Banc of America Securities hired ABS trader Raphael Gonzalez away from BNP Paribas, where he had worked since March. In his new position Gonzalez reports to Managing Director and head of ABS trading Robert Karr. Prior to BNP Paribas, Gonzalez worked at Barclays Capital.
Lehman Brothers ABS research head David Heike has taken a new role within the firm as chief U.S. credit strategist covering unsecured debt, CDOs and credit derivatives. The ABS research team has been merged with the MBS research team, headed by Srinivas Modukuri. Vice President David Covey joins the ABS research team, working alongside Michael Koss, Dan Mingelgrin, Gaetan Ciampini and Brian Zola.
HSBC Securities has named Managing Director Caroline Morrill head of North American debt syndicate, covering securitized product, corporate credit, MTNs, agency debt and emerging markets debt. Morrill, who had run the firm's ABS syndicate, has been with HSBC since May 2004. She had previously worked on the syndicate desk at Morgan Stanley.
As part of a broader reorganization Citigroup Global Markets has named Managing Director Ish McLaughlin head of North American Investment Grade Syndicate, taking over the duties of Cary Lathrop, who was named head of global emerging markets credit trading. No replacement has been named for McLaughlin as yet.
A new MH lender, EagleOne Funding Solutions, went live with a host of loan programs last week. EagleOne has a warehouse facility established with a Fannie Mae Tier 1 servicer rating. Industry sources said once the ramp up is complete by the end of December, EagleOne plans to fund in aggregate tranches of $25 million each month and, eventually, securitize those mortgages in the ABS market. Despite some of the ongoing woes in the sector, underwriters heavily pitched EagleOne for its securitization business because of its "AmericanEagle" loan program, which caters to HUD code homes. With its first securitization aimed for Q106, other sources tattled that the private label deal is insured with coverage from a double-A grade mortgage insurance company, said to be the PMI Group.
Joe Boxer announced the completion of a $45 million intellectual property securitization, backed by licensing royalties paid by Sears Holdings Corp., the exclusive retail distributor for Joe Boxer men's apparel. Proceeds will be used to help fund the $80 million corporate acquisition of Joe Boxer by the Iconix Brand Group, which owns women's apparel maker Candie's. The transaction is actually a reopening of the outstanding Candie's royalty I.P. deal. The single-tranche deal, with a seven-year final maturity, was led by UCC Capital Corp., which also served as advisor on the Joe Boxer acquisition.
Collegiate Funding Services reported that its second quarter net income rose to $6.6 million, compared with a net income of $2.1 million for the second quarter of 2004. Loan originations rose 46% since last year, totaling $1 billion for the quarter. FFELP loans totaled $942.8 million, up 45%, and private loan originations amounted to $84.3 million, up 57%. At the close of the second quarter, the company's portfolio of federally guaranteed loans totaled $5.3 billion, up 16% from last year's $4.7 billion.
Nelnet, Inc. reported net income of $62.5 million for the first half of 2005, compared with $96.4 million for the first half of 2004. Net student loan assets on June 30, 2005 were $15.7 billion, up over 28% from last year's $12.2 billion. Nelnet experienced a record level of activity in the second quarter with its direct-to-consumer channel, as borrowers submitted student loan consolidation applications before the interest rate increase on July 1. For the second quarter, net new consolidation loan originations was $404.3 million.
Countrywide Home Loans Inc. reported that its total loan production volume was $121 billion, up 21% from 2Q04. Pre-tax earnings in the Mortgage Banking segment were $526 million, versus $1 billion in the year-ago period. Additionally, Countrywide's servicing portfolio has grown by $238 billion, or 33% since June 2004, and now totals $964 billion.
CNH Global announced that its financial services operations contributed net income of $44 million in 2Q05, compared to $29 million for the second quarter last year. Improved yields on the wholesale portfolio and higher retail and wholesale ABS volumes were the principal factors contributing to the improvement in net income compared to the prior period, it added.
Centex Corp. reported operating earnings from financial services for 2Q05 were $48 million, a 17% decrease from the same quarter last year. Operating earnings from CTX Mortgage totaled $21 million for the first quarter of fiscal year 2006, 34% lower than 2005 fiscal first quarter, primarily reflecting industry-wide reductions in refinancing volume. Originations from Centex Homes' closings increased 12% while retail originations fell 13%. The return earned on the servicing portfolio fell 16 basis points to 1.36% for the first fiscal quarter of 2006, due to an increase in short-term lending rates and competitive industry pricing.
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