News Analysis
CMBS
CMBS issuance surges despite rising risks
Scope Ratings reports record Q1 CMBS issuance, though warns of refinancing risks and tariff pressures
The European commercial real estate and CMBS market roared into 2025 with the strongest quarterly issuance seen since the global financial crisis, Scope Ratings reveals in its latest Q1 review.
Total issuance in the first quarter hit €3.3bn across six deals, surpassing the entire volume seen in 2024 and marking a milestone moment for the sector. Scope analysts highlights that the bumper start to the year included three logistics and industrial deals, one mixed-use transaction and two granular RMBS-like CMBS. “We expected a strong year of European CMBS issuance in 2025 and the first quarter did not disappoint,” the report notes.
However, while volumes have surged, Scope also warns of emerging risks that could cloud the rest of the year, particularly from macroeconomic uncertainty and US trade policy.
Scope cautions that logistics, industrial and retail assets are likely to be hardest hit in the short term, as firms delay investment amid supply chain disruption and strategic uncertainty.
“The immediate impact that tariffs have on goods orders will reduce demand for logistics and industrial space,” the agency notes, adding that vacancy rates for securitised industrial and logistics loans are currently at a five-year high, while debt yields have compressed.
Scope sees limited likelihood of a near-term reshoring of manufacturing to the US, arguing that “re-shoring takes time” and the looming US presidential election in 2028 only heightens the uncertainty.
Refinancing pressures and margin gains face reversal
Despite the positive issuance data, refinancing risk continues to hang over the sector. According to Scope, 60% of loans maturing in 2025 face high or very high refinancing risk, primarily due to falling asset values and compressed yields.
“Borrowers are facing the dual challenges of lower asset values and relatively compressed debt yields,” says Benoit Vasseur, team leader at Scope. The report notes that while some loans have been extended or repaid, several remain on Scope’s high-risk list, including the Salus and Squaire loans.
In a glimmer of good news, a number of loans have improved their key metrics, such as debt yield or LTV ratio, thanks in part to rent indexation. Notably, Scope reports that 58% of loans improved across both metrics, although office properties continue to drag the average.
Weighted-average note margins for CMBS also continued to tighten in early 2025, reflecting improved investor appetite. Recent deals such as UK Logistics 2025-1 and Taurus 2025-1 EU priced with margins of 2.50% and 1.77% respectively, down from peak levels seen in late 2023.
Still, Scope analysts remain cautious: “The recent market backdrop is likely to affect the trend,” they warned, hinting that further tightening may be constrained by external macro pressures.
Looking ahead, Scope suggests that while investor appetite remains robust, success will depend heavily on issuers’ ability to manage liability structures, tenant churn and refinancing exposures, especially as economic conditions evolve.
There’s also growing attention on alternative asset classes like data centre ABS and fibre infrastructure deals. As Scope put it, “Digital ABS was the talk of the Outvie conference,” with discussions centred on the sector’s potential and whether data centres require a unique analytical approach.
Scope expects this momentum to continue, but with caution. “While the first quarter has set a high bar, the full-year trajectory will be shaped by how well the market navigates refinancing hurdles and tariff-related uncertainties.”
Selvaggia Cataldi
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News
ABS
European ABS stands firm amid volatility
European and UK ABS defy volatility with strong Q1 issuance, resilient demand and varied manager positioning strategies
Despite growing geopolitical tensions, rate uncertainties and a spike in volatility toward the end of March, European and UK ABS have proven resilient, and in some areas, remarkably buoyant, according to monthly European and UK factsheets monitored by SCI.
TwentyFour AM Momentum Bond Fund’s managers report €11bn of issuance across ABS sectors during March, highlighting “a significant uptick” in consumer and auto transactions from established platforms. Demand remained robust, with AAA tranches seeing 2-3x coverage, which allowed for 5-10bps of tightening. They welcomed a CMBS deal, though they note that investor sensitivity to collateral quality kept spreads at the wider end.
Amundi also flags high levels of issuance, estimating around €6bn in public ABS issuance in March and €20bn YTD, making it a record-setting first quarter. Demand remained “very strong” for senior tranches, with mezzanine appetite hitting levels “last seen in 2021.”
