News
Asset Allocation & Management has been rejected by debt holders to allow its "key-men" recruited from Zurich Scudder Kemper to manage the DASH III ABS CDO, according to Thomson IFR Markets. AAM was rejected earlier this month by debt holders to manage DASH II.
Last week, Stephen W. Joynt, president and chief executive officer of Fitch Ratings, sent to structured finance market participants a letter announcing that the rating agency has decided to discontinue "any requirement that CDO's purchase a mandatory percentage of Fitch rated collateral and discontinue any formula notching."
Joynt is asking the market to "object to and reject Moody's and S&P's monopolistic requirements, so Fitch ratings can be chosen for their analytical and research merits."
Mass Mutual is marketing equity on a repeat CDO of CDOs via JPMorgan Securities. JPM underwrote the firm's first deal that priced its triple-A notes at 50 basis points over six-months Libor on Sept. 18, 2001. This helped stabilize the CDO market following the Sept. 11 attacks. Neither the issuer nor syndicate could be reached for comment.
Melior Banca has an arbitrage cashflow Euro denominated ABS CDO in pre-marketing in Europe called ZOO via Bear Stearns, according to Thomson IFR Markets.
Seperately, ZAIS Group has a EURO300 million CDO of mezzanine ABS via JPMorgan Securities road-showing. Zais will roadshow Euro ZING I for the next two weeks and price shortly thereafter. No issuers or syndicate desks could be reached for comment.
Dresdner KW has recently priced its $1.9 billion synthetic CDO of a static pool of investment grade corporates, according to Thomson IFR Markets. Petra Capital II Limited is diversified with reference to 380 credits around the globe and registers a diversity score of 125. The reference portfolio is a global index with 60% based in the U.S., 20% from Europe (excluding the UK), 9% in the UK and the rest in Japan, Canada, Australia, Bermuda and Hong Kong. Just $86 million of notes were sold in a series of five-year bullets.
Intellectual property securitization pioneer David Pullman has filed for patent protection with the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office in Washington D.C. on certain aspects of his music royalty securitization process, The Pullman Group announced last week.
The Pullman Bond Patent, as it is dubbed, involves some 20 key aspects of securitizing entertainment catalogs, which will remain undisclosed throughout the application process. The move precedes the pricing of a deal in the works set to securitize a diverse pool of music, television and film catalogs, scheduled for quarter-end.
"We're proud to have been the first to have created this new innovative financing, so it is only fitting that we'd be the first to patent it to protect our intellectual property rights just like we have for our creators and artists," said Chairman and CEO David Pullman in a prepared statement.
Standard & Poor's expects CMBS issuance in the second half of 2002 to be lower than in the same period last year. The rating agency originally estimated 2002 issuance would be down 30% from last year. However, it now seems that volume will go down by roughly 15% to 20%. Last year, CMBS issuance reached $70 billion. Separately, in a conference call held last week, analysts at Salomon Smith Barney predicted that CMBS issuance for this year will be less than 2001, from $92.634 billion in 2001 dropping to a high estimate of $80.154 billion at the end of this year.
People
Banc of America Securities hired Thomas Brady as a managing director in charge of facilitating the expansion of services to global investors with financing needs in areas that include mortgage collateral. Brady, who was formerly head of global repo trading at Merrill Lynch, will be head of the global funding desk at BofA Securities. Aside from mortgage collateral, Brady's areas of focus will include agency and U.S. Treasury securities.
The Bond Market Association elected Thomas G. Maheras, vice chairman and head of global fixed income at Salomon Smith Barney, and Francis E. Fairman, managing director and director of public finance at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, to at-large positions on the Association's Board of Directors.
Calendar
September 5-6: London, England: The Strategic Research Institute will present The Premier European Forum on ABCP. For more information visit www.srinstitute.com/ca273
October 6-9: Miami, FL: The Strategic Research Institute will host the The ABS South Beach Industry Summit. For more information visit www.srinstitute.com/ca280
October 9: New York, NY - The Bond Market Association presents the Annual Awards Dinner. For more information, call 212-440-9429 or email mgarcia@bondmarkets.com.
November 7-9: Palm Beach Gardens, FL - The Bond Market Association's Fixed-Income Securities Operations Conference will be held at the PGA National Resort & Spa. For more information, call 212-440-9429 or email mgarcia@bondmarkets.com.
