Complete news archive

  • Second Gagfah CMBS prepped

    Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are in the market with German Residential Funding 2013-1, Gagfah's much-anticipated second German multi-family CMBS (SCI passim). The €2bn transaction refinances a loan advanced to the sponsor, which in turn refinanced a loan previously securitised as part of the German Residential Funding deal.

    GRF 2013-1 comprises five tranches of notes rated by .......

    News Round-up 6 June 2013

  • Reinsurer creates capital markets role

    Ben Rubin will join AXIS Re as capital markets evp next month. It is a newly-created position in which he will take responsibility for managing and developing relationships with third-party capital providers and report to ceo Jay Nichols. Rubin was previously at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he was involved in capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and .......

    Job Swaps 6 June 2013

  • Bankia CDS settled

    Thirteen dealers submitted initial markets, physical settlement requests and limit orders to the Bankia CDS auction yesterday. The auction was undertaken across four senior/subordinate buckets: the final price for CDS in bucket one was 96.25; for bucket two, it was 88.5; for bucket three, it was 86.5; and for bucket four, it was 87.5.

    .......

    News Round-up 6 June 2013

  • Large list divergence observed

    US non-agency RMBS prices had been hovering near their highs in the run-up to last month's pair of unusually large bid-lists. Thereafter the above-average supply, together with shifting views on QE tapering appeared to strain risk appetite.

    Freddie Mac brought a US$1.1bn list on 15 May (SCI 17 May), before Lloyds came to the market with a US$8.7bn list on .......

    News 6 June 2013

  • NY AG files foreclosure paperwork suit

    New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has filed a lawsuit against HSBC Bank USA and HSBC Mortgage Corporation for failing to follow state law in its foreclosure actions. By failing to lodge certain paperwork in a timely fashion, HSBC and other companies are alleged to have prevented homeowners from accessing settlement conferences which could help them keep their homes.

    When looking .......

    Job Swaps 5 June 2013

  • Opera pre-pack proposal unveiled

    Further details of the Kennedy Wilson/ Värde Partners Europe restructuring proposal for the Opera Finance (CMH) CMBS have been disclosed ahead of a noteholder meeting on 26 June. The proposal involves the acquisition of all the properties for cash in a pre-pack enforcement sale undertaken by a receiver (see SCI's CMBS loan events database).

    The KW/Värde proposal provides .......

    News Round-up 5 June 2013

  • CRE vet made underwriting chief

    Ladder Capital has named George Kok as head of underwriting. The commercial real estate specialist will report to co-founder and cio Greta Guggenheim.

    Kok joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he was md and co-head of real estate structured finance. Before that he led conduit programmes at Merrill Lynch and co-led Morgan Stanley's conduit programme.

    .......

    Job Swaps 5 June 2013

  • CMBS loss severities dip

    The weighted average loss severity for all loans backing US CMBS that liquidated at a loss was 40.7% in 1Q13, down from 40.8% in the previous quarter, Moody's reports. Excluding liquidated loans with losses of less than 2%, the figure is 52.9%, down from 53.1% the previous quarter. Loans with losses of less than 2% account for 23.5% of the .......

    News Round-up 5 June 2013

  • Restructuring officer brought on board

    Gleacher & Company has appointed Christopher Kearns of Capstone Advisory Group as ceo and chief restructuring officer. The company has also retained Capstone to assist with its restructuring process and announced an exit from its investment banking business.

    Kearns will remain employed by Capstone while serving as Gleacher's principal executive officer. He co-founded Capstone in 2004 and has since served .......

    Job Swaps 5 June 2013

  • CRE hedging guidelines issued

    CREFC Europe has released 'Guidelines for interest rate hedging in European CRE finance transactions'.

    The association established a hedging working group last year to study and report on interest rate hedging practices used in European CRE finance transactions. The group's objective was the formulation of practice guidelines that could be useful to market participants as liquidity returns to the CRE .......

    News Round-up 5 June 2013

  • Clearing costs highlighted

    Sapient Global Markets has published an in-depth study on how new central clearing mandates will impact investment performance for buy-side firms. The research demonstrates significant drag on portfolio returns in the new regulatory environment: the drop in return ranges from between 0.20%-0.62% for cleared hedges, up to almost 1% for traditional uncleared bilateral OTC trades.

