABS issuers and investors, and ensuring awareness and understanding of the agency's ABS ratings business and methodologies.

    Before joining Morningstar, Danna was svp of risk management for Radian Asset Assurance. He has also worked for Munich Re America, .......

    Job Swaps 5 May 2015

  • Greek notes downgraded

    Moody's has downgraded 18 notes and affirmed one note in eight Greek structured finance transactions. The action follows the agency's lowering of Greece's country ceiling to B3 from Ba3 and the downgrading of its sovereign rating to Caa2 from Caa1. The maximum achievable rating for outstanding Greek structured finance securities is now B3, down from Ba3 previously.

    The following tranches .......

    News Round-up 5 May 2015

  • CLOs post positive returns

    The total amount of CLOs paid down in JPMorgan's CLO index (CLOIE) since the March rebalance through end-April was US$4.39bn in par outstanding, split between US$2.26bn and US$2.12bn of pre-crisis and post-crisis CLOs. The post-crisis CLOIE added US$12.37bn across 156 tranches from 26 deals at the April rebalance.

    CLOIE experienced positive returns across all tranches last month, as well as .......

    News Round-up 5 May 2015

  • Delinquency rate inches down

    Trepp's US CMBS delinquency rate inched lower in April, increasing the number of months during which it has fallen in the last two years to 21. The delinquency rate now stands at 5.57%, down by 1bp from February and March, and 87bp lower than the level a year ago.

    Last month, US$1.35bn in loans became newly delinquent, which put 26bp .......

    News Round-up 5 May 2015

  • Stop-advance provision introduced

    Redwood Trust's Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2015-2 has become the first US prime RMBS to limit the time over which a servicer can advance principal and interest on delinquent loans. Moody's says that such a stop-advance feature benefits senior bonds by reducing the risk of loan losses associated with servicers' interest advances on long-delinquent loans.

    The feature prevents a servicer from .......

    News Round-up 5 May 2015

  • Sharp rise in CMBS early prepays

    While US CMBS 2.0 loans have increasingly paid off with yield maintenance or been defeased, the pace has picked up even more since the second half of 2014. This is particularly noticeable for five-year loans, despite the upfront penalty involved.

    The low level of rates relative to loan coupons makes it expensive for loans to pay off in this way, .......

    News 5 May 2015

  • DOT rule to dent railcar ABS?

    The US Department of Transportation last week issued its final rule for tank car safety improvements. The more stringent standards are generally seen as negative for railcar ABS, given that retrofitting costs are paid from securitisation cashflows at the top of the waterfall.

    The rule requires new tank cars constructed after 1 October 2015 to meet enhanced specifications, including thicker .......

    News 5 May 2015

  • RMBS settlements progressing

    The US$8.5bn Countrywide RMBS rep and warranty settlement was last week fully approved, with a modified judgement entered into the New York Supreme Court. Separately, a letter submitted by the trustee's counsel in Citi's proposed US$1.125bn settlement has confirmed that no objections were filed in that case.

    Following the Countrywide judgement, trustee-appointed experts will now calculate the allocable shares for .......

    News Round-up 5 May 2015

  • SPV end-user exception clarified

    The US CFTC has published a letter clarifying that a securitisation SPV that is wholly-owned by, and consolidated with, an entity described in Section 2(h)(7)(C)(iii) of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) qualifies as a captive finance company. Consequently, the SPV is eligible to elect the end-user exception from a clearing requirement determination issued by the Commission under Section 2(h) of .......

    News Round-up 5 May 2015

  • Uptick for European secondary

    With the UK public holiday the European secondary securitisation markets remained extremely quiet yesterday, but activity should see an uptick today.

    With the Greece story still rumbling on in the background, focus is, for now, on the two BWICs scheduled for trade today so far. One is the previously mentioned re-scheduled CLO list due at 14:30 London time; the other .......

    SCIWire 5 May 2015

  • CLOs to meet funding needs

    New and existing CLOs will play a large part in meeting US corporate funding needs as companies seek to refinance before a five-year high of speculative grade debt matures in 2019, says Moody's. Assuming that the financial system remains stable, transactions issued in 2015 and beyond will play a larger role than existing deals in meeting such demand.

    The agency .......

    News Round-up 1 May 2015

  • Expected loss inches lower

    Moody's base expected loss for US conduit/fusion CMBS fell to 7.7% in 1Q15, from 7.9% the previous quarter. In addition, the share of specially serviced conduit loans declined for the tenth consecutive quarter, to 6.96% in Q1 from 7.32% in 4Q14.

    "We expect the positive momentum to continue in the commercial real estate sector as favourable financing conditions and economic .......

    News Round-up 1 May 2015

  • Operational assessment urged

    Fitch says that the broad array of US CLO managers means that focusing on risks and understanding the manager are even more important in the current environment. In particular, the agency notes that assessing the operational platform of a CLO manager is valuable for investors.

    "Business concentration and a smaller investor base can make newer CLO asset managers more vulnerable .......

    News Round-up 1 May 2015
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