Securitization

ProLogis European Properties (PEPR), Europe’s largest owner of modern warehouse distribution facilities, will repay CMBS debt of €335.9 million ($433.10) on April 5, three months earlier than contractually required.

Savills, a global real estate provider, stated that of the top 12 lenders for the U.K. property market this year, eight are German banks and only two are U.K. lenders.

F&C appointed Michael Heemelaar as head of global credit. Heemelaar joins from Aegon Asset Management where he was head of investment grade credit. At F&C, the new hire will be based in Amsterdam and will be reporting to Patrick Hendrikx, head of credit.

KBW, which hired two seasoned mortgage bond traders on Tuesday, wants to add more sales professionals as it expands its presence in fixed income, senior managers at the firm said.

Manhattan Bancorp, the holding firm of Bank of Manhattan, agreed to invest in a new capital markets business with Bodi Advisors.

TitleVest, a Manhattan-based provider of title insurance and related real estate services, hired Michael Birajiclian as managing director of business development.

Stifel Financial Corp. said today that it plans to buy back all auction rate securities (ARS) held by its 1,200 retail investors, who purchased the securities before the ARS market collapsed in February last year.

In Fitch Ratings' latest quarterly report on RMBS performance in Mexico, the agency said that there was an appreciable rise in delinquencies during the fourth quarter.

AmeriCredit Corp. amended and extended its master warehouse credit facility.

While refinancings and prepayments are likely to pick up as a result of President Obama's housing plan, there is much uncertainty about by how much and whether it will reach previous refinance period levels.

In his first major public appearance since becoming the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's president and chief executive, William Dudley threw his support Friday behind a dramatic idea: letting the central bank issue its own debt.

NIR Credit Partners, an alternative asset manager and advisor in structured finance and a division of NIR Group, announced the expansion of its portfolio valuation services for residential mortgage loans and MBS.

IFMR Capital and Equitas Micro Finance India have completed the first rated microfinance loan backed securitization in the country. The deal's principal amount of passthrough certificates totaled to Rs. 157 million.

The BBVA research department said that the unprecedented recession in the global economy has caused a more severe downturn in the Spanish economy than what was forecast four months ago.

Moody's Investors Service said that the U.K. nonconforming RMBS market is severely affected by the U.K. recession.

Deutsche Bank said on Friday it hired two professionals from Bank of America Merrill Lynch for its global credit trading group.

The mortgage insurance division of Genworth Financial lost $368 million in 2008 compared to a $167 million profit the year before as default claims swamped the unit.

Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco, said it originated more mortgage loans in the first two months of this year than it did for all of the fourth quarter last year.

Fitch Ratings blamed deteriorating credit quality in SunTrust's prime mortgage portfolio for downgrading the Atlanta bank's long-term issuer default ratings.

Finacorp Securities, Irvine, Calif., has expanded its Minneapolis office and named three vice presidents to its mortgage team in an effort to bolster fixed-income securities coverage for its institutional clients: Mike Weir, Tom Sullivan and Mike Lingvall.