Complete news archive

  • Basis CDO complaint filed

    Basis Pac-Rim Opportunity Fund and Basis Yield Alpha Fund have filed a lawsuit against TCW Asset Management in New York state court in connection with a transaction that TCW issued in May 2007. According to the complaint, the plaintiffs acquired a total of US$28.1m securities issued by Dutch Hill Funding II, a mezz ABS CDO.

    They allege that TCW misrepresented .......

    Job Swaps 3 December 2012

  • CIM3 clarifies repurchase responsibilities

    Credit Suisse has priced its third non-agency RMBS of the year - the US$329.89m CSMC Trust 2012-CIM3. S&P, which rated the transaction, notes that there are significant differences between it and the other two deals in the series (see SCI's pricing database).

    One of the differences is that the CIM3 transaction includes time limits (sunset provisions), within which .......

    News Round-up 3 December 2012

  • Stuy Town court case settled

    The Roberts vs. Tishman Speyer Properties court case has been settled. The settlement removes the last significant obstacle to a sale of the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village apartment complex and reduces the likelihood of CMBS losses.

    The settlement has been agreed to by both sides, as well as the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal and the .......

    News 3 December 2012

  • SCI Start the Week - 3 December

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

    Pipeline
    Last week saw nine deals join - and remain in - the pipeline. Five of these were ABS, with the remainder comprising three CMBS and a single CLO.

    The ABS consisted of: US$215.95m ARL First Series 2012-1, a railcar lease securitisation; US$220m Drug Royalty II 1 series 2012-1, a drug royalties transaction; US$500m Mercedes Benz Master Owner Trust 2012-A and .......

    News 3 December 2012

  • Loans in special servicing drop

    The volume of underperforming US CMBS loans in special servicing registered its sharpest quarterly decline, according to Fitch's latest index results for the sector. After peaking at US$91.7bn in 2010, CMBS loans in special servicing dropped by nearly US$6bn to US$74.8bn at the end of 3Q12.

    Other encouraging signs for the sector include declines in both the number of assets .......

    News Round-up 3 December 2012

  • Portuguese RMBS restructured

    Bocage Mortgages No.1 has been restructured to include the appointment of a back-up servicer, increased issuance of the unrated variable funding note (VFN) and a termination of the basis swap. In Fitch's view, the appointment of a back-up servicer and the increase in the VFN are both positive for the transaction.

    The move is believed to have been initiated in .......

    News Round-up 30 November 2012

  • RMBS boost

    Post-election housing outlook discussed

    President Obama's re-election appears to have boosted prospects for the private label RMBS market. At the same time, prepayment-related policy risk is expected to rise under the administration.

    The most important outcome for the US housing market of a second Obama administration is that it will now drive the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, according to Vincent Varca, md of .......

    News Analysis 30 November 2012

  • Rally seen in ABX

    The ABX index has rallied impressively in 2012. Year-to-date price appreciation for the triple-A sub-indices in the 2006-1, 2006-2, 2007-1 and 2007-2 series is 9%, 36.1%, 36.1% and 39.1% respectively.

    Serious delinquency rates for the same index series declined by 87bp, 70bp, 67bp and 106bp to 35%, 38.7%, 40.7% and 39.2% respectively. The average serious delinquency rate of all ABX .......

    News Round-up 30 November 2012

  • Bumper session for CLO secondary

    Supply stepped up in the US CLO and CDO secondary space yesterday. SCI's PriceABS data shows 162 CLO line items and 84 CDO line items for the session, with CLO sub and Trups paper out in force.

    The number of CLO BWIC line items displayed by PriceABS for yesterday's session is only one fewer than for the two previous .......

    Market Reports 30 November 2012

  • Asset manager returns to credit

    Michael Mabbutt is set to join Liontrust in January as head of a newly-formed global credit division. The firm sold its credit hedge fund business to Avoca last year (SCI 13 April 2011).

    Concurrent with Mabbutt's appointment, Liontrust will launch a Dublin-based global strategic bond fund, subject to appropriate regulatory approvals. He is currently a consulting partner at Thames River .......