Aegon’s portfolio managers corroborate this, noting that “European ABS showed a positive performance in March” despite spread volatility. They point out that primary supply was strong, with consumer ABS seeing tighter spreads in lower-rated tranches, while seniors held steady.
All three managers also point to similar macro risks: US trade tensions, geopolitical instability, including the Middle East, and diverging central bank policies. Yet their interpretation of these risks varies.
TwentyFour sees continued strong consumer fundamentals but flags potential headwinds from inflationary pressures and tighter consumer conditions. Aegon takes a more detailed view, suggesting that while parts of the market show arrears, overall credit performance has held up better than expected, supported by structural features like excess spread and reserve funds.
On the other hand, Amundi believes investor sentiment in ABS remains resilient and they have not observed any forced selling in the secondary market, which contrasts with the CLO space.
Divergence: relative value and portfolio shifts
While all three managers agree that ABS fundamentals remain solid and demand is robust, particularly for senior paper, their strategic responses differ.
In March, TwentyFour held relatively liquid positions and rotated from shorter-dated consumer ABS into new primary deals offering a 10bps pickup. TwentyFour AM Momentum Bond Fund’s managers maintained a cautious stance amid trade and geopolitical risks and expressed a clear preference for established lenders with strong collateral performance. Australian ABS, particularly AAA auto paper, is also cited as attractive on a currency-adjusted basis.
Aegon, on the other hand, disclosed a slight reduction in their ABS allocation in favour of CLOs and RMBS, with a tilt toward senior paper amid mezzanine compression. The firm strategy appeared more yield- and carry-driven: the current yield on their European ABS portfolio reached 3.7% (6.0% in GBP), slightly above the yield-to-maturity. Aegon’s managers March positioning reflects concern about limited upside in spreads and potential downside risks due to persistent macro uncertainties.
Meanwhile, Amundi continued to selectively participate in both primary and secondary ABS markets. While they remained active in senior tranches, they expressed caution around mezzanine tranches, noting that spreads were “particularly tight on a historical basis.” Their positioning seemed to balance opportunistic buying with a more defensive stance, particularly given the uncertainties around US tariffs and German fiscal policy.
Fund specifics:
Amundi ABS returned +0.04% in March 2025. YTD: 0.88%
Fund size: €1.13bn. ABS/MBS allocation: 100.35%
Aegon European ABS Fund returned +0.01% in March 2025. YTD: 0.92%
Fund size: €7.72bn ABS/MBS allocation: 72.8%
TwentyFour AM Monument Fund returned +0.29% in March 2025. YTD: 1.48%
Fund size: £1.89bn. ABS/MBS allocation: 57.22%
Janus Henderson ABS Fund returned +0.36% in March 2025. YTD: 1.43%
Fund size: £514.7m. ABS/MBS allocation: 54.82%
Matthew Manders
News
ABS
Sun shines on Atrato
Atrato Onsite Energy inks first UK solar C&I deal
Atrato Onsite Energy, a UK commercial and industrial (C&I) solar specialist, has made its debut in the ABS warehouse market with its first deal issued in the UK solar C&I sector. The financing facility, backed by Barclays, will provide support of up to £250m.
According to Atrato, the ABS warehouse will be used to accelerate the company’s roll out of rooftop and ground mounted solar installations. "This new facility provides us with an additional £250m of capacity, on top of the capital support from our investors. This enables us to tap into our pipeline and brings us closer to our goal of becoming the largest provider of C&I solar in Europe,” says their ceo, Gurpreet Gujral, in a statement.
Founded in 2021, Atrato is owned by Brookfield Renewables and Real Assets Investment Management Ltd and manages a portfolio of over 240MW of solar assets. It is targeting £1bn of solar investments by 2030. Norton Rose Fulbright was legal adviser to Atrato Onsite Energy for the transaction and Hogan Lovells acted for Barclays.
Gordon Beck, head of corporate & sustainable securitisation EMEA of Barclays, emphasises the alignment of this financing with the bank's sustainability goals, stating it supports the $1trn commitment to the company’s “sustainable and transition finance by 2030” target.
Hogan Lovells is looking at this new asset class due to its growing market potential. “We remain focused on supporting energy asset classes like this by seeing strong long-term potential in this evolving market,” says Steven Minke, associate at the firm.
