Complete news archive

  • Credit hedge funds specialist hired

    Virginie Afota has joined the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority as a senior fund manager in its fixed income and treasury department.

    Afota was previously a hedge fund analyst at Unigestion. She has also worked at Lonestar Europe, SPQR Capital, AXA Investment Managers and Goldman Sachs and has experience across fixed income, credit, derivatives and structured products.

    .......

    Job Swaps 25 September 2014

  • Commercial origination trio added

    Walker & Dunlop has added three originators to its commercial property funding team. Geoff Smith and Kimberly Riordan will be based in New York, while Paul Jankovsky joins the Dallas office.

    Smith joins as md and head of origination for the firm's conduit and high yield platform. He was previously head of origination and distribution at Hudson Realty Capital.

    Jankovsky .......

    Job Swaps 25 September 2014

  • Tesco CDS hit wides

    Tesco five-year credit default swaps have widened by 37% in the two days following the company's announcement that it had overstated its first-half profits by approximately £250m, Fitch Solutions reports. Tesco CDS are now at the widest levels observed for the name since May 2012.

    "After pricing consistently in the triple-B space for the past six months, credit protection on .......

    News Round-up 25 September 2014

  • Sales chief makes step up

    Lombard Risk Management has promoted John Groetch to md for the Americas. He joined the firm earlier this year as a regional sales director (SCI 24 April).

    Groetch will manage the company's strategic drive in the region. This will include strengthening the firm's local organisational structure and driving business development efforts.

    .......

    Job Swaps 25 September 2014

  • Conference end brings BWIC boost

    The US ABS market was fired up again yesterday as participants returned from IMN's ABS East conference. BWIC volume reached close to US$500m during the session, with SCI's PriceABS data capturing a plethora of credit card ABS bonds, as well as a number of auto, student loan, container and franchise names.

    Several covers were recorded in the credit .......

    Market Reports 25 September 2014

  • Euro peripheral action continues

    Peripherals continue to be a strong focus today as interest in non-core paper continues in the European ABS/MBS markets.

    This morning's €54.2m five line peripheral seniors list traded strongly at 9:00, with all bonds trading above talk levels, following on from the similar success of yesterday's peripheral mezz auction. The BWIC results are expected to bring out further peripheral lists .......

    SCIWire 25 September 2014

  • Canadian trade reporting supported

    ISDA and Markit have launched the ISDA Canadian Representation Letter on ISDA Amend, their solution that streamlines aspects of compliance with Dodd-Frank, EMIR and other OTC derivatives regulatory requirements. The move is in response to Rule 91-507, published by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), the Manitoba Securities Commission (MSC) and the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), which requires reporting counterparties to .......

    News Round-up 25 September 2014

  • ILS fund to liquidate

    Listed ILS fund DCG IRIS has been put into members' voluntary liquidation, following a shareholder extraordinary general meeting. The company's directors announced in June a proposal for the voluntary winding up of the fund.

    "The directors consider that the winding-up is in the best interests of shareholders as a whole because it has come to the directors' knowledge that a .......

    Job Swaps 25 September 2014

  • Mixed performance for Euro SME CLOs

    Fitch reports in its latest European SME CLO Performance Tracker that ratings in the sector have remained stable in the face of mixed performance across jurisdictions. At the same time, average credit enhancement has increased over the last 12 months for transactions in all European jurisdictions covered by the agency.

    For pre-crisis transactions, deleveraging was typically caused by the end .......

    News Round-up 25 September 2014

  • Peripheral RMBS webinar scheduled

    SCI, in association with Bloomberg Valuation Service (BVAL), is hosting a webinar on the outlook for and investment opportunities in the peripheral European RMBS markets at 2pm UK time/9am Eastern on 2 October. Click here to sign up for this complimentary event.

    Panellists include Prytania Group cio Mark Hale, DBRS European RMBS head Keith Gorman and BVAL global .......

    News Round-up 25 September 2014

  • NPL/RPL demand rising

    Of the circa US$658bn in US non-performing loans - including US$60bn in REO properties - banks, the GSEs and the HUD own about US$400bn, according to Barclays Capital figures. CMBS analysts at the bank estimate that a further US$500bn-US$600bn in re-performing loans is outstanding, with about US$200bn held by the GSEs, US$200bn-US$250bn in non-agency RMBS and the remainder on bank .......

