ABS

Wisconsin Electric Power Co. pulled the plug - at least temporarily - on plans to complete a $500 million ABS transaction to finance certain environmental upgrades to its facilities, saying it could not agree with other major players in the transaction about the distribution of liabilities in the transaction.

After a quarter-end push, followed by a two weeks of issuance dragged down by two major holidays, the asset securitization market began to chug back to life again last week. Market players expected primary issuance to hit around $12 billion for the week, about half of which priced by press time last Thursday.

Sea Containers, the Bermuda-based marine shipping container leasing company that filed for bankruptcy protection last week, is struggling with an inefficient capital structure and $467 million owed to more than 20 of its largest creditors, but market participants say the company should be able to keep its covenants related to its ABS transactions.

Like gamblers to Las Vegas, investors are pouring into the derivatives markets in the hopes of winning the jackpot - that is, placing the right bet on the ability of U.S. consumers to make their monthly mortgage payments in a slowing housing market.

CDO notes have generally been a better investment than corporate bond swaps over the past three years, Wachovia Securities analysts said in a research report issued last week. For the study, analysts used a performance analysis based on new-issue spreads over the time period. While mezzanine CDO investors have enjoyed quite a bit of yield amid the recently stable credit environment, analysts are recommending an up-in-credit and asset diversification strategy going forward.

Several factors have led to the significant increase in CDO issuance, including the relatively strong corporate performance and a large supply of loans, along with the increasing size of the investor base and the flexibility provided by synthetic structures, according to the Bond Market Association. The BMA made this statement last week in conjunction with the release of its quarterly global CDO issuance data.

Trust Company of the West's credit mortgage group, led by group managing director Louis Lucido and charged with managing more than $26 billion in assets, recently took time to answer questions on the state of the U.S. housing market, new CDO structures hitting the market and expectations on investor demand. TCW, based in Los Angeles, is the world's largest CDO asset manager.

Disclosure requirements under Regulation AB (Reg AB) might not be terribly useful to ABS investors for the time being, but in due time, periodic updates might allow investors to conduct meaningful, time-series analysis of ABS issues, particularly in the credit card ABS sector, according to market sources.

Bear Stearns agreed to buy Encore Credit Corp., the wholesale subprime lending business of ECC Capital Corp., last week, an event that added to a string of consolidations in the subprime lending industry.

After coming off of an extended weekend, the ABS market had another relatively sedate week of production. By press time, market participants expected about $12 billion in ABS debt to come to market, although slightly more than a third of that had priced by then.

While the top two U.S. cash CDO asset managers, in terms of outstanding liabilities, defended their territory for the three quarters ending June 30, an influx of new managers - particularly in the CLO space - are beginning to thin the market share enjoyed by those at the top, according to a recently released Standard and Poor's survey.

The private placement market - which is currently waiting for a pick up in issuance - was graced with a 144A securitization backed by timber receivables.

Hoping to profit from the CDO expansion wave, Wilmington Trust Corp. has formed a subsidiary to operate most of its CDO business. The firm recruited from independent capital markets and risk management consultancy and hired its founder and CEO and president to lead the CDO administration effort at Wilmington.

The asset securitization market has seen several key changes since the beginning of the year, but that is not at all reflected in the lineup of lead manager rankings. Citigroup Global Markets tightened its iron grip on the title as top lead manager of ABS deals by claiming first place in the ranking for the year to date, according to data from Thomson Financial.

Final regulatory guidance for federally chartered bank lenders on so-called non-traditional mortgage products came forth to a relatively receptive market late last month. The guidelines were little changed from those proposed last December.

With the ABS market coming out of one holiday weekend and going into another, plus historical seasonal slowdowns in activity, trading desks were fairly quiet last week. At last tally, market professionals estimated that new issuance would not amount to more than $15 billion.

Merrill Lynch dominated CDO underwriting in the third quarter when it managed more than $14.7 billion worth of deals and increased its market share to 18.2%. In the first three quarters of this year, the investment bank has brought a total of $34.6 billion worth of deals to the market - almost doubling the $18.3 billion it did in the first three quarters of last year, according to data maintained by Thomson Financial. Total CDO issuance as of the third quarter was nearly $227 billion, completely eclipsing the $103.6 billion in CDOs issued to the market by the third quarter in 2005.

After doubling its assets under management and the number of its employees, then consolidating its various businesses into three sectors, Florham Park, N.J.-based GSC Partners has changed its name to GSC Group.

President George W. Bush signed the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act into law last week, setting in motion substantial changes that could revamp the rating agency business by next year.

NEW YORK-Widespread talk of a meltdown in the U.S. housing market - and the effects it might have on the structured finance market through the RMBS sector - have not diminished the popularity of carry trades in the cash CDO market. Indeed, the power play continues to attract a lot of hedge fund and similar fast-money players, said several analysts at the Bond Market Association's (BMA) CDO Investors Conference held here last week.