Minke adds that these types of agreements vary from the residential solar sector in several respects, such as the provision of legal and structuring sections. “The cashflows on C&I deals come from operating leases, power purchase agreements, CfDs and feed in tariff revenues. The originator group also continues to provide maintenance. So, some of the structural features are similar to those on operating lease securitisations but those parallels aren’t exact given,” he explains.
“There is no second-hand market for the equipment itself, so you are really looking at how the assets can be ring-fenced and pay out in a wind-down scenario,” adds Minke.
The US model provides the basis for the structure with appropriate adjustments for the UK market and law, according to Minke. The deal follows a previous landmark 2023 C&I solar transaction in Spain by Hogan Lovells for Barclays Bank Ireland, with assets originated by another entity acquired by Brookfield.
Marina Torres
News
Structured Finance
Market participants give mixed response to ESAs' report on European securitisation regs
Risk retention changes among key concerns highlighted by industry insiders
As the European Commission prepares proposals on securitisation reform for its meeting in mid-June, industry experts have responded to the Joint Committee report on the functioning of the securitisation regulation with concern. The
ESAs’ Article 44 Report, released in late March, is being welcomed with cautious optimism, with concerns around new risk retention rules being the main worry of investors.
The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) has
said, in response to the report,
that it welcomes “the Joint Committee’s recognition of the need to streamline and clarify key aspects of the securitisation regulation”. In particular, it cites “supporting moves to reduce unnecessary compliance burdens and improve consistency across jurisdictions”.
However, Shaun Baddeley, md at AFME, also raises some concerns on it. “At the same time,” he tells SCI, “we urge policymakers to tread carefully in areas such as jurisdictional scope and the definition of public securitisations, where well-intentioned changes risk creating new uncertainty.”
Aiden Small, partner at Arthur Cox, also has a nuanced view on the report. “We welcome some key aspects of it,” he tells SCI, “such as the recommendation that the European Commission consider broadening the definition of 'sponsor' and the recommendation that the way Article 7 information is given to sell-side parties be made less prescriptive.”
Risk retention changes
The ESAs’ recommendation that entities holding retained interests must not earn more than 50% of their income from securitised exposures has sparked alarm, as Small notes. This new threshold would significantly shift the current market norm (5% to 15%).
“It came as a surprise and has caused significant uncertainty and disruption in the market,” he explains. “This has been compounded by the absence of any prior consultation by supervisory authorities on their plans to propose that threshold.”
Looking at this decision, ReviewPort, a CLO documentation research and analysis business,
assessed a sample
of 205 European CLO transactions issued between 2024 and Q1 2025 to identify those potentially affected. It found that 36% and 41% of CLOs, respectively, may fall short under the proposed rules.
ReviewPort's research also finds that “78 out of 205 transactions are likely to be impacted or would require managers to confirm compliance in line with the updated interpretation”. Of these, 57 transactions involve third-party or captive retention structures. Looking at yearly results, on the Q1 2025, 25 of 61 transactions could be impacted; in the full year of 2024, 53 of 144 reviewed final offering circulars would likely be affected. In short, the report backs up the reservations of market practitioners such as Baddeley and Small.
“Investors will need to scrutinise structures, engage with managers, and potentially demand changes to remain compliant,” says the report. “Managers will most likely need to allocate more capital to risk retention and rethink business models. Law firms might be required to revisit risk retention structures.”
For Arthur Cox’s Small, particularly, the immediate tone in which the decision was made caused confusion in the CLO space. “ESAs submitted this view to the European Commission while also including language to the effect that, going forward, any new issuance should apply this interpretation, which should also be used by the supervisors when assessing whether an entity has been established or operates for the sole purpose of securitising exposures".
However, he hopes that ESA will provide more guidance down the road considering the importance of the CLO market in Europe. “One hopes that the ESAs can be prevailed upon to provide further guidance on the matter taking into account the importance of the CLO market to the European securitisation sector generally,” says Small.
Several other institutions have expressed discontent with or concerns around the implementation of the order. In
PCS's response to the Joint Committee report,
it describes this element as being “likely the most controversial part of the report” and raises concerns around the proposal affecting non-bank finance houses that use securitisations to fund their books. “If that is so,” PCS says, “we suggest the ESAs issue a clarification as soon as possible, since this is one part of the report that can be interpreted as binding on market participants, being as it is a statutory interpretation.”
