RBS Greenwich Capital's Peter DiMartino, managing director of ABS and MBS research, is bound for the research team at Bear Stearns, according to market sources. Neither investment bank would confirm these plans, but sources familiar with the situation say that DiMartino left to take a so-called gardening leave around June 14. The longtime asset- and mortgage-backed analyst worked at Salomon Smith Barney for 14 years, where he was director of asset-backed and mortgage credit. As word of DiMartino's departure circulated, so did questions about how his arrival might affect the research team at Bear Stearns, where prominent analyst Gyan Sinha is a senior managing director of ABS, MBS and CDO research. At press time, DiMartino's start date at Bear Stearns was unclear.
Deutsche Bank Securities recruited Peter Stein as a director in its RMBS group, where he will focus on agency CMO trading. Based in New York, Stein reports to John Critelli, head of CMO trading in North America. Previously, Stein was a managing director of CMO trading at Bear Stearns.
XL Capital Assurance hired Josephine Musso as a managing director in its consumer ABS group. In her new position, Musso will focus on RMBS deals and report to Catherine Lau, head of consumer ABS. A managing director at Bear Stearns for six years prior to joining XLCA, Musso was responsible for the origination, execution, negotiation and underwriting of home equity ABS for companies like GMAC-RFC, Impac, Indymac and Accredited. Prior to joining Bear Stearns, Musso was an analyst at Moody's Investor Services, where she was responsible for rating RMBS transactions. Musso started her career in securitization as a senior consultant with KPMG Peat Marwick in the firm's CMBS program.
Arbor Realty Trust announced the appointment of Michael House as senior vice president of loan acquisitions, A newly created position. House will focus on acquiring whole loans, B-notes, mezzanine loans and other real estate debt instruments from investment banks and commercial lending institutions. Previously, House was the vice president and group head of real estate capital markets at Genworth Financial, managing loan acquisitions and real estate fund investments. He has also held positions at Mercedes Credit, as regional director of loan syndications, as well as at Standard & Poor's, Bank of New York and Marine Midland Bank. He will report to Gene Kilgore, executive vice president of structured securitization. Arbor Reality Trust is a New York-based real estate investment trust focused on investing in real estate-related bridge and mezzanine loans, preferred equity investments, mortgage-related securities and other real estate-related assets.
Moody's Investors Service has named Craig Jamieson as general manager for Moody's South Africa, effective August 1. Jamieson succeeds Reynold Leegerstee, who has been appointed managing director for Moody's banking team in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). In his new position, Jamieson will be responsible for directing and coordinating the agency's ratings and research businesses in South Africa and maintaining overall analytical responsibility for corporate ratings in the country. Leegerstee will move to Moody's bank rating team and will focus on running one of four rating groups that cover more than 750 banks that Moody's rates in the EMEA region.
Freddie Mac intends to issue its next Reference Remic security. The GSE expects to come to market with more than $1.2 billion of Reference Remic series R013. The lead underwriters of R013 are Citigroup Global Markets, Credit Suisse and JPMorgan Securities. Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley and UBS will be co-managers of the transaction. The deal will also involve a selling group, Freddie Mac said.
Wendy's International an-nounced last week that it has decided to explore a possible sale of the company, after lowering its 2007 earnings outlook. While a sale remains only one of the alternatives under consideration, Wendy's said that it believes the potential transactions merits more thorough examination. The firm is also evaluating a possible securitization financing of the company, also known as whole business financing and an increasingly discussed method of raising cash, as demonstrated by the $1.7 billion deal by Dunkin Brands, which came to market in May 2006. The financing could be used by a potential buyer or in a recapitalization of the company, Wendy's said. Lehman Brothers is the lead structuring adviser and JPMorgan is co-structuring adviser. No time frame on the process was set as of press time.
Moody's Investors Service downgraded 18 tranches from 2001, 2002 and 2003 deals with loans originated by New Century Mortgage Corp. The collateral backing the classes consists of first-lien, fixed and adjustable-rate subprime mortgage loans. The downgrade happened because of recent and expected pool losses and the subsequent erosion of credit support. Overcollateralization amounts in the transactions are below their floors, and pipeline losses are likely to cause further erosion of the overcollateralization, which could put pressure on the subordinate tranches. Given the current projected losses on the underlying pools, existing credit enhancement levels may be low, Moody's said. Credit support deterioration seen in many of these deals can be partially attributed to the deals passing performance triggers, which release large amounts of overcollateralization.
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