Complete news archive

  • CDS spike on oil price decline

    Globally, CDS spreads widened by 16% in 4Q14, according to S&P Capital IQ's latest Global Sovereign Debt Report. The report highlights the dramatic fall in oil prices during the quarter, which affected the credit default swaps and bond spreads of major oil producing sovereigns.

    In particular, Venezuela, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Nigeria sovereign CDS spreads widened as the price of .......

    News Round-up 16 January 2015

  • Sale spurs CDS widening

    Portugal Telecom International Finance's five-year CDS widened 44% over the past month to price at its widest levels since October 2013, according to Fitch Solutions. This significantly outpaced the 6% widening observed for the overall European telecom sector over the same time period.

    "Growing market concern for Portugal Telecom, which merged with Brazil's Oi last year, is likely stemming from .......

    News Round-up 16 January 2015

  • Credit team strengthened

    Spire Partners has recruited Saqib Deen and Henrik Holcke as senior credit analysts. Their appointments follow last year's addition of Rob Reynolds as cio and partner at the company.

    Deen was most recently with CarVal Investors, having previously worked at JPMorgan as both a credit analyst on the secondary trading desk and a high yield research analyst. He also held an .......

    Job Swaps 16 January 2015

  • Portfolio manager moves


    Capitala Investment Advisors has hired Stephen Riddell as a portfolio manager. He is tasked with expanding liquid credit activity for the firm's business development company, Capitala Finance, as well as to build and run Capitala Group's liquid credit platform.

    Riddell most recently was a portfolio manager in Apollo Global Management's US performing credit group. He also has previous experience as .......

    Job Swaps 16 January 2015

  • Euro ABS/MBS stays positive

    The European ABS/MBS secondary markets are staying positive in terms of both tone and price levels as the week draws to a close.

    Strong execution across yesterday's BWICs combined with increased buy-side participation off-BWIC has kept market sentiment positive and spreads have continued to tighten. The greatest beneficiaries continue to be autos, Dutch Prime RMBS and UK non-conforming RMBS.

    CMBS .......

    SCIWire 16 January 2015

  • Socially secured

    An innovative real asset transaction backed by German care homes is currently in the private placement phase. Dubbed German Care Homes Fund, the vehicle aims to provide attractive returns at low risk, given that it is indirectly secured by the German social security system.

    Three structural variations are currently under consideration: a SICAV-SIF vehicle, a JV holding or a securitisation .......

    News 16 January 2015

  • US RMBS sees more supply

    The secondary US non-agency RMBS market looks to have started its year in earnest this week with another day of hefty supply today and a big list due tomorrow.

    "It was very busy yesterday and is today as well with over $1bn in BWICs scheduled," says one trader. "Those lists are from multiple sellers and cover all deal and cashflow .......

    SCIWire 15 January 2015

  • US CLOs step off

    US CLO sellers could dominate today as buyers may be harder to find.

    "Yesterday the market pretty much stood its ground, with most US CLOs trading in line with talk," says one trader. "But more broadly, particularly in 2.0 deals, were in a widening environment and today's tone is very much risk off."

    The trader notes that there is relatively .......

    SCIWire 15 January 2015

  • Pamplona beefs up in credit trading

    Pamplona Capital Management has hired Yacine Amara and Florian Chapel as credit traders. They will trade bonds and derivatives in the Pamplona Credit Opportunities Fund, which invests in European corporate and structured credit.

    Amara and Chapel both arrive from Chenavari Capital Partners. Amara was part of the firm's trading and risk quantitative team, whereas Chapel worked as a senior credit analyst.

    .......

    Job Swaps 15 January 2015

  • Business services expert added

    Calypso Technology has hired Venkatesh Ramasamy as svp for business services and utilities. As a member of the company's operating committee, he will use the newly created role to develop and execute a strategy for offering customers cost-efficient managed services.

    Prior to joining the firm, Ramasamy was global co-head of prime services at RBS, where he established a cross-asset service for .......

    Job Swaps 15 January 2015

  • Fuel prices to lift aircraft ABS

    Performance of outstanding aircraft securitisations may be buoyed if fuel prices remain at their current levels over the long term, according to Fitch. LTV ratios for existing enhanced equipment trust certificates (EETCs) that feature current-generation narrow-body aircraft could also see marginal improvement.