AFME’s Baddeley echoes the need for further clarification on the topic: “The supervisory authorities have not yet provided clarification on that language, which is also important for the wider securitisation market. The industry continues to engage with the ESAs and supervisors on this point with the objective of improving certainty, central to resolve any market disruption, but it hasn’t been solved yet.”
Other recommendations
Investor due diligence (Article 5)
There is broad support among market participants spoken to by SCI for shifting diligence obligations, moving from strict obligation-verification to meaningful risk assessment. “It is moving in the right direction, but there remains scope for it to be elaborated by the commission in a way that may not be that helpful, in terms of defining proportionality,” says Baddeley.
AFME supports a post-trade verification window and the delegation of regulatory due diligence, calling these “important steps to lower barriers to entry.”
Transparency framework (Article 7)
While streamlining templates is welcomed, the definition of public securitisations remains contentious. The Joint Committee proposes a broader definition of public securitisation, including transactions traded on regulated markets, MTFs, OTFs, or those marketed broadly with non-negotiable terms.
“This definition further deviates from the market’s understanding of the term,” says Baddeley, noting that commoditised products like CLOs risk being “burdened with supplementary reporting obligations unaligned to market convention”.
The ESAs themselves caution that while such transparency boosts regulatory oversight, it may also limit EU investor access to third-country issuance, a point raised in both the report and by market participants.
STS Framework
Though CLOs remain outside the STS regime due to their actively managed nature, the report debates targeted changes in other classes to increase flexibility, particularly for synthetic transactions. One such consideration is to allow insurance or reinsurance firms to provide unfunded credit protection under the STS label, with appropriate safeguards. “Diversifying the investor base can be good for systemic stability,” says Baddeley.
ESAs also suggest re-examining the STS eligibility of SSPEs located outside the EU, noting that such structures could support greater cross-border activity, although challenges remain regarding effective supervision.
News
Asset-Backed Finance
Northleaf and Ares back GoldState Music with US$500m facility
The new capital crescendo boosts GoldState's music rights acquisitions, echoing broader industry trend
GoldState Music, a leading music rights acquisition platform, has secured US$500m in strategic capital, including a structured capital facility co-led by Northleaf Capital Partners and Ares Management funds, alongside separately raised leverage. The private deal will support GoldState’s continued growth and the acquisition of traditional music assets, including catalogues by artists such as Alan Walker and Sheryl Crow.
“The transaction is in the form of a structured capital solution tailored to our strategy as long-term holders focused on investing in diversified financial asset pools and aligns with Northleaf’s asset-based specialty finance strategy,” explains CJ Wei, md at Northleaf. “We’re excited to support GoldState’s music acquisition strategy over the coming years, helping them buy strategically and build a portfolio of diversified music assets to generate sustainable and predictable cash yield.”
“GoldState’s seasoned management team and their proven track record in the music industry make them an ideal partner for Northleaf’s asset-based specialty finance program,” adds Wei.
GoldState Music’s founder is Charles Goldstuck, who was previously president and coo of BMG, Sony’s music division.
“Charles and GoldState Music bring a bold, visionary approach to music rights investment that seeks to empower artists,” notes Jeevan Sagoo, md at Ares Management.
The partnership between GoldState, Northleaf, and Ares reflects the increasing sophistication and appeal of music rights to a widening investor base.
“Music rights typically represent a resilient, uncorrelated asset class with historically proven stability through market cycles,” says Wei. “Driven by an enduring demand for music, this robust asset class remains largely insulated from macroeconomic volatility - making these investments an attractive source of diversification and long-term income for our investors.” notes Wei.
Throughout the past few years, the music rights industry experienced strong double-digit growth, largely due to growth driven by the proliferation of audio streaming via Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, and similar platforms. The trend of stability is expected to persist as continued streaming penetration is anticipated.
Looking ahead, Wei sees growth potential across emerging markets: “Streaming penetration remains relatively low throughout South America, Asia and Africa, creating an opportunity for music rights to continue expanding,” he says.
