EMEA

Fulcrum Asset Management has recruited Mark Horne as a director within the newly created Fulcrum Alternative Strategies team, reporting to partner Matthew Roberts. Horne previously worked as an independent asset management consultant in London and Paris. Prior to that, he was a senior credit manager researcher at Willis Towers Watson and was director of client services at Natixis Global Associates.

REYL & Cle has appointed Ante Razmilovic to head its new structured finance busines to be run from its London office and part of the corporate advisory and structuring business line. Razmilovic was most recently md at Goldman Sachs in London and Hong Kong.

Hymans Robertson has hired Michael Abramson as partner. He was previously director of wholesale transactions at Prudential.

North America

Ares Management has hired Myles Gilbert as partner, head of investor strategy and solutions. Gilbert was previously md at Cambridge Associates and co-chairman of its credit investment committee.

Blackstone president and coo Tony James is set to be replaced by Jon Gray, global head of real estate. James will assume the title of executive vice chairman, with both James and Gray reporting to co-founder, chairman and ceo Stephen Schwarzman. Ken Caplan (senior md and global cio of the real estate group) and Kathleen McCarthy (senior md and global coo of Blackstone Real Estate) have been named global co-heads of real estate, succeeding Gray. Gray - who is a member of the firm's board and management committee, and will remain chair of the real estate investment committee - began at Blackstone in 1992 in the private equity and M&A areas of the firm, before joining the real estate group at its inception and leading it since 2005. James joined Blackstone in 2002 as vice chairman and coo, and assumed the title of president in 2006, upon the retirement of co-founder Peter Peterson.

MPLF listed

Marble Point Loan Financing has listed on the specialist fund segment of the London Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of US$205.7m and 205,716,892 ordinary shares in issue. The closed-ended investment company is invested in a diversified portfolio of US dollar-denominated broadly syndicated floating rate senior secured corporate loans via CLOs and related vehicles managed by Marble Point Credit Management and its affiliates. The company raised gross proceeds of US$42.5m through its IPO and expects to use the net proceeds to repay US$6.5m of outstanding indebtedness, to gain additional exposure to loans and for general working capital purposes.

Mortgage merger

WMIH Corp and Nationstar Mortgage Holdings have entered into a merger agreement, whereby the operating business will retain the Nationstar Mortgage name and Dallas headquarters, and its senior leadership team will head the combined company. The combined company's board will comprise three members from WMIH and four from Nationstar. Under the terms of the agreement, Nationstar shareholders may elect to receive US$18 in cash or 12.7793 shares of WMIH common stock for each share of Nationstar common stock they own. Upon completion of the transaction - which is anticipated in 2H18 - Nationstar shareholders will own approximately 36% of the combined company (receiving an aggregate consideration of US$1.2bn) and WMIH shareholders will own approximately 64%. In addition, approximately US$1.9bn of Nationstar's existing senior unsecured notes will be refinanced at closing.

EeMAP consultation

The Energy Efficient Mortgages Action Plan (EeMAP) consortium has launched a consultation on guidelines for a pan-European energy efficient mortgage pilot scheme (SCI 6 February). Running until 12 March, feedback is sought on three areas: implementation guidelines for lending institutions; building performance assessment criteria; and valuation and energy efficiency checklist. The final guidelines will be unveiled on 14 June, marking the official start of the pilot scheme. The pilot will test the energy efficient mortgage product blueprint with key stakeholders and involve collecting and analysing loan data to substantiate the correlation between energy efficiency and reduced levels of risk.

CMBS settlement

The US SEC has instituted an enforcement action against Deutsche Bank Securities, which has agreed to repay more than US$3.7m to customers, including US$1.48m that was ordered as disgorgement. The SEC's investigation found that traders and salespeople made false and misleading statements to the detriment of its customers while negotiating sales of CMBS. The order finds supervisory failures by Deutsche Bank's former head CMBS trader, Benjamin Solomon, who allegedly did not take appropriate action after becoming aware of false statements made to customers by traders under his supervision. To settle the charges, the bank agreed to reimburse customers the full amount of firm profits earned on any CMBS trades in which a misrepresentation was made and will pay a US$750,000 penalty. Solomon agreed to pay a US$165,000 penalty and serve a 12-month suspension from the securities industry.

Green investment

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation has disclosed it made a A$25m cornerstone investment in the A$300m green tranche of NAB's latest Australian RMBS, National RMBS Trust 2018-1. The class A1G notes - which have been certified by the Climate Bonds Initiative as meeting its low carbon buildings criteria - priced at one-month BBSW plus 85bp, the same as the deal's senior class A1A notes. Both tranches have a three-year WAL and are rated triple-A by Fitch and Moody's. FlexiGroup has previously issued green tranches in its 2016 and 2017 securitisations (see SCI's primary issuance database).

CDO transfer

Dock Street Capital Management has replaced Cairn Capital as collateral manager of Reservoir Funding. Cairn previously replaced Cutwater Asset Management as collateral manager of the ABS CDO in 2015 (see SCI's CDO manager transfer database).

Acquisitions

Nelnet has completed the acquisition of 100% of the stock of Great Lakes Educational Loan Services. Fitch comments that there will be no rating changes on outstanding transactions currently serviced by Great Lakes as a result of this change of control.

Partnerships

Terra Capital Partners has entered in an investment and partnership agreement with Axar Capital Management. At Terra, Bruce Batkin will remain ceo, Dan Cooperman will remain chief originations officer, Greg Pinkus will remain cfo and co-founder, Simon Mildé, will become vice chairman. Vik Uppal, Axar's head of real estate, will join Terra full time as cio and a member of the board of directors. Prior to Axar, Uppal was an md on the investment team at Fortress Investment Group's credit and real estate funds and co-head of North American real estate investments at Mount Kellett Capital Management. The transaction was approved by special committees consisting entirely of independent directors of two of the Terra investment vehicles.

Law firm established

Faith Gay and Philippe Selendy have formed Selendy & Gay, a new litigation firm headquartered in New York City and staffed by ex-Quinn Emanuel lawyers. Gay previously served as deputy chief of special prosecutions in the Eastern District of New York, while Selendy was the chair of securities and structured finance at Quinn Emanuel. The other founding partners of the firm comprise former co-chair of Quinn's investment fund litigation practice David Elsberg, as well as Jennifer Selendy and Andrew Dunlap. Christine Chung, Maria Ginzburg, Sean Baldwin, Jordan Goldstein and Yelena Konanova have also joined the firm.

Mortgage firm launched

Ex-Clayton Holdings executives Mark Hughes, Ann Gibbons and Tom Donatacci have formed a new mortgage due diligence firm called New Diligence Advisors (NDA), with Selene Holdings as principal investor. Hughes serves as coo of NDA, reporting to Selene ceo Joe Pensabene, who is also ceo and president of NDA. The firm is currently in discussions with rating agencies and expects to be approved as an accredited third-party review provider for securitisations by mid-year.