CDOs

Citigroup has underwritten $500 million for a new CLO that will be managed by FS COA Management, an affiliate of Fraser Sullivan Investment Management. And the CLO could price this week, according to Bloomberg.

New York-based Cohen & Co. has hired veteran fixed income sales executive David Clifford as its national sales manager for fixed income.

Standard & Poor's lowered its ratings on 29 tranches from nine U.S. CDO of ABS deals as well as removed 12 of these ratings from CreditWatch negative.

Babson Capital Management closed five CLOs with over $1.7 billion under management. Included in the transaction are Victoria Falls CLO, Diamond Lake CLO, Clear Lake CLO, Summit Lake CLO, and St. James River CLO.

Standard & Poor’s would like input from loan market participants on a proposed metric that would estimate a CLO’s recovery value.

At the onset of the credit crisis, market participants expected a wave of consolidation in the CLO market. The wave turned out to be little more than a ripple, with less than 5% of the CLO market making management changes during the last year and a half, according to analysts at Citigroup Global Markets.

CLO managers don't want the exit doors closed on them.

Euromax IV MBS S.A. (Euromax IV) triggered an event of default following a breach of its event of default overcollateralization ratio trigger. It’s likely to be the first of several European collateralized debt obligations to experience event of defaults triggered by a similar situation, Fitch Ratings said.

BNP Paribas appointed Giovanni Pini as head of ABS strategy and Olivier Morand-Duval as European head of ABS trading. Perry Inglis also joined as head of ABS valuation and origination.

Highland Capital Management, which last week returned investments and closed its CLO Value Fund I, is preparing to kick off another similar fund, according to a source familiar with the matter.

ING Alternative Asset Management, a unit of ING Investment Management, has been appointed as the successor collateral manager for three CLOs previously managed by Avenue Capital Management II.

Highland Capital Management, an investment management firm based in Dallas, Texas, completed its CLO Value Fund I and that the fund has provided 138% gross

Jefferies has hired Sharif Anbar-Colas as its global head of CLO and CDO trading, an addition that is part of the firm's expansion of its fixed income business, the New York-based investment bank said today.

It's fitting that the ASF conference is being held in Washington, D.C. Uncle Sam, after all, has been playing a crucial role as securitization's savior as well as working double time to alleviate the problems plaguing the mortgage market.

"There are snakes that go months without eating. And then they finally catch something, but they're so hungry that they suffocate while they're eating. One opportunity at a time." - Don Draper, Mad Men

A Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge ruled yesterday that a lawsuit filed by five southeastern Wisconsin school districts against several financial firms over the safety of an investment involving synthetic CDOs can proceed.

Nixon Peabody expanded its securitization and structured finance group as well as its corporate trust team.

Investment management firm Babson Capital Management has been selected by the controlling class of investors to serve as successor collateral manager of two CDOs previously managed by Tricadia Loan Management.

Prior to the recent dark age of credit, CLOs were kings in the land of the leveraged loan, a seat of power that diminished as the recession wore on and the loans in their fiefdoms lost value, causing a medieval-like bleeding of cash. But now sources say CLO cash is back, and the funds may once again be influencing the primary loan market.

The ongoing The TCW Group and Jeffrey Gundlach soap opera completed another episode yesterday when the money management firm filed suit against the bond pro and his new institution in Los Angeles Superior Court.