Christopher Beaudet, who was a managing director and co-head of the ABS group at Deutsche Bank Securities, left the company recently. While at Deutsche, much of Beaudet's focus was on the securitization of auto loans and leases, equipment leases, commercial loans and franchise loans. He joined the company in February 2000, as part of a group of bankers that Deutsche recruited from what was then Credit Suisse First Boston. Beaudet was credited with building Deutsche into one of the top underwriters of auto and equipment ABS in recent years. After his departure, Andrew Peisch and Michael Gangemi, both managing directors, now serve as co-heads of the U.S. ABS origination group. They report to Frank Byrne and Erik Falk, both managing directors and global co-heads of the securitized products group.
Merrill Lynch continues to shed personnel, as Paul Cartmill, a trader, left the firm recently.
Fitch Ratings has created two new portfolio risk officer positions. That will allow high-level executives to enhance analytical oversight, experience and training in all structured finance groups. Glenn Costello, a managing director who was co-head of the rating agency's U.S. RMBS group, won a promotion as portfolio risk officer of the structured finance group. He reports to group Managing Director John Bonfiglio, according to Fitch. Managing Director Stuart Jennings, formerly head of Fitch's European RMBS team, is now portfolio risk officer for EMEA structured finance, reporting to group Managing Director Ian Linnell. Group Managing Director Huxley Somerville becomes head of Fitch's U.S. RMBS group, also reporting to Bonfiglio.
Eric Rosensweig has left his post as managing director of FGIC, where he focused on future flow deals from the emerging markets, according to a knowledgeable source. On his watch, the agency wrapped deals backed by diversified payment rights originated by such Turkish banks as Vakifbank, Akbank and
HSBC Turkey, and by Kazakhstan's Kazkommertsbank. Rosensweig joined FGIC in June 2005 from MBIA, where he had been instrumental in building up the agency's future flows portfolio.
XLCA let go of David Stortz as part of a recent round of layoffs that affected roughly 60 employees. Stortz had been active in the future flow sector, in addition to the excess FIDC insurance area.
Jerome Anglade will join the credit strategies group at Citi Alternative Investments (CAI) as a managing director effective May 15. Anglade will serve as the senior portfolio manager responsible for the creation of a new stand-alone structured credit opportunities fund. The fund will invest in structured products with corporate credit underlying and will be focusing on stressed/distressed products. Anglade, who will be based in London, will report to Jonathan Dorfman and James O'Brien. He joins CAI from Morgan Stanley in London where he was a managing director and head of European credit structuring within the firm's fixed-income division. The business unit comprised structuring, trading and risk-managing structured credit products (CDO/CLO, credit index products), which were distributed to Morgan Stanley's institutional clients including banks, insurance companies and pension funds. In related news, Jenny Peng has also joined the CAI team as an associate. Peng was previously working for over two years at Lehman Brothers as a quantitative risk associate, and before that she worked for what was then Credit Suisse First Boston as a market risk analyst.
VTB Bank announced the launch of its new investment bank called VTB Group to be headed by Yuri Soloviev. Previously, Soloviev was deputy chairman of Deutsche Bank in Russia. In his new role, he will be responsible for investment banking operations, asset management and private equity within the VTB Group. The new bank will conduct its business out of offices located in Moscow, London and Singapore. VTB Group said it may expand its international presence further over time. The new investment bank will be focusing on debt and equity securities issuance; on M&A advisory services in Russia and abroad; and on private equity and asset management. The group also has plans for developing investment business in commodities trading.
Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking is reorganizing its global fixed income, currencies and commodities division, which is currently headed by Olivier Khayat. Among the new appointments is Chico Khan-Gandapur, who has been promoted to global head of flow business. Serge Topolanski will be his deputy. Their responsibilities will include driving the bank's flow activities, including credit, foreign exchange and rates. Ines de Dinechin will take on the role of global head of structured products, with two deputies, Hubert Le-Liepvre covering credit and Bertrand Fitoussi supervising interest rates and FX. David Coxon will oversee the bank's global capital markets financial engineering activities with Jean-Francois Despoux as his deputy. Bruno Dejoux will join fixed income, currencies and commodities management and will help to optimize transversal activities as well as enhance further overall risk management to accompany business development, the bank said.
