Sector developments and company hires

Co-ceo named

Värde Partners has named Ilfryn Carstairs as co-ceo, alongside co-founder George Hicks, effective from 1 January 2020. Hicks intends to transition to an executive chair role in 2022. Carstairs will retain his role as partner and global cio, overseeing the firm’s global investment strategy and co-chairing its investment committee. Based in Singapore since 2017, he joined Värde Partners in 2006 and previously served as co-head of corporate and traded credit, managing the firm’s liquid investing activities globally.

Dutch firm markets debut

Triodos Bank has retained a debut €841m securitisation of Dutch prime residential mortgages. Dubbed Sinopel 2019, the deal is backed by 3,810 mortgages, all of which offer lower interest rates depending on the energy-efficiency of the house with a maximum discount of 0.40% (between most and least efficient) - the bank has a very strong focus on sustainability. It has also been structured to comply with the STS criteria in addition to the LCR requirements, as stated in the prospectus. While less explicit in the prospectus, the deal also seems to comply with the additional ‘STS+’ requirements.

The RMBS has preliminary ratings of triple-A from S&P and DBRS on the €799m class A notes (50bp) while there is no rating on the €42.1m class B notes.

Muni CDO transfer

Lapis Municipal Structured Management has replaced Cohen Municipal Capital Management as portfolio manager to Non-Profit Preferred Funding Trust I, a muni CDO. Moody’s has confirmed that the appointment will not impact the deal’s ratings. For more CDO manager transfers, see SCI’s database.

REIT charge settled

The US SEC has charged AR Capital, its founder Nicholas Schorsch and former cfo Brian Block with wrongfully obtaining millions of dollars in connection with two separate mergers between REITs that were sponsored and externally managed by the firm. The defendants agreed to settle the matter by cumulatively agreeing to over US$60m in disgorgement, prejudgment interest and civil penalties. According to the SEC's complaint, between late 2012 and early 2014, AR Capital arranged for American Realty Capital Properties (ARCP), a publicly-traded REIT, to merge with two publicly-held, non-traded REITs. The SEC alleges that AR Capital, Schorsch and Block - acting in breach of the relevant proxy disclosures - inflated an incentive fee in both mergers, allowing them to obtain approximately 2.92 million additional ARCP operating partnership units as part of their incentive-based compensation. In addition, the complaint alleges that the defendants wrongfully obtained at least US$7.27m in unsupported charges from asset purchase and sale agreements entered into in connection with the mergers.

Renewables firm eyes ABS

CleanCapital and funds managed by CarVal Investors have closed on a US$300m million debt warehouse facility with Credit Suisse. The company plans to leverage the proceeds to further accelerate acquisitions of small-scale renewable energy projects throughout the US, building well-constructed portfolios attractive to institutional investors in the ABS market.