Wei further explains: “Music is projected to continue its trend of healthy growth for the foreseeable future. The tailwinds for further expansion are supported by various factors including deeper streaming penetration into emerging markets, price increases for streaming subscriptions in developed markets and innovation via emerging platforms that will continue to support the global consumption of music.”
Building on the GoldState transaction and prior deals – including last year’s senior financing to Duetti, an acquisition platform focused on independent music, and Cutting Edge Group, a specialist in TV and film music rights, Northleaf plans to stay active in the space.
“We expect to continue exploring opportunities as music can provide our investors with diversified and low correlation exposure while delivering strong cash yield,” says Wei.
Marta Canini
News
Asset-Backed Finance
TwentyFour AM launches ABF fund amid growing private credit demand
New strategy targets European ABF opportunities as bank retreat from traditional lending persists
TwentyFour Asset Management has become the latest in a growing line of managers to enter the ABF space, announcing the launch of its new ABF fund targeting private credit exposures with securitisation-style risk characteristics.
The strategy aims to capitalise on rising investor demand for alternatives such as ABF to traditional corporate credit, as well as on opportunities created by regulatory shifts and the continued retrenchment of banks from certain lending activities.
Managed by TwentyFour’s ABS team, the fund hopes to invest in a broad range of portfolios across Europe’s consumer and corporate lending markets. Target assets will be accessed through acquisitions, partnerships or structured exposures, providing a flexible investment remit.
"With regulatory pressure forcing banks to reconsider strategies across a range of traditional lending activities, private credit investors have an opportunity to work alongside and not compete with banks," said Douglas Charleston, partner and co-head of ABS at TwentyFour AM in a statement.
According to the firm, the fund is intended to offer an attractive income and return profile relative to more mainstream private credit strategies such as direct lending, while benefiting from Europe’s historically conservative lending practices.
“Europe is the ideal hunting ground,” Charleston added. “The region’s consumer lending markets are highly regulated and homogenous, and it has a culture of more conservative risk appetite in corporate lending, both of which mean the credit performance of European assets has historically been better than US equivalents.”
The strategy builds on TwentyFour’s longstanding presence in European structured finance, where it has been active across both public and private markets since 2008. Now operating as a fixed income boutique of Vontobel, the firm intends to leverage existing relationships with banks, specialist lenders and originators to source secured assets tailored to investor risk preferences.
The launch also comes as interest in private ABF structures accelerates.
According to Citi, the global ABF market is valued at around US$5.2trn and is forecast to reach US$7.7trn by 2027.
TwentyFour’s new fund reflects a broader trend within structured finance, as investors increasingly seek yield and structural protections via private markets – combining ABS expertise with the flexibility of private credit.
News
Capital Relief Trades
EJF stakes a claim
Unusual Third Coast trade EJF's latest foray into US regional CRT
The deal for Third Coast Bank reported last week was EJF’s third in the CRT market as the Arlington, Virginia-based alternative investment manager fast becomes the go-to partner for smaller regional bank issuers.
It debuted in the market in 2023 with Merchants Bank of Indiana and July last year it took down an issue from Pinnacle Financial, a US$50bn Nashville bank.
This most recent transaction for Third Coast was different to the first two, however. The trades for Pinnacle and Merchants were relatively orthodox synthetic securitizations, but as Third Coast needed to secure a reduction of concentration risk this structure wouldn’t fit the bill.
A true sale to an SPV was required. So, US$100m of the US$200m loan was sold to the SPV, EJF took a first loss position believed to be in the region of over 20%, and then the bank took back the senior portion of the security.
The pricing was also juicier than is often seen in the market these days as well. “The return was generous when compared to recent CRT deals issued by large, global US banks,” says Jason Ruggiero, co-chief investment officer, senior portfolio manager and a co-founder of the firm in 2005.
Third Coast is, in addition, much the smallest issuer of a CRT deal yet seen in the US. The Texas lender had assets of about US$5bn at the end of 2024.
EJF provided the impetus for the transaction with Third Coast, a bank it knows well and has dealt with for many years. “We led the structuring and made sure it fit from a solutions point of view. We saw it as a perfect solution for this bank and worked hand in hand with them. We believe that the bank took comfort in our ability to structure the deal with them directly,” adds Ruggiero.
