FGIC Corp., the parent company of Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. has hired Derek Donnelly as director in structured finance. Donnelly will focus on commercial asset-backed securities. Before joining FGIC, Donnelly was a vice president, capital market services, at GE Capital Corp. In this role, he provided structural and valuation analysis for GE Consumer Finance acquisitions and business development opportunities related to mortgages, auto loans, student loans, and credit cards. Before this, Donnelly had a 10-year stint in investment banking at JPMorgan Securities. For several years, as part of the global transportation group, he focused on M&A advisory work, as well as structured finance, public debt underwriting and syndicated loans. Donnelly will report to Kenneth Degen, managing director and head of the commercial asset-backed group at FGIC.
CIT Group appointed Joseph Nemia as executive vice president and chief sales officer of CIT Corporate Finance, which provides financing solutions and advisory services to CIT's mid-market clientele. In the newly created post, Nemia will work closely with the heads of business capital, diversified industries and global sponsor finance to improve performance and achieve critical growth. Nemia was previously at GE Commercial Finance holding various leadership positions, most recently as a senior managing director and head of GE Specialty Finance, where he led corporate lending's restructuring, retail and transportation efforts while building new project finance and securitization business lines.
GE Real Estate announced the opening of its Portland, Ore., office and the hiring of Kyle Williams as senior director within its North America debt division. The new hire will be leading the firm's expansion into Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Williams will also focus on originating, analyzing, and negotiating CMBS and structured finance loans. His other duties include market analysis, identifying risk issues, and leading customer relations. Williams reports Brent Wessel, regional director. Previously, Williams served as a director at Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP where he was responsible for arranging mezzanine and equity capital for various property types.
NovaStar Financial promoted Todd Phillips to vice president, treasurer and controller effective April 12. Phillips, who reports to Chief Financial Officer Greg Metz, will focus on accounting and treasury functions, including accounting policy and external financial reporting. Rodney Schwatken, who Metz replaces, will assume a new role within the mortgage lender, as vice president in strategic initiatives, reporting directly to Scott Hartman, the company's chief executive officer. Phillips was most recently an assistant vice president and assistant treasurer within the company's finance and accounting divisions.
Radian Group's mortgage insurance unit has hired Christopher Curran as a senior vice president of capital markets. The new hire will be focusing on developing credit enhancement products for non prime mortgage originators and securities firms. He will also be leveraging Radian's expertise in bond insurance to manage mortgage risk for the firm's clients. Curran reports to Mark Casale, who was promoted to president of Radian Guaranty in March.
Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking has appointed Scott Friedman as managing director, covering banking and finance. Friedman will be focusing on expanding the firm's presence in the midsize segments of the banking and finance sectors. Before assuming his new role, Friedman was a director working within SG's securitization group, where he specialized in originating, structuring and executing credit card, auto and insurance premium ABS transactions. SG also hired Alfred Capra - formerly from Oppenheimer & Co. as a senior equity research analyst covering the insurance sector - as managing director covering U.S. insurance sector clients. Both Friedman and Capra are based in New York and report to Thomas Mann, head of the U.S. financial institutions group.
NovaStar Financial Inc. is planning to securitize a $1.35 billion pool of home equity asset-backed securities this quarter. The deal will be financed as an on-balance sheet transaction. This move will help the Kansas City, Mo.-based subprime lender, which operates as a real estate investment trust, siphon assets to its balance sheet. The lender also has plans in the second quarter to securitize a recently acquired $940 million pool of nonconforming loans; this deal will also be structured as a financing.
First Guardian Financial Corp. announced last Thursday that it will create a high yield joint venture investment fund, with the intention of generating higher than average yields for a group of private investors that will contribute a combined $50 million. The company will invest the funds in short term secured high yield investments, turnaround and asset-secured loans, secured short term business loans, and secured short term private commercial real estate loans.
The American Securitization Forum (ASF) announced last week that Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox will be the keynote speaker at its annual meeting in June. The conference, which will include discussions on trends affecting the securitization market, will be a full-day affair to be held at the Grand Hyatt New York on June 7. The ASF will also announce newly-elected Board members, officers and committee leadership and give an overview of its advocacy program, accomplishments and key goals on June 6. This part of the annual meeting will be held at the Global Financial Markets Conference Center located in ASF's NYC office.
Moody's Investors Service lowered General Motors Corp.'s corporate family and senior unsecured ratings to B3 from B2 and speculative grade liquidity rating to SGL-3 from SGL-2. The outlook is negative. The GM rating actions were a response to the firm's disclosure that restatements of its 2002, 2003 and 2004 financial statements could cause the acceleration of as much as $3 billion in various lease obligations. GM might also not be to borrow under its $5.6 billion unused revolving credit facility. Moody's said that this liquidity reduction increases GM's risk profile at a time when the company faces significant and ongoing operating and competitive challenges.
After downgrading General Motors Corp.'s corporate family ratings, Moody's Investors Service stated last week it is maintaining its review for possible downgrade on General Motors Acceptance Corp.'s Ba1 long-term rating and Residential Capital Corp.'s (ResCap) Baa3 long-term and Prime-3 short-term ratings. Moody's maintained GMAC's Ba1 long-term rating, on review for possible downgrade, on the belief that a successful end to the ongoing GMAC sale process could positively impact on GMAC's current stand-alone credit profile, corporate governance and control, leading to the confirmation of GMAC's ratings at their current level. But without a sale, Moody's would re-link GMAC's ratings with GM's ratings, likely causing the assignment of a Ba3 long-term rating to GMAC, said Moody's. Moody's also stated that even if the sale of GMAC does not take place, it would most likely maintain ResCap's current Baa3 and Prime-3 rating. This reflects Moody's expectation that ResCap would likely be sold on its own even without a GMAC sale.
Fitch Ratings said that the delinquency trend on mortgages affected by Hurricane Katrina has peaked and has started to show signs of improvement. This is inspite of about 40% of subprime borrowers and 30% of prime or Alt-A borrowers in the affected areas becoming delinquent on their mortgage payments. Fitch added that while delinquencies have risen significantly in the hurricane-affected zones, the impact on RMBS deals as a whole has generally been modest given the comparatively low concentrations of Gulf Coast loans in most pools. "Even in pools with relatively high concentrations of disaster area loans (greater than 4%), the increase in delinquency at the pool level has generally been limited to a few percentage points," Fitch analysts wrote in a recent report.
Karen Sibayan has been promoted to Editor of ASR. Sibayan has been with the publication covering securitization, specifically MBS, for over six years. She served as managing editor for the last year and a half.
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