Europe

Man Group has hired Simon Finch as cio of credit at Man GLG, its discretionary investment management engine. In this newly created role, Finch will be responsible for Man GLG’s credit business and will have oversight of the credit portfolio management teams. He will report to Teun Johnston, ceo of Man GLG, and work closely with Man GLG’s cio, Pierre-Henri Flamand and Man Group’s cio, Sandy Rattray. He will join Man Group’s executive committee and Man GLG’s management team. Finch joins Man GLG from CQS, where he was cio and ran the firm’s multi-asset credit fund.

Funds advised by Triton have hired Gordon Watters to the Triton Debt Opportunities team as an investment advisory committee member. The committee advises the board of the fund manager for the Triton Debt Opportunities Fund I on fund investment decisions. Before joining Triton, he acted as the chief risk officer and senior advisor to LCM Partners.

North America

Angel Oak has hired Namit Sinha as head of mortgage strategies. Namit will focus on non-QM investments for Angel Oak strategies as well as opportunities in other areas such as prime jumbo mortgages, RPL strategies and mortgage servicing rights. Prior to Angel Oak he was svp at Canyon Capital.

Peter Mullen is set to re-join Artex as ceo-elect and will begin his position in March 2019, once he has fulfilled his contractual obligations to Aon Captive & Insurance Management, where he has been ceo for the last seven years. He helped found Artex in 1997 and was a member of its executive team until his departure for Aon. David McManus will continue to lead Artex as president and ceo until 1 July 2019, at which time Mullen will assume those executive responsibilities, while McManus moves into the role of chairman.

Hart Advisors has named Tamara Hundley and Tim Looney co-leads of its CMBS loan assumptions business development team. The pair become directors at the firm and previously worked at Swearingen Realty Group and 1^st Service Solutions respectively.

KBRA has strengthened its structured credit capabilities with a pair of new hires. Ex-S&P senior director Eric Hudson has been appointed md and will run the rating agency’s structured credit area, reporting to coo Ira Powell. Additionally, Jason Lilien will join from Goldman Sachs – where he was vp, client relationship management - to focus on business development for the structured credit/CLO team.

Monroe Capital has recruited Ryan Flanders as vp in its New York office, serving on the firm’s investor relations and marketing team. He was previously head of private debt products at Preqin, where he established the firm’s coverage of the private debt asset class globally. During his seven years at Preqin, Flanders also served in client services and business sales roles.

Acquisitions

Blackstone’s Strategic Capital Holdings Fund has acquired a passive minority stake in Asia-focused alternative investment firm PAG. The firm has over US$20bn in capital under management in private equity, absolute return and real estate strategies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Euronext has completed its acquisition of the Irish Stock Exchange, after receiving regulatory approvals. It will now operate under the business name Euronext Dublin, led by Deirdre Somers as ceo and a member of the managing board of Euronext. Among her group-level responsibilities is to develop a centre of excellence in listings of debt & funds and ETFs, including the launch of Euronext Synapse, a new platform to improve corporate bonds liquidity.

RMAC tender amended

Clifden IOM No. 1 has extended the early tender deadline in respect of five RMAC Securities RMBS (SCI passim) to 6 April and has increased the early tender premium to 102 for notes validly tendered before the previous early tender deadline of 23 March. For notes tendered between 26 March and the extended early tender deadline, the premium is 101.5. Clifden has also disclosed its rationale for the tender offers: given that the rate of interest payable on the notes is significantly lower than the rate of interest payable on equivalent newly issued MBS of comparable credit quality, it believes that it would be beneficial for noteholders to have an additional right of optional redemption - exercisable by the offeror or the series servicer - introduced into the terms and conditions of each transaction. The firm states that if it exercises its rights under such a provision, this may result in payment to noteholders to compensate them for the loss of their right to exercise an optional redemption in the normal course – although it adds that its ability to introduce the provision depends on the level of notes tendered for purchase.

Manager transfer

Columbia Management Investment Advisers intends to assign the collateral management agreement in respect of Cent CLO 17 to Carlyle CLO Management, effective on the pricing date of the deal’s refinancing. If the pricing and assignment occurs, the name of the issuer will change to Carlyle C17 CLO.

UMBS start date set

The US FHFA has announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will start issuing the Uniform Mortgage-Backed Security (UMBS) through the Common Securitization Platform (CSP) on 3 June 2019, in place of their current offerings of TBA-eligible RMBS (SCI passim). The announcement follows the achievement of three critical milestones: completion of key application development for UMBS issuance via the CSP; completion of system-to-system testing; and initiation of end-to-end (pre-parallel) testing. The CSP has processed about 1,000 securities each month since November 2016 and performed monthly bond administration functions related to 260,000 single-class securities backed by approximately 9.8 million loans. With the launch of the UMBS, CSP operational capabilities will expand to include the administration of multi-class securities and commingled enterprise UMBS and the production of UMBS disclosures. It will then be performing bond administration functions for about 900,000 securities backed by nearly 26 million loans.

Settlements

Barclays has agreed to pay the United States US$2bn to settle a civil action lawsuit filed in 2016, relating to alleged misconduct in the underwriting and issuance of RMBS between 2005 and 2007. The complaint alleged that Barclays caused billions of dollars in losses to investors by engaging in a fraudulent scheme to sell 36 RMBS deals, and that it misled investors about the quality of the mortgage loans backing those deals.  It alleged violations of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA), based on mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and other misconduct. Agreement has also been reached with the two former Barclays executives who were named as defendants in the suit: Paul Menefee who served as Barclays’ head banker on its subprime RMBS securitizations, and John Carroll who served as Barclays’ head trader for subprime loan acquisitions.  In exchange for dismissal of the claims against them, Menefee and Carroll agree to pay the United States the combined sum of US$2m in civil penalties. The scheme alleged in the complaint involved 36 RMBS deals in which over US$31bn worth of subprime and Alt-A mortgage loans were securitised, more than half of which loans defaulted.  The complaint alleged that in publicly filed offering documents and in direct communications with investors and rating agencies, Barclays systematically and intentionally misrepresented key characteristics of the loans it included in these RMBS deals.  In general, the borrowers whose loans backed these deals were significantly less creditworthy than Barclays represented, and these loans defaulted at exceptionally high rates early in the life of the deals.  In addition, as alleged in the complaint, the mortgaged properties were systematically worth less than what Barclays represented to investors.  These are allegations only, which the defendants dispute, and there has been no trial or adjudication or judicial finding of any issue of fact or law.