    Job Swaps 30 November 2012

  • Liquidation volumes move higher

    US CMBS loss severity levels remained relatively unchanged in November, according to Trepp, while the volume of loans liquidated during the month moved sharply higher. There were 159 loan liquidations in November, resulting in US$750.3m in losses and an average loss severity of 42.22%.

    The November reading was 29bp lower than the October level of 42.51%. November's average loss severity .......

    News Round-up 30 November 2012

  • Regional differences skewing recovery

    Fitch believes that recent national increases in previously-owned home sales and reductions in the inventory of homes indicate the recovery in the residential real estate market is continuing. But the agency notes that regional differences remain important, with meaningful improvement likely to be hampered by the foreclosure process in some states and regional unemployment rates.

    Existing homes sold at a .......

    News Round-up 30 November 2012

  • CRE vet recruited

    United Realty Capital has named Craig Eastmond md. He will be based in New York and report to Barry Funt, president of the firm.

    In addition to providing advisory, placement, corporate finance and investment banking services to United Realty and its affiliates, Eastmond will be responsible for originating and executing arbitrage opportunities in the commercial real estate and finance space. .......

    Job Swaps 30 November 2012

  • Repo resecuritisation closed

    New York Mortgage Trust has entered, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, into a master repurchase agreement with a three-year term for the purpose of financing certain K-Series multifamily CMBS. The REIT received gross cash proceeds of approximately US$52m before deducting expenses associated with the transaction.

    Pursuant to the terms of the master repurchase agreement, RB Commercial Mortgage transferred approximately US$116m of .......

    News Round-up 29 November 2012

  • PBCE could reach single-A rating

    The EIB's project bond credit enhancement (PBCE) instrument (SCI 14 November) - whether in the form of funded subordination or unfunded letter of credit - could improve a project's credit metrics to a level in line with ratings in the single-A category, according to Fitch. However, to achieve this, projects would also need to display a reasonably strong standalone credit .......

    News Round-up 29 November 2012

  • Slight widening seen in US CMBS

    US CMBS secondary spreads were quoted yesterday at swaps plus 175bp/174bp, just a little wider than the previous close of swaps plus 173bp, according to Interactive Data. SCI's PriceABS data shows a healthy amount of BWIC activity for the session, with little change in price levels over the last few weeks.

    A variety of BACM paper was out .......

    Market Reports 29 November 2012

  • Portuguese RMBS hit

    Moody's has downgraded 20 notes previously rated at the country ceiling and confirmed one note from 18 Portuguese RMBS, further to its reassessment of the entire Portuguese RMBS market. The reassessment takes into consideration the agency's updated European RMBS rating methodology, as well as ongoing deterioration in the credit quality of the Portuguese sovereign and transactions' counterparties.

    Moody's downgraded the .......

    News Round-up 29 November 2012

  • Hedging decisions to become more complex

    The cost of central clearing of formerly bilateral trade structures will serve as the primary catalyst in the move towards less exotic instruments and outright vanilla products, according to TABB Group. The firm suggests that although many exotic trade structures will remain on the books of market participants until they eventually expire or are terminated, new products aimed at mimicking .......

    News Round-up 29 November 2012

  • Clearing deadlines set

    The CFTC has issued new rules to require certain credit default swaps and interest rate swaps to be cleared by registered derivatives clearing organisations (DCOs), as promulgated under the Dodd-Frank Act. Under the rules, market participants are required to submit a swap for clearing by a DCO as soon as technologically practicable and no later than the end of the .......

    News Round-up 29 November 2012

  • Euro A2E activity tracked

    Fitch says in its new European leveraged loan CLO tracker report that up to 40% of the CLO portfolio has been subject to amend-and-extend activity in the past two years.

    "While refinancing opportunities for highly leveraged borrowers remain scarce, the maturity wall has been extended and smoothed," says Laurent Chane-Kon, director in Fitch's European structured finance team.

    The cumulative default .......

    News Round-up 29 November 2012

  • Improvement seen in Japan consumer credit

    Moody's reports that the overall credit quality of all consumer asset classes in Japan's ABS market has improved. The agency expects the sector to remain stable, even in the face of severe unemployment and a decline in income levels.

    The Japanese ABS default rate is generally stable. The default rates of card cash advances and consumer finance loans, for instance, .......

    News Round-up 29 November 2012
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