Mexico's Condesa Financiera might come out with its first securitization of mortgages by the first quarter of 2008, according to CEO Christopher Gaughan. The specialty finance company could be pumping out the equivalent of $7 million monthly each in residential mortgages and bridge loans for construction in the second half of this year. Scarcely a year old, Condesa is currently, along with Su Casita, the only private sector originator in Mexico that has lent mortgages at a 30-year fixed rate, Gaughan said during last week's Information Management Network Spring ABS 2007 conference. While lauding the market's prospects, Gaughan was less of a fan on the current state of servicing among most originators. "The perception is that servicing is quite good," he said. "The truth is it's not tested." Apart from Mexicans living in their native country, Gaughan pointed to another promising growth venue: Mexicans in the U.S. Peer Su Casita is already lending to this segment on a small scale.
Mexico's IXE is working on a Ps5 billion ($458 million) transaction collateralizing payroll taxes for Chiapas, a state known to many Americans primarily as the 1994 birthplace of the anti-capitalist Zapatista rebellion. The deal has a long tenor of 30 years, with the state currently pulling in about Ps350 million a year in payroll taxes. The tax rate is currently 1.5% and bumping up to 2% in January 2008. IXE's transaction would likely price in early June, IXE's Pablo Pena said on the sidelines of the Information Management Network's Spring ABS 2007 in Miami, which convened last week.
Further Lane Securities hired David Castillo as a senior managing director in charge of institutional ABS/CMBS trading and sales and to open and manage its San Francisco office. Castillo will report to CEO J. Michael Araiz. As part of this expansion effort and its goal to have a bi-coastal presence, the firm is planning to hire up to 10 new employees, including a junior trader and a senior salesman focusing on the ABS, MBS, CMBS and CDO sectors. Prior to his position at Further Lane, Castillo was managing director of taxable fixed income at Southwest Securities and was a senior vice president at Royal Bank of Canada. Aside from the new San Francisco division, NYC-based Further Lane also has satellite offices in East Hampton and White Plains, N.Y., Southern Florida, Santa Fe, N. Mex. and Lansing, Mich.
Calyon Americas has announced the appointment of Andrew Schaeffer as managing director and head of debt capital markets, origination. Schaeffer, who will report to the head of debt capital markets and managing director Ron Krolick, was most recently managing director of capital markets at Bank of New York, where over the past couple of years he was responsible for building the origination and syndication bond capabilities of the firm. Calyon's debt capital markets division includes units dealing with securitization (liquid and specialized), high yield and leveraged capital markets, structured financial solutions, and municipal and public finance. On a global basis, the new hire, who will be based in New York, will report to Jean-Marc Blankert, managing director and global head of debt capital markets, origination. Before joining Bank of New York in 2005, Schaeffer served in senior positions at several firms, including as head of syndicate for the Americas at Barclays Capital and as global head of syndications at Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette. He started his Wall Street career at Prudential Insurance Co.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. added three executives to its European real estate structured finance business. Kevin Davidson joins the firm from Deutsche Bank as an executive director in the U.K. and Irish origination team. Christian Jamison joins the firm from GE Real Estate as a vice president in the U.K. and Irish origination team. Lastly, Peter Hildering joins the firm from Hypo Real Estate Bank International as a vice president and head of the firm's property finance efforts in the Netherlands.
Covenant House will honor United Capital Markets President John Devaney at its 23rd Annual Awards Dinner on June 5. Devaney became a supporter of the charity two years ago at the suggestion of Tom Marano, global head of mortgages and ABS at Bear Stearns, who is a member of the Covenant House board of directors. Marano reportedly rounds up a few hundred colleagues each year to buy tickets and attend the dinner. Devaney's camp will also do the same. See covenanthouse.org for more details about the charity.
Aegon N.V., a Dutch life insurance and pension company, completed a $550 million Regulation XXX securitization last week, according to press reports. The proceeds from the transaction will be used to fund its Regulation XXX redundant reserves on life insurance policies.
Dallas-based CDO investor Highland Financial Partners has filed for an initial public offering of shares. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the firm, which is the holding company of Highland Capital Management, was founded in 1993 and manages $33 billion of assets. Highland Capital did not reveal the amount it wants to raise from the IPO, which is being managed by Citigroup Global Markets and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Citigroup Global Markets said last week that it has closed its GBP546 million ($1.085 billion) cash purchase of online banking unit Egg Banking from insurer group Prudential Financial. This amount is almost GBP30 million less than the sale was priced at in January. Citi has also appointed Egg CEO Ian Kerr to run Egg and Citi U.K. Consumer, which is Citi's retail banking and consumer finance unit in the United Kingdom.
SLM Corp.'s United Kingdom unit Sallie Mae U.K. announced last week the establishment of the Sallie Mae U.K. Education Loan Program, which is designed to help U.K. residents who are attending participating universities in the U.K. and the U.S. This is both for the undergraduate and graduate levels. The student lender's U.K. unit said that it is working with the U.S. Educational Advisory Service of the U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Commission to provide access to the new program to U.K. residents who want to study in the U.S.
Thomson TradeWeb is enhancing its MBS business platform by launching an online market for trading specified pools of mortgages. The new platform allows clients to research pool criteria, search multiple dealer inventory, and execute and process trades in real time. It will also give clients the chance to send targeted inquiry to individual dealers. The addition of specified pools also helps clients to find specific pools that better match their investment strategies.
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