Sector developments and company hires

Director hired to rebranded CLO platform

DFG Investment Advisers has hired John Hwang as a director and senior credit analyst on its leveraged credit team, responsible for analysing below-investment grade credit with a focus on leveraged loans for the Vibrant CLO platform. Hwang has 18 years of experience in the financial services industry and was previously an svp at Crescent Capital Group.

RA nabs ed

Scope has recruited Olivier Toutain as executive director, based in its Paris office, to enhance the analytical depth and advanced modelling capabilities of its structured finance team. Toutain was previously head of the risk modelling unit at Banque de France, having worked at Moody’s and Assurance Générale de France before that.

RMBS upgrades

Fitch has has taken various rating actions on 789 classes in 61 US RMBS re-performing loan (RPL) and seasoned performing loan (SPL) transactions. All of the transactions were issued between 2014 and 2019. Overall, the agency upgraded 150 classes, affirmed 637 classes and two classes were paid in full. Fitch comments that performance in RPL and SPL RMBS has generally been better than expected and projected mortgage pool losses have slightly improved since the prior review.

On a weighted average, Fitch's Bsf expected pool loss, which reflects a mild stress above its base case expectation, has declined 9bp on average to 7.27% from 7.36%. Additionally, the AAAsf stress scenario pool loss has gone down by 71bp, driven primarily by low delinquency and home price appreciation. The pools reviewed have a weighted average serious delinquency rate of 3.88%. Recent conditional prepayment rates (CPRs) are averaging approximately 7%.

Futhermore, Fitch notes that the solid asset performance and supportive bond structures have resulted in positive rating pressure. All bonds issued in 2015 with initial ratings below AAAsf have been upgraded. Additionally, 96% of eligible ratings from the 2016 vintage have been upgraded along with 51% of eligible ratings from the 2017 vintage.

US bank takes Euro share

Tikehau Capital Advisors has received €195m in new equity from a share capital raise of at least €300m, as well as investment from Morgan Stanley’s North Haven Tactical Value Fund, making the bank a shareholder in Tikehau.