The Paragon Group of Cos. appointed Peter Shorthouse as director of treasury and structured finance.
Shorthouse, who was formerly at UBS where he was head of European securitization, will head up Paragon’s RMBS strategy. At Paragon, he will report to the firm's finance director Nick Keen.
The firm said that it would return to new lending in the buy-to-let mortgage market last September and plans to arrange term funding in the MBS markets once it has aggregated a suitable portfolio of loans.
Paragon issued its first RMBS deal in 1987 and has completed 53 RMBS deals in total, raising £20 billion ($31.41 billion).
Shorthouse has more than 20 years’ experience in the securitization and played a key rolel in its development over the 1980s. His expertise covers all aspects of funding across all major jurisdictions.
“I’m joining Paragon at a very exciting time — there are multipleopportunities for a company with our skills and resources," Shorthouse said. "Buy-to-let mortgage lending has recommenced and the securitisation market is beginning to find its feet after two years of uncertainty. We plan to re-enter the securitisation market in due course, consistent with Paragon’s long term growth strategy."
Shorthouse added that Paragon has held bond investor roadshows during 2010 and there is strong investor demand for Paragon’s RMBS considering the excellent performance of its historical mortgage assets.
He also said that all of Paragon's securitization deals have performed within the parameters expected of them, which is a sign of high quality assets.
“Peter brings a wealth of experience and will be integral to the Group’s return to the securitization market, " Nigel Terrington, Paragon Group chief executive, said. " The bond markets have evidenced good signs of recovery over the past year with encouraging levels of new issuances from the major U.K. and European banks and improving secondary market activity from real money investors.”
