Company hires and sector developments

CDS publication launched

Jochen Felsenheimer, md at XAIA Investment, Wolfgang Klopfer, chairman of the management board of XAIA Investment and Ulrich von Altenstadt, md of XAIA Investment have co-authored a new publication looking at the evolution, functioning and regulatory environment of CDS. Titled, Credit default swaps: trading strategies, valuation and regulation, it also looks at the modeling and valuation of CDS, concrete special cases and the use in portfolio management and is published by Wiley.

CLO UCITS launched

CIFC has launched a UCITS, dubbed the CIFC Global Floating Rate Credit Fund,  that will invest in some of the more liquid tranches of collateralised loan obligation (CLO) bonds, investing at least half of its funds in BBB-rated bonds. The fund, which has launched with commitments of over £50m, is managed by Jay Huang and is targeting a return of 7-8% pa. Domiciled in Dublin, it is the first fund launched in Europe by CIFC since the firm opened its office in London in 2018. The fund is US dollar denominated, with hedged currency share classes in sterling, yen and euros. It is also open to US investors.

Europe

Duncan Hubbard is joining Cadwalader as a partner in London, focusing on advising financial institutions, investment funds and alternative lenders on real estate and structured finance transactions throughout the capital stack, as well as loan and portfolio purchase and sale transactions. He was previously the head of the London real estate finance group at Norton Rose Fulbright.

Online auction hire

KopenTech, an online auction platform for CLOs using AMR protocol, has hired Anthony Schexnayder as head of business development. He was previously in sales at Mariana Systems and, prior to that, director in fixed income sales at Guggenheim.

Rating agency appointment

Fitch has appointed Brian Filanowski as president of Fitch Solutions. Ranjit Tinaikar, who has held the role of president for the past two years, has decided to leave the company to pursue other opportunities. He will continue to support Fitch Solutions as an advisor during a transition period. Based in Fitch's New York office, Filanowski joined Fitch in 2014 and has most recently been responsible for Fitch Connect as well as data management, all product and solutions development and technology across Fitch Solutions. Prior to joining Fitch, Filanowski held senior level roles at Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, Interactive Data and Six Telekurs.

Whole loan investment

Redwood Trust is participating in a multifamily whole loan investment fund that expands the company's access to rental housing credit opportunities. It has invested in a limited partnership created to acquire up to US$1bn of floating rate, light-renovation multifamily loans from Freddie Mac. The company has committed to contribute an aggregate of US$78m to the partnership and has funded approximately US$20m to date, while Freddie Mac is providing a debt facility to finance loans purchased by the partnership. After the partnership's acquisitions have reached a specific threshold, the partnership and Freddie Mac may agree to include the related loans in a Freddie Mac-sponsored securitisation, with the limited partners potentially acquiring the subordinate securities.