    The report, entitled 'Cost of .......

    News Round-up 5 June 2013

  • Special servicing trends examined

    Major changes in the US commercial mortgage special servicing business have occurred over the past five years. In particular, S&P notes that the increase of defaulted loans has raised the relative value of special servicing to CMBS bond valuation and performance.

    Special servicers have responded to the increase in special servicing volume in various ways, including: hiring experienced work-out personnel, .......

    News Round-up 5 June 2013

  • Healthy mix in busy ABS session

    The week kicked off with a large quantity of US auto, credit card and student loan ABS out for the bid. Several tranches from recent vintages were circulating, with pre-crisis names also well represented in SCI's PriceABS data.

    Among the auto names out for the bid, a US$15.193m piece of the BAAT 2012-1 A2 tranche was traded during .......

    Market Reports 4 June 2013

  • Portfolio manager joins Bermudian team

    Lancashire Capital Management has appointed Mathieu Marsan as portfolio manager and actuary in Bermuda. He joins from Pentelia Capital Management, where he spent the last six years.

    Marsan's duties at Pentelia included risk modelling, portfolio construction and management of all ILS asset classes. He has also worked as an insurance derivatives trader for Ritchie Capital Management and before that was .......

    Job Swaps 4 June 2013

  • Ability-to-repay rule amended

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has amended its ability-to-repay rule for small creditors, community development lenders and housing stabilisation programmes (SCI 11 January). It has also revised the rules on how to calculate loan origination compensation for certain purposes.

    "Our ability-to-repay rule was crafted to promote responsible lending practices," comments CFPB director Richard Cordray. "[These] amendments embody our efforts .......

    News Round-up 4 June 2013

  • Margining service enhanced

    BNY Mellon has enhanced its DM Edge product by expanding its bilateral margining capabilities to include forward-settling MBS, as recommended to help reduce counterparty and systemic risk by the Fed's Treasury Market Practices Group (TMPG). The aim is to help MBS trading counterparties reduce the credit risk inherent in forward transactions by exchanging collateral as protection against loss in the .......

    News Round-up 4 June 2013

  • Clean-up calls gather pace

    The recovery in US home prices has prompted a modest pick-up in RMBS clean-up calls. Coupled with rising asset prices from QE, several deals now have a high likelihood of being called in the next two years.

    Barclays Capital RMBS analysts estimate that over 20 transactions have been called so far this year, more than the number called in all .......

    News 4 June 2013

  • NCSLT SLABS reviewed

    Moody's has downgraded 74 classes, upgraded nine classes and confirmed 14 classes of notes in 15 National Collegiate Student Loan Trust ABS backed by private student loans. The loans are primarily serviced by the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, with US Bank acting as the special servicer. GSS Data Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Goal Structured Solutions, is the administrator .......

    News Round-up 4 June 2013

  • Multi-credit fund launched

    Babson Capital Europe has launched the Babson Capital Global High Yield Credit Opportunity Fund. The open-ended multi-credit fund aims to provide investors with access to high yielding beta exposures across performing global loan and bond markets, with opportunistic allocations to CLOs and stressed/distressed debt.

    "Combining these individual components into a single strategy will address the needs of those investors looking .......

    News Round-up 4 June 2013

  • CRE CDO unwound

    Newcastle Investment Corp has divested 100% of the assets in Newcastle CDO IV. The firm sold US$153m face amount of collateral at an average price of 95% of par. The sale will result in US$77m of third-party debt being paid off at par and the termination of the trust.

    Newcastle directly holds approximately 50% of the CDO's capital structure. This .......

    News Round-up 4 June 2013

  • Project finance to see capital markets boost

    S&P expects new ways of financing infrastructure projects throughout EMEA, developed in the face of declining bank lending, to prompt an increase in debt issuance in the industry in 2013. The agency says that the outlook for credit quality in the sector will remain stable over the rest of this year.

    "The project finance industry will likely see a pick-up .......

    News Round-up 4 June 2013
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