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News: HVB Launches Full Court Press

Ramping its asset-backed business, Bayerishe Hypo-und Veriensbank will be shopping three innovative deals to investors over the next month, according to a source close to the company.

Through a joint venture with Industrial Bank of Japan, HVB will bring Jade, a Japanese receivables program issuing commercial paper - denominated in both yen and U.S. dollars - by the end of May.

HVB expects Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's Ratings Co. to rate the transaction P-1/A-1 respectively. The program, when fully funded, should reach between $2 billion and $4 billion in size, said the source.

Also, HVB is currently piecing together a $500 million collateralized loan obligation, which it will market in Europe.

The CLO, called Prometheus, will be 80% backed by U.S. high-yield assets and 20% backed by European high-yield assets. The assets are primarily secured loans made to middle market U.S. companies. The senior tranche, which is expected to be rated triple-A, will be offered in Euros.

"It's a very nice, well structured deal," the source said. "This is HVB's first sort of classic CDO."

The firm's third pending transaction, which is called Grand Central, will be a guaranteed investment contract (GIC) program.

A GIC program is formed when a municipality raises funds for construction purposes. The proceeds from the tax-exempt bonds that the municipality had issued are then placed into a guaranteed investment contract, because municipalities are not allowed to invest in securities.

In the first week of June, HVB intends to have a structured vehicle in place that will issue the GICs to the municipalities, and invest them in a pool of reverse-repurchase agreements. HVB is seeking triple-A ratings from S&P and Moody's.

In addition to a loaded pipeline, HVB has recently powered up its asset-backed team. Laura Langford, formerly head of ABCP at Duff and Phelps Credit Rating Co., was hired last week as a senior structurer, where she will be involved in structuring conduits and term deals across all asset classes. Langford will report to Ann Holtwick.

Evelyn Clarke and Shervyn von Hoerl were also recently hired by HVB. Clarke, formerly in the commercial paper group at UBS Securities, joined as a director, and will be responsible for all administrative operations associated with the conduits.

Hoerl, who moved over from Financial Security Assurance, joined as a junior structurer.

In the Munich-based headquarters of HVB, Jack Ascher and Dr. Petra Huettmann have been appointed co-heads, reporting to Tom Glynn.

New York-based HVB currently runs five conduits with approximately $11 billion in outstandings. The company specializes in non-traditional asset-backed commercial paper conduits and securities arbitrage programs both domestically and oversees.

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