Company hires and sector developments

African solar plan approved

The African Development Bank Group has approved an innovative multinational financing programme for Distributed Energy Service Companies (DESCOs), which would see 900,000 households in sub-Saharan Africa – about 4.5 million people - gain access to solar power by 2025.

The DESCOs Financing Program promotes securitisation financing techniques to address barriers to accessing finance for DESCOs, while supporting their growth and expansion into existing and new markets. The program will also facilitate local currency financing for DESCOs and provide local lenders with risk mitigation instruments to support them.

The board approval follows the approval of a €50m guarantee facility and €6m technical assistance grant by the European Fund for Sustainable Development.

Hedge fund founder fraud

Audrey Strauss, the Attorney for the United States, has announced that Anilesh Ahuja, the founder, ceo and cio of Premium Point Investments (PPI) a Manhattan-based investment firm that managed hedge funds, and Jeremy Shor, a former trader at PPI, were found guilty today of securities fraud-related offenses.  Ahuja and Shor were convicted after a six-week trial in Manhattan federal court presided over by US District Judge Katherine Polk Failla, for their participation in a scheme to inflate the net asset value reported to investors for hedge funds managed by PPI, by more than US$100m. PPI managed hedge funds focused primarily on structured credit products, including RMBS.

Rating agency promotions abound

KBRA made four senior personnel changes in its New York office. Anthony Nocera, co-head of the ABS group, has decided to transition to a senior advisory role at KBRA. Nocera, who joined the company in September 2011, will continue to support the ABS team in his role as senior advisor over the next six to nine months, focusing on nontraditional ABS assets. Prior to joining KBRA, Nocera worked at Ambac Assurance, where he managed a portfolio in excess of US$12bn, and at S&P, where he rated commercial asset ABS.

In addition, KBRA has named Rosemary Kelley as head of the ABS group, effective immediately. Kelley, who was co-head of the ABS group along with Nocera, will now assume responsibility for both consumer and commercial asset classes. Prior to joining KBRA, Kelley worked at DBRS, where she rated consumer ABS transactions.

KBRA also announces that Cecil Smart and Eric Neglia have been appointed to lead the commercial ABS and consumer ABS teams, respectively, and will both report to Kelley. Smart has been with KBRA since 2014 and focuses on esoteric and renewable transactions, including residential and commercial solar, PACE, broadcast television rights, and mortality-linked assets. Prior to joining KBRA, he was a vp at DZ Bank specialising in structured credit transactions for nontraditional assets and new entrants to the capital markets.

Neglia has been with KBRA since 2015 and has been working across all consumer ABS transactions, including auto loans and leases, unsecured consumer loans, solar loans, credit card receivables, student loans, as well as small business loans/merchant cash advance ABS. Before joining KBRA, he was head of operational risk management at MasterCard Worldwide.