It was appealing to EJF for two main reasons. Firstly, the exposure cannot be characterized as an orthodox CRE debt. The US$200m loan is to a developer of 11 different land lots for planned communities in Texas. The borrower is highly reputable, and it has a low LTV.
But, perhaps, more intriguingly, it was an offensive deal rather than a traditional CRT deal meant to reduce capital and improve the balance sheet. This deal allowed Third Coast to go out and make a US$200m loan in the face of competition from much bigger lenders.
“This is a US$5bn in asset bank that could originate and fund a US$200m loan that would have otherwise gone to a larger bank or been syndicated out in some fashion. We were able to do it so Third Coast could take down risk, not run into regulatory constraints, win the deal and grow the business,” explains Ruggiero.
Regulatory blessing the key
Inevitably, attainment of regulatory consent was the chief obstacle in getting of this trade over the line, all of which had to completed by the bank. There were national regulators and the state regulator to be courted.
Indeed, the key event which precipitated EJF’s wholesale participation in the regional bank CRT market was the Fed guidance issued in September 2023. EJF knew that banks in this sector would be unlikely to move until there was regulatory blessing.
“When the guidance hit, it provided much needed clarity to a regional bank space that had been largely shut out of CRT. It also served as a natural catalyst for us to expand our origination efforts across a subset of banks with whom we have a long history of being a capital solutions provider. So, we ramped up our outreach significantly and began speaking with a large number of banks about how they could strategically use CRT,” explains Ruggiero.
EJF was also aware that other regionals would be reluctant to get involved until they’d seen other deals from similar issuers come to the market, so this meant that its first year or so in the space would be spent getting a deal out there to show it could be done.
With its three trades, EJF has taken exposure to hospital loans, prime resi mortgages and now land construction. So, the asset mix is more heterogenous than one would normally find among US CRT investors. But there will be more.
Talking Point
CLOs
Distressed single-B tranches trade at discounts as CLO market sees negative NAVs
Poh-Heng Tan from CLO Research provides insights on US CLO double-Bs and distressed single-B bonds
Recent BWIC activity highlights growing stress in the lower-rated CLO tranche space, with single-B bonds covering as low as 10h amid collapsing NAVs and uncertain recovery prospects, while double-B tranches show wide dispersion driven by credit quality, ratings, and duration risk.
| |
Face (original) |
Reinvestment End Date |
Price (received) |
Colour |
Dealer DM | WAL |
MVOC (%) |
Rating Band (original) |
Rating Band (current) |
|
PSTAT 2022-4A DR |
1,000,000.00 |
08/03/2023 |
98.323 |
CVR |
524 | 4.04 |
107.25 |
BB |
BB |
|
VOYA 2014-2A ER |
2,000,000.00 |
18/04/2022 |
31.56 |
CVR |
|
95.40 |
B |
CCC |
|
LCM 14A FR |
1,000,000.00 |
20/07/2023 |
10.77 |
CVR |
|
91.34 |
B |
CCC |
|
DRSLF 2015-41A FR |
1,426,750.00 |
17/04/2023 |
31.03 |
CVR |
|
96.48 |
B |
CCC |
|
CIFC 2013-4A ER2 |
3,817,000.00 |
27/04/2023 |
95.761 |
CVR |
571 | 3.51 |
103.29 |
BB |
BB |
|
BLUEM 2013-2A ER |
4,250,000.00 |
24/10/2022 |
95.912 |
CVR |
801 | 3.41 |
104.04 |
BB |
B |
|
ARES 2017-45A ER |
3,469,000.00 |
17/10/2022 |
99.291 |
CVR |
548 | 3.56 |
105.74 |
BB |
BB |
According to SCI’s BWIC data, yesterday’s BWIC colour included three distressed bonds originally rated single-B: two were covered at 31h, and one at around 10h. Discount margins were not reported, as it is highly unlikely these bonds will be repaid at par—an IRR-based approach would be more appropriate. Pricing these thin tranches remains particularly challenging, as even a small change in the underlying collateral NAV can significantly affect their value. Given the negative equity NAV of these deals, repayment of the single-B tranche will rely on collateral amortisation, along with the eventual realisation of the remaining distressed assets at market value. In fact, these bonds are not alone, as many of their peers from the same vintage are also showing an MVOC (single-B) below par.
