Company hires and sector developments

CEDE made public

AIR Worldwide has published its Catastrophe Exposure Data Exchange (CEDE) database schema publicly. The aim is to facilitate accurate and transparent data exchange throughout the insurance value chain more efficiently, and to encourage additional analytics on a greater number of exposures. In addition, AIR is actively supporting the ModEx Open Exposure Data Format (OED) by freely providing its CEDE format as the database structure for models running on Oasis LMF, an open-source non-profit loss modeling framework.

CLO firm completes research hires

CIFC has completed the first phase of its UK research team recruitment with the appointment of its fourth analyst. Senior analyst Rinse Terpstra has joined from Chenavari Investment Managers where he worked as a senior investment analyst focusing on CLOs. Analyst Zoltan Paller has joined from UBS where he focused on leveraged finance and direct lending opportunities in the EMEA region.  Analyst Max Elliott-Taylor has joined from Investcorp Credit Management in London where he was an associate in the credit research team investing in leveraged loans and high yield bonds for five years. Analyst Alessandro Garello Cantoni has joined from Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he worked for five years focusing on Italian and Iberian markets and later leveraged finance origination in the EMEA region.

The hires follow the opening of the London office and the pricing of the firm’s first European CLO in the form of the €407m CIFC European Funding CLO I, arranged by Deutsche Bank.

RMBS refi announced

Lone Star is prepping a €458.9m RMBS, dubbed ERLS 2019-NPL1, backed by non-performing Irish residential mortgage loans and some first-charge performing loans. The mortgage portfolio to be purchased under ERLS 2019-NPL1 comprises part of the portfolio under ERLS 2017-NPL1 and the remaining from the part of the portfolios of: LSF IX Java Investments and of LSF IX Paris Investments. Java Investments acquired the legal and beneficial title of the loans from Investec Bank and Nua Mortgages Limited in September 2014. Paris Investments acquired the legal and beneficial title of the loans from Bank of Scotland (Ireland) in October 2014.

DBRS has provisionally rated the class A notes as triple-A, the class Bs as triple-B and the class Cs as double-B. The class P and class Ds are unrated and retained by the sellers.

TENAX acquisition

Fosun International has acquired a majority shareholder interest in TENAX CAPITAL, a boutique asset management company headquartered in London with approximately €1bn AUM. Founded in 2004, TENAX specialises in actively managed strategies ranging from SME private debt to ILS that are particularly attractive to insurance companies and banks. The acquisition is part of Fosun's strategy to grow its global asset management business and will provide European and global investors with access to China's fast-growing financial markets. Completion of the transaction is pending regulatory approval and is expected to close in 2H19.