    Fitch says that lower jet fuel prices may allow the current generation of narrow-body aircraft, such as the .......

    News Round-up 15 January 2015

  • CMBS supply rises, spreads widen

    US CMBS BWIC volume hit US$400m yesterday in a busy session as spreads widened out. SCI's PriceABS data picked up more than 60 unique US CMBS tranches out for the bid from a variety of vintages.

    A very high proportion of the available paper was covered yesterday. This included the 2004-vintage JPMCC 2004-CB8 J tranche, which .......

    Market Reports 15 January 2015

  • Record issuance for prime RMBS

    US prime jumbo RMBS new issuance hit a post-crisis milestone in 4Q14, with 11 transactions pricing. At the same time, post-crisis RMBS performance remains exceptional, according to Fitch.

    "Another development worth noting is that different names are tapping the RMBS market with increasing frequency, with six issuers coming to market with new deals," says Fitch md Grant Bailey. "More new .......

    News Round-up 15 January 2015

  • Swap transparency rules adopted

    The US SEC has adopted two new sets of rules that will require security-based swap data repositories (SDRs) to register with the SEC and prescribe reporting and public dissemination requirements for security-based swap transaction data. The new rules are designed to increase transparency in the security-based swap market and to ensure that SDRs maintain complete records of security-based swap transactions .......

    News Round-up 15 January 2015

  • New Volcker fix progresses

    Bill H.R. 37- Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act yesterday passed the House by a vote of 271-154. The bill, which aims to make technical corrections to the Dodd-Frank Act, has the potential - though somewhat low - of eventually becoming legislation and stabilising the US CLO market.

    The passage comes one week after the House first .......

    News 15 January 2015

  • BGC ups GFI offer

    BGC Partners has delivered an executed agreement to GFI Group that, if countersigned by GFI, provides an increase to its tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of GFI to US$5.60 per share. The proposed revision represents a premium of US$0.35, or approximately 7%, to the US$5.25 per share stock and cash transaction announced by CME Group and .......

    Job Swaps 15 January 2015

  • APAC ratings remain 'stable'

    Fitch affirmed 222 APAC structured finance (SF) tranches in 4Q14, one of which was affirmed twice. Two Australian tranches were upgraded, while no downgrades occurred during the quarter.

    Continued strong economic performance supported rating actions in Australia. Most ratings reviewed during the quarter were affirmed, contributing 84% of the total affirmations in the region.

    In addition, Fitch says that steady .......

    News Round-up 15 January 2015

  • Raters gain consulting roles

    LCM Partners has hired two new directors to the firm. Ilaria Vignozzi and Nadya Aleshina arrive from S&P to join LCM's consulting team.

    Vignozzi is a senior analyst, who covered securitisation and structured finance (SF) markets at S&P. Prior to that, she worked for three years in the Financial Institutions Group.

    Aleshina was a director within the SF team at .......

    Job Swaps 15 January 2015

  • Back to business in European secondary

    The European ABS, CLO and MBS secondary markets have finally fully returned to normality on- and off-BWIC.

    "It's back to business as usual," confirms one trader. "Focus is away from any potential QE announcement next week and there is an acceptance that ABSPP is underwhelming and it's very difficult to trade with the ECB on that - so it's just .......

    SCIWire 15 January 2015

  • US CMBS secondary suffers

    The US non-agency CMBS market has returned from its annual conference focused on the primary market and away from secondary trading.

    "The conference mood overall was very positive and loan originators are very bullish," says one trader. "It really feels like we're back to 2005/6 in terms of new issuance."

    The trader continues: "The first new issue deals of the .......

    SCIWire 14 January 2015

  • Home ownership 'faces challenges'

    Home ownership levels continue to drop in many countries, despite stable or positive outlooks for most mortgage markets, Fitch reports. As a result of market dislocations post-crisis, home ownership levels face challenges as large foreclosure pipelines are expected to displace owners in some countries such as the US, Spain and Ireland, while new lending remains well below pre-crisis levels - .......

    News Round-up 14 January 2015
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