Looking at double-B bonds, PSTAT 2022-4A DR traded with a cover of 524DM, supported by its top-tier MVOC. The next tightest double-B bond was ARES 2017-45A ER, which covered at 548DM, also benefiting from a strong MVOC. Although BLUEM 2013-2A ER has a higher MVOC than CIFC 2013-4A ER2, it traded wider—likely due to its current B+ rating and duration risk, compounded by its negative equity NAV, among other factors. Several of these bonds’ peers with similar reinvestment period end dates have already been fully liquidated, having experienced much faster post-RP prepayment rates in the first year following the reinvestment period.
Market Moves
Structured Finance
Job swaps weekly: Siepe follows international expansion with leadership team hires
People moves and key promotions in securitisation
This week’s roundup of securitisation job swaps sees structured debt and private credit fintech Siepe snapping up two senior executives from US Bank. Elsewhere, EF Hutton & Co has hired a structured finance veteran from Ziegler, while the EIF has named a new head of securitisation for south and west Europe.
CLO- and private-credit-focused software provider Siepe has hired US Bank duo Sean Kelley and Andrew Hosford to its leadership team, both based in the greater Chicago area. The appointments follow Siepe’s recent international expansion, which has seen it opening offices in London, Dublin and Malaysia.
Kelley been appointed product manager – optimisation. He leaves his role as head of CLO analytics and research at US Bank after five years with the business. He previously spent 11 years working in CLO management at PPM America.
Hosford takes on the role of technical lead – optimisation at Siepe. He also spent five years at US Bank, most recently as vice president and project manager for a portfolio engineering tool in the bank's corporate, commercial and institutional banking innovations team. Hosford previously worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Wabash National, following a five-year career in the US Army.
Wall Street brokerage firm EF Hutton & Co has hired Aaron Gadouas as senior md, with a focus on private credit and structured finance. The appointment comes two weeks after the business announced a relaunch, expanding its focus on private credit to complement its existing advisory services in structured debt solutions and bespoke capital financing.
Gadouas left his position as md at Ziegler in February after almost 11 years with the firm, during which he led the structured finance practice as well as the development of bespoke insurance-based financing structures. He previously held senior roles at Stern Brothers & Co, Aldine Capital Services and ABN Amro Bank.
The EIF has promoted Karen Huertas to head of securitisation, south and west Europe. Based in Luxembourg, Huertas was previously a structured finance manager at the fund, which she joined in October 2020. Before that, she was a structured finance structurer at AXA Investment Managers, having also worked at BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Diageo.
ACIA Aero Leasing (ACIA) has appointed Bradley Gordon as svp, banking and capital markets, responsible for debt raising and institutional investor relationships. He was previously head of aviation finance at Investec Bank in South Africa. During his 12-year tenure at Investec, Gordon provided or arranged more than US$2bn in funding via senior debt (recourse and non-recourse), mezzanine debt and PDP financing for airlines, leasing companies, operators and high net-worth individuals spanning commercial aviation, cargo, helicopters and private jets.
Rohit Bharill has joined Reckoner Capital Management as executive director, based in New York. He was previously in the ABS banking team at Guggenheim Securities, which he joined in October 2023. Before that, Bharill worked at Percent, Morningstar and Moody’s in securitisation-related roles.
Nomura Capital Management has hired Ashu Pal, formerly of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, as head of portfolio management based in New York. Pal’s remit will cover private credit, structured debt and asset-based lending. He leaves his role as senior portfolio manager at MSRA after six years with the fund, having previously worked at Citigroup, Nathan Hale Capital and the Asian Development Bank.
M&G Investments has hired Gijs Boumans to its direct lending team, based in Amsterdam. The newly created role is in line with M&G’s strategy to expand its origination capabilities in Northern Europe, the firm said. Boumans will report to Robert Scheer, co-head of private credit origination, based in Frankfurt. Boumans who had a 16-year career at ABN, where he held senior roles in corporate lending and leveraged finance, will be responsible for sourcing and executing loans in the Netherlands.
Corinne Smith,
Ramla Soni, Kenny Wastell
structuredcreditinvestor.com
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