Complete news archive

  • CMBS recovery rates 'remain uncertain'

    Recovery rates for US CMBS loans in special servicing remain uncertain, Fitch says. The agency notes that the 66% recovery rate on loans liquidated during the first half of 2013 and the decline in volume of CMBS loans in special servicing are signs that the commercial real estate market is improving. The rise in commercial real estate values has supported .......

    News Round-up 25 September 2013

  • Advocacy group elects permanent board

    SFIG has elected a permanent board of directors, consisting of representatives from 40 member organisations. The board will oversee all of the group's policy initiatives, advocacy efforts and events.

    The board includes eight directors each from investors, banks and issuers. Accounting firms, rating agencies, law firms, servicers, research firms and trustees are also represented. Board members will serve two-year terms.

    Job Swaps 25 September 2013

  • New York mods completed

    Iron Hound Management Co has completed over US$400m in CMBS loan modifications and refinancing on two New York-based properties, following its recent expansion into loan debt and equity placements. The transactions involved are COMM 2006-C8, GCCFC 2007-GG11 and CGCMT 2008-C7 (see SCI's loan events database).

    Iron Hound structured the pay-off of the US$106m defaulted loan and the placement .......

    News Round-up 25 September 2013

  • Independent credit advisory formed

    Rod Moulton has launched Euro Credit Risk (ECR) with headquarters in London and offices in Milan and Madrid. The firm will offer independent expertise to investors, hedge funds, investment banks, loan providers and other parties holding or acquiring legacy loan portfolios of secured, unsecured or commercial debt.

    Moulton serves as ceo, while George Patellis will serve as chairman. Moulton was .......

    Job Swaps 25 September 2013

  • CLO diversification on the up

    A new JPMorgan overlap study implies that diversification among the top loan issuers across the US CLO market has increased. However, the currently challenged CLO arbitrage is expected to continue testing managers' ability to navigate through portfolio diversity issues, such as WAL limits.

    The JPMorgan sample represents 1045 CLOs containing roughly US$302bn of assets. The sample comprises 260 CLO 2.0 .......

    News 24 September 2013

  • RMBS prices to follow ratings upwards

    US RMBS rating upgrades picked up steam in the second half of 2012, boosting the prices of the affected tranches in their wake. As many as 2,000 more bonds could be in line for an upgrade, with cleaner jumbo and Alt-A bonds most likely to see uplifts to investment grade.

    Upgrade activity almost stopped between 2008 and 2011, but 3,800 .......

    News 24 September 2013

  • NAIC scenario update discussed

    The NAIC is proposing to update its macroeconomic assumptions that it will use when valuing non-agency RMBS and CMBS at year-end. The changes are expected to be positive for both asset classes.

    For non-agency RMBS, the most significant change is that the NAIC's peak-to-trough home price assumptions are significantly more lenient than they were last year, Barclays Capital analysts note. .......

    News Round-up 24 September 2013

  • CMBS auctions scheduled

    US$480m of US CMBS assets are slated for sale on Auction.com next month. The assets include two properties behind the US$123m Southern California Portfolio loan, securitised in GCCFC 2007-GG9.

    The two properties are the Savi Tech Center and the Yorba Linda Business Park, which represent approximately US$79m in allocated balance. Based on the latest appraisal of US$99.5m from January, losses .......

    News Round-up 24 September 2013

  • Richmond injunction dismissed

    US District Judge Charles Breyer last week dismissed the preliminary injunction lawsuit that Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank filed against Richmond, California, having previously ruled that it was "not ripe" (SCI 13 September). The judge reportedly decided to dismiss the suit altogether rather than pause court proceedings because the trustees' claims depend on "future events that may never occur".

    The .......

    News Round-up 24 September 2013

  • Special situations fund closed

    Universal-Investment and XAIA Investment have closed their joint fund XAIA Credit Debt Capital for new subscriptions. The firms report that the fund's volume has more than tripled since the beginning of the year, from €243m to over €750m.

    The investment strategy involves targeted investments in special situations across the capital structure. The aim of closing the fund is to prevent .......

    News Round-up 24 September 2013

  • Tobacco arbitration decision 'credit positive'

    The decisions reached by an arbitration panel regarding claims by US tobacco manufacturers that 15 states did not diligently enforce certain statutes for calendar year 2003 are credit positive for some tobacco securitisations, according to Moody's. However, the agency notes that while the decisions could be indicative of the decisions for other years beyond 2003, it is possible that future .......

