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Silvio Angius and Luis Nario will join Lehman Brothers' expanding structured finance team in November. Both are entering newly created roles in the securitization group. Angius, previously head of European structured finance at UBS Warburg, will enter the Lehman team as executive director. Nario, who also defects from the UBS team where he focused on Southern European structured finance, joins Lehman as executive director.
Bear Stearns continues beefing up its European securitization team with three additional hires. Gerard Harte and Heidi Crebo-Rediker join as managing directors and will work under Noel Dunn who is responsible for Northern European business. On the Southern European end, the company welcomes Constatine Theodossiou who will work under Albert Guazzi. He is also responsible for coverage of Scandinavia and Greece.
RMBS issues are in the limelight after the WTC attacks have shied investors away from commercial mortgage securitizations say analysts. Last week Fitch upgraded the subordinated tranches of three Belgian RMBS deals to AA from A. Home Loan Invest-1, MBS 2 V.B.S. each had the class b notes undergo the ratings action which depict the credit quality of the underlying loan portfolio for each deal. Additionally the rating agency perceives an increasing relative credit enhancement for the subordinated tranches as the senior notes pay down, while there is little remaining life left for the deals.
News
Last week Fitch further downgraded notes from two trusts of defunct franchise issuer Enterprise Mortgage Acceptance Co.: series 1998-1 and series 1999-1. Although there are continued credit problems with the EMAC portfolios, this specific set of downgrades was in reaction to a missed interest payment due to servicer GMAC Commercial Mortgage recouping advances, which are taken from the top of the waterfall. This situation is not uncommon in the classic franchise deals, which can miss payments from illiquidity in the trust exploited when servicer advances are reimbursed, according to analysts. In the past, many issuers/servicers, intending to securitize again, have opted to preserve the cashflow of the deal by reimbursing themselves over time, although GMACCM, which was a replacement third-party servicer, had no motivation to do so, and "was well within their rights to get paid back," one analyst noted.
Moody's Investors Service has affirmed the ratings of World Financial Properties Tower B Finance Corp. affirmed at Aa3 and World Financial Properties Tower D Finance Corp affirmed at Aa3. The deals are secured by Two and Four World Financial Center. Both buildings, which are leased on a long-term triple net basis to a subsidiary of Merrill Lynch & Co., are secured by Two and Four World Financial Center. The two properties are currently unoccupied due to damage from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a lack of access. According to the owner and manager, Brookfield Properties, the two buildings will be tenantable soon: Two World Financial Center (Tower B) in roughly eight weeks and Four World Financial Center (Tower D) in approximately four weeks.
Officers at Merrill have told Moody's that rental payments will to be made as scheduled. Based on this information, the rating agency expects monthly distributions to the Certificate holders will remain uninterrupted resulting in the affirmation of the Certificates.
CDOs
Sources said several investment banks nearing their financial year-end are in the market with legacy CDO equity positions, according to IFR Asset-Backed Securities. These investment banks generally are selling legacy positions not necessarily to make a profit but get the liabilities off their books in order to free-up capital. Steep discounts of 80 to 90 cents on the dollar have been seen, which likely competes with new issue equity offered at or near par.
Goldman Sachs is currently marketing three USD CLOs: Ares and Centre Pacific, both arbitrage cashflow deals sized at $400 million, reports IFR Asset-Backed Securities. One deal hanging-on since early summer is the AIMCO CLO 2001-B. One equity investor quipped, "All State Asset Management performance (in their opinion) has been middle of the road at a time when there are a lot of choices." Goldman is also believed to have been marketing the equity on a USD high-yield CBO for Zurich Scudder, however, this deal could go to Deutsche Bank since they are acquiring the asset manager.
Bear Stearns has priced the Mid-Ocean II, a $300 million ABS CDO from Deerfield Capital, at its pre-Sept. 11 guidance levels, although it is not confirmed if the BBB tranche (+275/3ML) printed at par, like the AAA (+50/3ML) and the AA (+80/3ML), reports IFR Asset-Backed Securities. Deerfield has taken down 50% of the $9 million to 11 million in preference shares.
Miscellaneous
The Strategic Research Institute will hold a mid-afternoon meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 10 from 3:00-5:30 at the Grand Hyatt in New York. During the meeting, an open panel discussion led by executives from the major asset-backed firms will discuss the current state of the overall economy and the ABS market. A cocktail reception will follow immediately after.
If there is enough interest from other regions of the country, SRI is planning on having the meeting available through "video-conferencing" in the following 3 locations: Chicago (2:00-4:30),
Boston ( 3:00-5:30) and Los Angeles (12:00-2:30).
Interested parties should visit the following site: www.srinstitute.com/qs/abs.
