ABS

Americold Realty Operating Partnership is in the market with a $600 million securitization backed by cold storage facilities. The deal is called Americold 2010 Trust Series 2010-ART.

Moody's Investors Service placed the 'Aaa(sf)' ratings on six Irish residential RMBS and one balance sheet CLO on review for possible downgrade.

Even with much of the developed world still struggling, Brazil's economy exudes health. But robust growth over the medium to long term is very much conditioned on advances in infrastructure, where enduring bottlenecks are bound to tighten unless investment grows and private-sector investors play a larger role.

Last month Asset Securitization Report met with dealmakers to talk about the future of covered bonds in the U.S.

ABS market players have certainly learned their lesson from the problems that led to the financial crisis.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) put on hold one change that could have shuttered the ABS market starting in early January. But a long line of proposals marching into 2011 will keep ABS compliance departments busy and, in some cases, may fundamentally alter the market.

Many segments of U.S. structured finance were forced to play defense to varying degrees during the last few years in light of this past economic recession. Much of 2010 was viewed as a year of 'lessons learned'. But now with the economic recovery slowly underway, we may finally begin to see U.S. structured finance turn the corner towards stability in 2011. Fitch's Rating Outlook for U.S. structured finance is Stable.

The landscape for non-agency RMBS has dramatically changed and, given the variables that banks must contemplate, it is unlikely that 2011 will see the clarity needed to drive origination volumes in the non-agency space.

The Bank of England issued a market notice indicating that it plans to move ahead with new disclosure requirements, according to a Reuters report.

Law firm Nixon Peabody has named veteran partner Craig Mills as head of its global finance practice, which it plans to expand, the firm said today.

Global securities and investment banking firm Jefferies hired James Fadel as a managing director and head of European structured debt capital markets in London.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a temporary order yesterday allowing foreign ABS issuers to sell ABS to foreign investors without complying with the SEC’s new rule 17g-5.

Chase USA filed an S-3 with the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue under its Chase Issuance Trust program.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) reiterated its support for retention requirements tailored to each major asset class and that offer flexibility for the long term, the trade group said in a release today.

Ambac Assurance Corp. is close to reaching a settlement that would wipe away more than $500 million of exposure to revenue bonds issued by the Nevada Department of Business and Industry for the Las Vegas Monorail, according to its regulator Thursday.

Even if new loan volume under FFELP will be revmoved, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts still expect new-issue SLABS volume for 2011 to be comparable to 2010.

European ABCP has stabilized and will likely remain that way. It also has the potential for growth through product innovations, Moody's Investors Service said.

Barclays Capital and Morgan Stanley have structured a $355 million deal backed by billboard collateral, the first of its kind to be rated by Moody’s Investors Service. The deal securitizes 10,172 billboard faces, associated with 4,982 outdoor advertising structures and related permits, licenses, ground leases and the property on which the billboards stand, according to a Moody’s pre-sale report. In the 12 months through last September the portfolio of billboards brought in $98 million in revenue, generating an operating margin of 61%. Minnesota-based AOA Management Company Limited Partnership will manage the billboards for the deal’s issuer. The agency gave preliminary ratings of ‘A(sf)’ for the $254 million in A notes, ‘Ba2(sf)’ for the $44 million in B notes, and ‘B3(sf)’ for the $57 million in C notes.

Ireland is the latest country to test the resiliency of European securitization structures against sovereign risk.

Microfinance securitizations tend to be closely tied to the ratings of the originator/servicer, said Fitch Ratings Director Deep N. Mukherjee in a recent report. “In the absence of suitable mitigants with respect to such counterparties, Fitch will link the rating of the transactions to the rating of the originator/servicer,” Mukherjee said.