Fixed-income capital markets firm MountainView Capital Holdings has acquired Clayton IPS, the independent pricing service of Clayton Holdings.
The deal brings together Clayton's and MountainView's mortgage and fixed-income analytics and pricing expertise.
The IPS unit offers fixed-income managers and investors third-party fair market pricing for hard-to-value securities such as RMBS, CMBS and ABS. The team also values residential whole loans, credit default swaps, secured corporate debt, and structured debt deals.
With the acquisition, Clayton IPS' employees and proprietary tools became part of the Denver-based MountainView Analytics division after the deal closed on Aug. 15. The firm is now called MountainView IPS.
Within MountainView Analytics, MountainView IPS complements the services of MountainView Servicing Group, which offers valuations for residential mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) and MountainView Risk Advisors, which provides risk management analytics for residential MSRs.
MountainView Capital and Clayton Holdings also formed a strategic alliance where each firm can give their respective clients integrated access to the services offered by both companies. Clayton’s surveillance business will still be based and operate out of its Denver location.
“The planning of this transaction produced a seamless transition for IPS clients and employees, and the new opportunities for them are tremendous,” said MountainView IPS senior vice president Scott Gibson, who led the IPS team at Clayton. “My staff is excited about the opportunity to access the market insights of MountainView’s analytics, sales and trading, and asset management divisions, and we look forward to bringing this additional expertise to our clients.”
“Synergy and success are what MountainView seeks in acquisitions,” added Mark Garland, president of MountainView Analytics. “MountainView is a leader in analytics on the residential MSR asset, and as we looked to expand our third-party valuation services across related asset types, the IPS team was the obvious choice, with eight years of history and more than 60 clients.”
New Hire
MountainView Capital has hired Andrew Platt to be part of the executive team as head of business development.
In this newly created role, Platt will grow MountainView’s profile in the fixed-income capital markets by emphasizing deep relationships where clients use the firm for multiple service offerings and help it identify new service offerings.
Platt was previously managing director and head of specialty finance at Cantor Fitzgerald's financial institutions group. He also held executive director and director positions at UBS Investment Bank and UBS Securities. He was principal and executive director of global structured finance at Banc of America Securities and a vice president of residential mortgage finance at Lehman Brothers.
Throughout his career, the new hire has focused on the mortgage industry, covering originators, MBS issuers, REITs, distressed investors, servicers, banks and other mortgage-related specialty finance companies.
“Since our founding, MountainView has grown by strategically building and acquiring complementary and successful business lines that operate individually,” said Michael Morgan, CEO of MountainView Capital. “Andrew possesses leadership and relationship skills that will integrate our capabilities internally, enhance our marketing and help position the firm for the future.”