    News Round-up 24 September 2014

  • Slow return for US CLOs

    Many US CLO traders are back at their desks following ABS East but the late start to the week combined with a Jewish holiday tomorrow and Friday means the market is yet to build back to a full head of steam.

    "It's pretty quiet in secondary, though we have seen some opportunistic selling today," says one CLO trader. Nevertheless there .......

    SCIWire 24 September 2014

  • Peripherals to the fore

    Each of the three European ABS/RMBS BWIC lists scheduled for this afternoon contain peripheral names. At the same time, such deals are being traded in the bilateral market.

    Today's auctions are dominated by peripherals, first up at 14:00 is a 53m four line list containing FGOLD 1 B, ITALF 2005-1 A, PPAF 3 A2 and SANFI 2006-1 D. None of .......

    SCIWire 24 September 2014

  • More to CMBS losses than LTV

    Out of 220 loans securitised in European CMBS with an initial LTV below 62%, only one loan experienced a loss, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysis. The study covered 184 transactions totalling €147bn in issuance.

    Losses on the €147bn have so far totalled €2.9bn, or 1.9%. By number of loans, 127 have suffered a loss, representing 11.9% .......

    News 24 September 2014

  • Transformer approach detailed

    AM Best has released a new criteria report regarding rating reinsurance/insurance transformer vehicles. The report highlights rating considerations unique to the evaluation of transformer vehicles and the process by which they act as an intermediary to transfer insurance risks to counterparties.

    The new criteria generally applies to the rating of various types of insurers/reinsurers that are licensed or designated as .......

    News Round-up 24 September 2014

  • Aire Valley proposal 'broadly positive'

    Assuming noteholder approval is granted, the proposed restructuring of the Aire Valley RMBS master trust (SCI 23 September) should be broadly positive for bondholders. JPMorgan European securitisation analysts suggest that investors will benefit from a cleaner pool of collateral, higher levels of subordination and potentially higher ratings. With longer-dated IO collateral targeted for repurchase, alongside exposures to higher LTV borrowers, .......

    News Round-up 24 September 2014

  • Early start for European CLOs

    As all structured finance asset classes look to get back into full stride today, European CLOs are taking the lead with four BWIC lists already scheduled.

    The first is a small list of four lines of senior paper totalling €1.92m due at 9:00 London today. It comprises: CELF 2005-1X B, CELF 2005-2X B1, DALRA 1-X B and DALRA 3-X A2.

    SCIWire 24 September 2014

  • US CMBS ticks over

    Despite ABS East and a strong new issue pipeline the US CMBS secondary market is holding on to last week's gains and activity is ticking over.

    Spreads held firm yesterday amid light secondary trading that saw $130m+ in BWIC volume with lists dominated by senior paper. Today is expected to be much the same with $86m across 20 line items .......

    SCIWire 23 September 2014

  • Sears closures affect CMBS

    Barclays Capital analysts have identified seven CMBS loans with exposure to the recent closure of various Sears and Kmart stores. The affected properties include two anchor stores in CMBS 2.0/3.0 malls.

    The US$49m Towne West Square Mall in MSC 2011-C2 may be most affected by the closing, say the analysts. Sears accounts for 27% of the rentable area for the .......

    News 23 September 2014

  • US CLO, loan outlook stable

    US CLOs and the leveraged loans in them will remain on a stable footing heading into next year, according to Fitch's newest quarterly index. Meanwhile the maturity wall has moved out from 2017-2020 to 2019-2021.

    Leveraged loan credit quality has been stable over the last year and this will continue, while the benign credit environment has helped to improve senior .......

    News Round-up 23 September 2014

  • Valuation risk specialist adds partner

    Voltaire Advisors has appointed Peter Jones as a senior partner in its London office. He will be responsible for growing the firm's valuation risk network.

    Jones has over 18 years of industry experience and specialises in debt, equity, structured case and derivative valuation, pricing and risk. He was most recently fixed income global head at S&P Capital IQ and has .......

    Job Swaps 23 September 2014
×