Deals
According to a source at Salomon Smith Barney, next week the bank will be underwriting the very first U.K.-based mortgage-backed securities deal issued in U.S. dollars. Though the source could not name the issuer at this time, he said that the transaction "is going to be an alternative investment to other short floating-rate alternatives."
Washington Mutual, Inc. launched a $6.7 billion mortgage securitization late last week. The transaction, referred to as Washington Mutual 2000-1, will involve the public sale of approximately $5 billion of Libor floating-rate securities. The company will retain approximately $1.7 billion. The securities will be collateralized by selected 11th District Cost of Funds-Indexed adjustable-rate residential mortgage assets currently held in the company's portfolio. Lehman Brothers is slated to manage the securitization and distribute the securities globally.
Merrill Lynch Canada will likely come out with a C$260 million commercial mortgage-backed term deal in the first or second week of April. The transaction will be issued from the company's Merrill Lynch Mortgage Loans Inc. shelf. This would be the thrid time the company would be issuing from this particular shelf.
The Australian mortgage-backed markets are displaying new depths - and may even be showing the first signs of maturity - with the entry of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to the global MBS market through a $955 million issue, and the return of St. George to the domestic arena with a A$600 million (U.S.$365 million) transaction. CBA's 2000-1G Medallion Trust transaction consisted, unusually, of a global and domestic tranche of AAA-rated senior notes. The $955 million Class A1 senior notes had a weighted average life of 3.3 years, while the A$150 million Class A2 domestic tranche had an expected life of 5.7 years.
Japan's most prolific securitizer, Orient Corp. (Orico), recently issued what is thought to be the first domestically placed residential MBS in Japan, in a private deal aranged by DKB Securities, sources said. Orico is a top-tier consumer finance company known for its consumer asset-backed deals.
Deutsche Bank recently launched a jumbo E1.76 billion ($1.7 billion) MBS deal backed by payments on over 23,000 of its own residential mortgages. The transaction, called HAUS 2000-1, is the second in the series, following the launch of HAUS 1998-1 in May 1998. It was split into four floating-rate tranches. The E319.4 million 0.65-year average life senior A1 tranche, rated Aaa/AAA by Moody's Investors Service, Standard and Poor's Ratings Service and Fitch IBCA, priced at 11 basis points over one month Euribor. The spread on the 5.94-year average life E1.35 billion A2 tranche, also rated triple-A, priced at 30 over.
German mortgage bank Rheinische Hypothekenbank (Rheinhyp) recently launched the first multi-jurisdiction pan-European securitization of commercial mortgages. The E1.381 billion ($1.34 million) synthetic securitization dealed, called Europa One, was split into nine tranches and was arranged by Barclays Capital and Rheinhyp's parent company, Commerzbank Group. Moody's Investors Service and Standard and Poor's Ratings Service gave triple-A ratings to the three A-class tranches.
News
Late last week Bank One Corp. said it is selling a $2.15 billion real estate loan portfolio to Household International, a leading consumer finance company based outside Chicago. The sale to Household includes 97 offices of Banc One Financial Services, the company's consumer-finance arm, and most employees in 29 states. It was also reported that Bank One has hired Morgan Stanley Dean Witter to advise on the possible sale of WingspanBank.com, Bank One's Internet-only bank experiment.
People
The Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBA) named Howard B. Glaser as Senior Staff Vice President/General Counsel and a member of MBA's Executive Management Group. Glaser has most recently served as Counselor to the Secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Glaser joined HUD in 1994 as Deputy Assistant Secretary. He then served as Deputy General Counsel, acting as the Secretary's chief legal advisor on regulations, legislation and programs.