    News Round-up 24 September 2013

  • Pre-crisis RMBS features re-emerging

    Some issuers of US private label RMBS have re-introduced structural features that were common in pre-crisis deals and which can increase the risks to certain senior bonds in the event of very high mortgage losses, Moody's reports. The agency suggests that transactions incorporating super-senior support bonds, exchangeable securities, principal-only (PO) bonds and pool interest-only (IO) bonds deviate from standard cashflow .......

    News Round-up 24 September 2013

  • Portfolio loss metrics introduced

    Fitch has introduced new measures in connection with its expectations for portfolio losses for EMEA structured finance and covered bond programmes. Dubbed portfolio loss metrics, the measures are designed to improve the transparency of the agency's opinions on expected asset pool performance and provide a consistent framework for comparison of asset portfolios and tranches.

    The aim is to provide complementary .......

    News Round-up 24 September 2013

  • Risk management specialist joins REIT

    Two Harbors Investment Corp has appointed Robert Rush as risk management md. He will report to Paul Richardson, who serves as partner and chief risk officer for Pine River Capital Management.

    Rush was previously at UBS in New York, where he worked in risk strategy, RMBS, CMBS and ABS roles as well as serving as head of CDO and esoteric asset .......

    Job Swaps 24 September 2013

  • Barclays credit trader joins asset manager

    ECM Asset Management has appointed Chris Telfer as specialist portfolio manager in London. He will trade financials and sovereigns across ECM's strategies and report to co-cio Ross Pamphilon.

    Telfer was previously a credit trader at Barclays Capital, working on credit derivatives, leveraged loans and distressed trading. Before that he was at Morgan Stanley.

    .......

    Job Swaps 24 September 2013

  • Reporting required for card ABS

    The ECB is to introduce loan-level reporting requirements for credit card ABS, when these are used as collateral in the Eurosystem's monetary policy operations. The provision of loan-level information for these instruments will be mandatory from 1 April 2014, with a nine-month phasing-in period.

    Under the requirements, loan-level data must be provided at least on a quarterly basis or within .......

    News Round-up 23 September 2013

  • CMBS loan resolutions tallied

    US CMBS special servicers resolved a total of US$17.09bn across 974 loans during the first half of 2013, according to Fitch. Of these, 58% were resolved through liquidation and 42% through modification.

    Of the US$9.88bn liquidated, US$4.07bn was liquidated with recoveries greater than 85%. Thirteen loans sized at over US$50m had recoveries greater than 85%. Six separate servicers performed the .......

    News Round-up 23 September 2013

  • Investor info company expands

    DealVector has added Kroll Bond Rating Agency president Jim Nadler to its advisory board and appointed Jim Kranz as head of business development. The company has also exceeded its funding goal.

    Nadler is president and coo at Kroll. He has previously served as corporate development vp at General Re and was also evp at Fitch, where he led the structured .......

    Job Swaps 23 September 2013

  • GSA mod 'better than expected'

    A modification template has been released for the US$284m GSA Portfolio loan, securitised in JPMCC 2007-LD11. The loan transferred to special servicing in May 2012 after failing to pay off at its scheduled maturity date (see SCI's CMBS loan events database).

    The portfolio consists of nine office properties - which were appraised at US$217.5m in May - principally .......

    News Round-up 23 September 2013

  • SCI Start the Week - 23 September

    A look at the major activity in structured finance over the past seven days

    Pipeline
    Five ABS were added to the pipeline last week, all of which were auto deals. Two RMBS, one CMBS and two CLOs were also announced.

    The ABS pipeline entrants comprised: US$205m CPS Auto Receivables Trust 2013-C; E-CARAT 2; €500m Kimi 2013-1; SCF Rahoituspalvelut 2013; and A$430m SMART ABS Series 2013-3 Trust. The US$507.8m PMT Loan Trust 2013-J1 and A$750m Series .......

    News 23 September 2013

  • Data centre CMBS discussed

    Retail co-location businesses are behind a move to begin securitising data centre contracts, Moody's reports in its latest ABS Spotlight publication. But the agency notes that while the contractual cashflows from data centres could be attractive to the securitisation market, the high rents these centres currently command are unlikely to continue in the long term.

    "Trends for the data centre .......

    News Round-up 20 September 2013
×