CDOs/CLOs

Local government bodies in the Australian state of New South Wales have been forbidden from making new CDO investments and other structured credit products until December 2009.

Camulos Capital closed Camulos Loan Vehicle 1 last Wednesday, kicking off the second quarter with positive news in the way of new issuance. The $731 million cash flow CLO, which is the first CLO for the manager, offered triple-A to double-B paper in five tranches priced at 85, 250, 300, 500 and 800 basis points, according to ASR Scorecards database. Morgan Stanley underwrote the deal, and Citigroup is the trustee.

Credit deterioration for U.S. CDOs was almost wholly contained to U.S. dollar-denominated resecuritizations in 2007, according to a recent study by Moody’s Investors Service. Moody's downgraded a total of 1,331 tranches of U.S. dollar-denominated resecuritizations in 2007, which accounted for 92% of the 1,448 downgrade actions for all CDOs during the year.

The season might be changing, but it won't be enough to lighten the heavy mood that has held the European primary market deal flow at a standstill for much of the year.

The tenth series of the North American Investment Grade CDX index (CDX.NA.IG.10) launched into a slightly rosier-than-expected market last week.

The registration for American Securitization Forum's ASF 2009 opens tomorrow, March 28. The conference will be held Feb.8-11, 2009 at The Venetian in Las Vegas. Online registration can be done through the ASF Web site at http://www.americansecuritization.com/story.aspx?id=2282

With JPMorgan scooping up 85-year-old Bear Stearns last week for $2 per share, it is safe to say that deteriorating credit conditions and market jitters continue to hack away at the U.S. economy.

Banks and insurance companies that issue trust preferred securities are now highly sensitive to financial institution risk and have acquired a distaste for the CDO structure, which has pooled these securities.

XL Capital Assurance's (XLCA) parent company Security Capital Assurance (SCA) responded to a lawsuit filed yesterday in New York by Merrill Lynch, accusing XLCA of refusing to cover losses on $3.1 billion in seven CDOs that the company had written swaps on. SCA said that it had terminated XLCA's contracts with Merrill Lynch due to a breach of contract in the obligations by promising control rights in the investment to various parties. "Merrill had repudiated its contractual obligations to XLCA by committing to provide one or more third parties with the same CDO control rights that it had previously promised to XLCA." As a result, SCA said that is in not obligated to make these payments. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges will represent SCA in court.

Ambac announced that it has completed its $1.5 billion equity offering and is working to restore market confidence, said John Uhlein, executive vice president at Ambac Financial Group.