Job Swaps

Job swaps round-up - 21 July

Friday 21 July 2017 16:19 London/ 11.19 New York/ 00.19 (+ 1 day) Tokyo

Acquisitions

BGC Partners has acquired commercial real estate finance company Berkeley Point Financial for US$875m, subject to certain adjustments at closing. Berkeley Point focuses on the origination and sale of multifamily and other CRE loans through government-sponsored and government-funded loan programmes, as well as the servicing of CRE loans, including those it originates. The company is set to become part of Newmark Knight Frank, BGC's real estate services segment.

Fortress Investment Group has purchased the equity and substantially all of the assets of Colony American Finance. The CAF operating platform will be rebranded CoreVest American Finance Lender and retain its senior management team.

Oaktree Capital Management has signed a definitive asset purchase agreement under which it will become the new investment adviser to two BDCs - Fifth Street Finance Corp (FSC) and Fifth Street Senior Floating Rate Corp (FSFR). Oaktree will pay US$320m in cash to Fifth Street Management upon the close of the transaction, which is expected to be completed in 4Q17. Oaktree portfolio manager Edgar Lee will serve as ceo of both BDCs, which together have approximately US$2.5bn of assets under management across first lien, second lien, uni-tranche and mezzanine credit. Following the transaction, FSC will change its name to Oaktree Specialty Lending Corp and FSFR will change its name to Oaktree Strategic Income Corp.

Asia

Conyers Dill & Pearman partner Peter Ch'ng has relocated from Bermuda to Hong Kong to support the growth of the firm's corporate, banking, reinsurance and investment funds practices in the region. He has been with the firm for 16 years and his practice covers M&A, reinsurance, mutual and investment funds (including ILS structures), segregated accounts companies (SACs), SPVs, private placements and banking and financial derivatives and services.

Data release

Freddie Mac has published daily payoff data on select securitised single-family mortgage loan participation certificate cohorts issued from 2002 to 2016. This historical dataset is expected to increase transparency on voluntary loan payoff activity throughout a calendar month and in different past interest rate environments. Voluntary payoff data is provided to Freddie Mac by its mortgage servicers and reflects mortgage loan prepayments due to refinancing or sale of the underlying property.

Disposition

UniCredit has signed definitive transfer agreements with PIMCO and Fortress, providing for securitisation vehicles to purchase their stakes in the €17.7bn Project FINO non-performing loan portfolio (SCI passim). The issuance of ABS notes is expected by end-July and represents the completion of Phase 1 of the bank's NPL disposals. Phase 2 involves the sale of the remaining UniCredit stake and a potential significant risk transfer transaction.

EMEA

Wilmington Trust has appointed Eileen Hughes as head of structured finance for the UK and Joe Knight as senior trust sales representative, both based in the London office. The firm has also hired Joanna Taylor as senior relationship manager in the Dublin office. Previously, Hughes was head of product development and strategy for structured finance, based in Wilmington Trust's New York office. Knight was formerly head of direct lending at Global Loan Agency Services, while Taylor was senior business development manager for aviation and structured finance services at Capita International Financial Services (Ireland).

Joint venture

Cyprus Cooperative Bank and Altamira Asset Management have agreed to set up a joint venture for the management of the Cypriot lender's NPLs. According to the terms of the venture, shareholders have approved the creation of a 10-year consortium between the CCB (49%) and Altamira (51%) for the management of €7.2bn of NPLs and €400m of real estate.

North America

Charles Miller has joined Tarter Krinsky & Drogin as a partner in its litigation practice, where he will lead the newly formed securities and financial services litigation group. Miller litigates contract and tort claims arising in connection with privately issued debt and equity, CBOs, CLOs, RMBS, swap contracts and structured transactions effectuating a variety of business purposes, including arbitrage and regulatory capital relief. He was previously a partner at Kasowitz Benson Torres.

BlueMountain Capital Management has recruited Claudio Macchetto to a newly created position as head of platform distribution. He will be responsible for the marketing of BlueMountain's diversified alternative investment strategies to wealth management channels and private banking platforms, as well as the management of retail distribution relationships globally. Previously, he was the head of global platforms at Paulson & Co and served in a series of management roles at Citi.

Former Ginnie Mae president Theodore Tozer will join PennyMac Financial Services' board on 1 August. Tozer was at Ginnie Mae for seven years, before leaving his post earlier this year, and managed US$1.8trn in MBS guarantees. Prior to Ginnie Mae, he spent more than 30 years in the financial services industry, including as svp of capital markets at National City Mortgage Company.

Thomas Hettinger has been named md and strategic advisory leader at Guy Carpenter, based in Chicago. He was previously md at Arch Reinsurance, specialising in developing unique reinsurance solutions. Before that, he worked at Towers Watson and EMB America.

Regulation

Republican members of Congress in both the Senate and House have introduced a resolution to nullify the CFPB's arbitration rule (SCI 14 July). The resolution - introduced by Representative Keith Rothfus in the House and Senator Crapo in the Senate - uses the Congressional Review Act to overturn an agency rule within 60 legislative days after an agency has submitted the rule to Congress. The resolution will need a simple majority in both chambers to pass.

The UK has published new regulations introducing a competitive regulatory and tax regime for ILS, as the country targets a share of the rapidly growing market. The regulations set out how to establish SPVs to issue ILS, the legal framework for ILS and the associated tax treatment. The finalised regulations are the result of a consultation launched late last year (SCI 24 November 2016) and are due to come into force in the autumn. "This new bespoke regime for ILS will ensure the UK remains the most competitive insurance and reinsurance hub in the world," comments Stephen Barclay, economic secretary to HM Treasury.

Strategic investment

Tradeweb Markets has made a strategic minority investment in DealVector, with the aim of accelerating DealVector's growth via its distribution channels and existing client base, as well as experience in building financial technology solutions. Initial efforts will focus on driving efficiency and innovation around bondholder communications - including direct integration of services - then potentially expanding into other products or parts of the trade lifecycle.

DealVector ceo and founder Mike Manning says that high yield assets are the "logical next step" in terms of the firm's coverage, but the ultimate goal is to become a universal registry of beneficial ownership information. "The industry needs a new information structure: we have the chance to solve liquidity issues and the inability to locate one another by digitalising balance sheets," he explains. "Our vision is not only to locate assets that people want to trade today, but we're also targeting entire inventories. This will streamline a wide range of activities, from trading to consents to enforcing investor rights."

21/07/2017 16:19:03