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan has expanded its capital markets crisis group to address the wider range of challenges arising from the expanding credit crisis in the housing and capital markets. "As the capital markets crisis continues to evolve and affect more market participants, Stroock has moved to provide our clients with the advice they need to address these challenges and opportunities," said Rick Fried, the new crisis group's co-team leader and structured finance practice group partner. "The credit crisis may have started with the subprime mortgage market, but now affects almost every sector of the housing and capital markets."
Jones Day's New York office has hired Ted Kamman as a partner in its capital markets practice. Kamman specializes in capital markets and international mergers and acquisitions. Aside from advising issuers on offerings of equity, equity-linked debt and ABS, he has represented nearly all of the major investment banks. Kamman joins Jones Day from the Paris office of Clifford Chance, where he was formerly a partner. He has also worked for Skadden Arps.
David Blumer has joined Swiss Re as a member of the executive committee and head of financial markets. He will join in May. Blumer will join Swiss Re from Credit Suisse, where he was chief executive officer of asset management and a member of the executive board.
Offshore law firm Appleby has announced the promotion of seven lawyers to partnership. The promotions include Sally Cox, who is part of the corporate and commercial group. She is the local practice group head of property in the British Virgin Islands. Cox has been focusing on various areas of corporate law, including securitizations, banking and asset finance and ship and aircraft financing.
Principia Partners announced that it is now offering its structured finance platform (SFP) to SIV capital notes holders and other investors who have recently taken responsibility for SIV assets as a result of restructuring or vertical slicing activities, the firm said. Principia SFP will enable new structured finance managers to monitor cash flows, valuations and amortization events. The platform also utilizes risk and compliance controls, while providing ongoing surveillance and reporting of all assets end to end - from portfolio management through to accounting. The firm said it is in talks with more than 20 financial institutions globally and expects the number to rise as more off-balance-sheet operations are restructured and both the sponsors and investors find themselves managing the ownership of physical assets.
Guggenheim Capital Markets is managing a leveraged loan CLO called Iron Hill. The New York-based manager is reserving the majority of the debt for sale outside the U.S. Some 163 million ($255.30 million) in term debt and 85 million in revolving debt will be sold. Lower-rated class B, C and D tranches are largely U.S. dollar-denominated, totaling approximately $43 million between them. According to market reports, the CLO manager thinks now is the time to shift toward Europe to find value in leveraged loan collateral.
Man Group's acquisition of half of U.S. credit manager Ore Hill is expected to result in the creation of a new firm. According to published reports, Man Group is looking to combine its newly acquired Ore Hill with Pemba Credit Advisers, a subsidiary of Man Group. Pemba has been active in leveraged loans and CLOs.
NovaStar Financial lost $733.1 million in 2007 and may not generate sufficient income in the upcoming months to keep its operations going, the company said Tuesday in a regulatory filing. The mortgage lender's loss is equal to $78.55 per share, compared with a profit of $66.3 million, or $7.75 per share, in 2006. Kansas City, Mo.-based NovaStar closed its lending operation and sold off its mortgage servicing rights last year. Its staff members dropped from 2,000 at the end of 2006 to 53 recently.
Luminent Mortgage Capital announced last week that it plans to drop its status as a REIT because it was not able to meet its distribution requirements in 2007. The firm filed a form S-4 with the Securities and Exchange Commis-sion detailing the proposed restructuring into a publicly traded partnership known as Luminent L.L.C.
National City Corp. announced last week that it was seeking strategic alternatives. The Cleveland-based firm hired Goldman Sachs as its advisor for the review. "The review has no impact on National City's day-to-day operations," company Chairman Peter Raskind said in a statement, adding that the bank remains focused on providing the same products and services to its customers throughout the process.
Impac Mortgage Holdings announced last week that it has settled a majority of its outstanding repurchase claims. The Maryland-based mortgage firm said it continues to negotiate its remaining warehouse borrowings.
The European Securitization Forum and Information Mana-gement Network announced the keynote speakers at this year's Global ABS 2008 that will take place in June in Cannes, France. Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo, a member of the European Central Bank executive board, and Michel Prada, chairman of both the Autorite des Marches Financiers and the IOSCO Technical Committee are this year's keynote speakers.
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